Tegna Changes CEO

With the stock hitting a new 52-week-low on Monday, Tegna announced that they were going to change out the CEO.

Out is Dave Lougee.

Lougee was in charge as Tegna stopped doing real news and attempted to do TikTok on TV. Content that was supposed to lure in viewers did the opposite.

Tegna stations newscasts were awful and the content was no longer the king. Tegna stations hired comics to anchor newscasts. The company went from respected news content, to joke punchlines.

The ratings went down, revenue went down, the stock price went down, and now Dave Lougee is going down.

With Lougee out, Mike Steib steps in as his replacement. If you’re looking for someone with a strong news background who might be instrumental in bringing Tegna back to real Journalism….this might not be the guy.

It appears the Tegna board is much more concerned about the shareholders, than the Journalists employed by the company.

But maybe, Steib will surprise us and make the news product watchable again.

This is the memo that the Tegna board sent out to the staff:

TEGNA Team: 

On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I want to thank Dave for his exceptional leadership and share my enthusiasm about Mike Steib succeeding Dave as the next President and CEO of TEGNA.  

Dave’s leadership has been instrumental over the last seven years as we evolved the Company into a leading local broadcast and digital media company.Combined with all your talent, passion and hard work, we have rightfully earned widespread respect for our high-quality journalism and are a trusted partner to advertisers and other stakeholders. Our purpose of serving the communities where we operate has never been more important.

As we look forward, TEGNA is well positioned to build on its strong foundation to create value and impact for all our stakeholders. The Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive CEO succession process, and as a member of the Board, Dave has been an important part of that work.

Our process led us to select Mike Steib, who has an exceptional track record and the right experience to lead TEGNA into the future.  The Board believes Mike’s unique background is highly relevant to the challenges and opportunities facing TEGNA.

He is currently CEO of Artsy (the world’s leading online arts marketplace) and was previously President and CEO of XO Group (parent company of The Knot). Earlier in his career, he led strategic ventures at NBCUniversal before joining Google where he launched, scaled, and acquired a range of advertising-supported businesses. He is also a published author and has hosted a podcast on leadership and professional development.  Mike has extensive technology and digital expertise, a commitment to local journalism, deep advertising and media experience, and a track record of successfully building businesses and driving business model transformation.

Throughout his career, Mike has demonstrated a great ability to inspire high-performance teams like ours and successfully execute on strategies that drive value for all stakeholders.

We are confident that Mike is the right person to lead TEGNA in its next chapter.  Please join all of us on the Board in thanking Dave for his outstanding contributions to TEGNA and in welcoming Mike to this great company. 

HOWARD ELIAS