The Board of Directors at local television broadcaster TEGNA has appointed long-time Fox executive Patrick Paolini to serve as the company’s Chief Executive Officer while a legal battle concerning its acquisition by Nexstar Media Group continues to play out in court.
The announcement was made Tuesday in a press release, through which TEGNA affirmed that Paolini will be accountable to its Board of Directors, and not any executive at Nexstar.
While Nexstar continues to publicize TEGNA as a subsidiary business whose assets are owned by the broadcaster, a legal case playing out in California requires both companies to maintain separate operations for now.
In March, Nexstar rushed to close its acquisition of TEGNA after receiving fast-tracked approvals from federal regulators at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Department of Justice. The approvals came nearly 24 hours after several state attorneys general and DIRECTV filed separate but related lawsuits challenging the combination on antitrust grounds.
TEGNA’s prior CEO, Michael Steib, departed the company after the deal closed.
Last month, a federal judge overseeing the lawsuit issued a preliminary injunction requiring Nexstar and TEGNA to maintain separate operations while the case plays out, with few exceptions.
It is not uncommon for subsidiary businesses of a larger company to appoint its own executive leadership, to include using the CEO role to describe the top official at a business unit. What is unusual is for the appointment to be influenced by a court case, with a judge dictating the operations of a private business in any capacity.
Nonetheless, Nexstar has distanced itself from TEGNA while the case plays out, and the appointment of Paolini to the CEO role serves as additional proof. He brings more than three dozen years of experience to TEGNA, most-recently serving as the Executive Vice President of Advertising sales at Fox Television Stations, the local TV subsidiary of Fox Corporation. Before that, he worked as the General Manager of WTTG (Channel 5, Fox) in Washington, D.C., where many of its newscasts ranked among the top in the market. He also served in various advertising and operational roles at other Fox-owned stations, including WTXF (Channel 29) in Philadelphia and WNYW (Channel 5) in New York City.
“Patrick is an ideal choice to lead TEGNA,” the company’s Board of Directors said in a statement. “He brings deep expertise in the broadcast television industry, major-market station management, and high-quality local news, along with a proven track record of driving revenue growth across linear and digital platforms. He is an innovative thinker and a proven leader with an established history of success. We look forward to Patrick’s leadership of this great company.”
“I am honored to be joining TEGNA,” Paolini said on Tuesday. “I have tremendous respect for the TEGNA brand, for the outstanding local news delivered across its 64 local television stations and hundreds of digital platforms, and for the company’s dedicated employees and local journalists. TEGNA will remain committed to providing the exceptional service our viewers, advertisers and communities expect, while continuing to innovate and expand across the platforms that define the modern media landscape. I am excited by the opportunities ahead.”
TEGNA holds broadcast licenses for more than five dozen local TV stations in 51 regional markets, including Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Denver, Atlanta, Washington, St. Louis, San Diego and Sacramento.
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