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Nexstar Media Group is buying broadcast rival Tegna for $6.2 billion, bringing together two major players in U.S. television and the country’s local news landscape.If the transaction is approved, Nexstar will pay $22 in cash for each share of Tegna’s outstanding stock. And the regulatory greenlight could be likely under President Donald Trump’s administration, which has long-advocated for loosening industry restrictions.Announcing the proposed merger Tuesday, Nexstar CEO Perry Sook pointed directly to actions being pursued by the Trump administration, which he said “offer local broadcasters the opportunity to expand reach, level the playing field, and compete more effectively with the Big Tech and legacy Big Media companies that have unchecked reach and vast financial resources.” He added that “Tegna represents the best option for Nexstar to act on this opportunity.”Nexstar oversees more than 200 owned and partner stations in 116 markets nationwide today and also runs networks like The CW and NewsNation. Meanwhile, Tegna owns 64 news stations across 51 markets.Consolidation would mean pooling together all of these resources and that typically includes cutting any “redundancies” identified in the process, explained Paul Hardart, director of the entertainment, media and technology program at New York University’s Stern School of Business.“The good news for Nexstar is that makes it run at a lower cost rate, which they need to do because there’s all these headwinds on the revenue side,” Hardart said. But for local communities that rely on the company’s stations, the bad news is that “there will be a homogenization of content,” he added.Other experts note that previous consolidation in the industry has already shown this.Nexstar, founded in 1996, has itself grow substantially with acquisitions over the latest two decades, becoming the biggest operator of local TV stations in the U.S. after it purchased Tribune Media back in 2019. And Danilo Yanich, professor of public policy at the University of Delaware, says the company is the “biggest duplicator” of news content today pointing to recent research he worked on that looked at how often local TV news used the exact same words in at least 50% on their broadcasts.Nexstar’s size gives it the most opportunity to syndicate information in this way, Yanich noted, and further duplication seems all but likely as the company looks to “achieve economies of scale,” he added.Nexstar on Tuesday maintained that the deal will also help it give advertisers a bigger variety of local and national broadcast and digital advertising options.The potential purchase also arrives amid wider regulatory shifts. Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman the Federal Communications Commission, which will need to give the transaction the green light, has long advocated for loosening industry restrictions. On Aug. 7, the FCC announced that it would be repealing 98 broadcast rules and requirements that it identified as “obsolete, outdated, or unnecessary.”Some of those rules date back nearly 50 years, the FCC said, and apply to “old technology that is no longer used.” Carr maintained that such provisions no longer serve public interest.In late July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit also vacated the FCC’s “top four” rule, which has long prohibited ownership of more than one of the top four stations in a single market. The ruling is still subject to a monthslong assessment by the FCC, but could significantly clear the way for future mergers in the industry.In company earnings calls held in early August, before Tegna and Nexstar publicly confirmed merger talks, both Tegna CEO Michael Steib and Nexstar’s Sook pointed directly to this ruling, and applauded Carr’s deregulation agenda as a whole.“We believe that deregulation is necessary, important and coming,” Steib said in Tegna’s Aug. 7 call, noting that local broadcasters are “up against big tech competitors who have absolutely no encumbrances in how they compete.”Beyond their core broadcast TV businesses, both Nexstar and Tegna also boast digital news, mobile app and streaming offerings, all of which have played key roles for the industry as consumers change the way they consume news and other entertainment.Broadcast TV has been hit particularly hard by “cord-cutting,” with more and more households trading their cable or satellite subscriptions into content they can get via the internet.“The challenge has been recently of ‘cord cutters’ but the bigger concern is the ‘cord nevers,’ of people who grew up never watching television, or linear television,” said Hardart, noting that most consumers, particularly young people, have just about all the content they want on social media or their phone.Despite these shifting landscapes, experts like Yanich say the suggestion that tech players “could do what local journalism does simply doesn’t hold up,” pointing to the difference in content and reach. Still, he notes that other broadcasters could soon follow Nexstar and Tegna’s footsteps, consolidating the industry even further.Nexstar’s proposed purchase of Tegna is expected to close by the second half of 2026. Beyond the regulatory greenlight, it still needs approval from Tegna shareholders. Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Michelle Chapman, AP Business Writers
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While summers end typically means the start of Pumpkin Spice Latte (or PSL) season, Starbucks is tempting customers with a new flavor: coconut. The coffee chain has announced the expansion of two new drinks, the Coco Matcha and Coco Cold Brew. They layer matcha and cold brew foam, respectively, on top of coconut water. Starbucks is expanding these drinks to more stores as part of its plan to accelerate health and wellness innovation,” the chain told Fast Company. In July, Starbucks tested the duo in New York City as part of its Starting 5 innovation program. Basically, the company tries out a new idea in just five shops, and sources barista and customer feedback to see if its worth an expansion. The Coco Matcha and Coco Cold Brew must have gone over well, as Starbucks is testing them in another 400-plus stores. Starting today, August 21, the coconut water-based drinks will roll out at locations across New York City, Los Angeles, and select cities in the midwest. Starbucks told Fast Company that the latter list includes: Cedar Rapids, Iowa St. Louis, Missouri Springfield, Illinois South Bend, Indiana Madison, Wisconsin Milwaukee, Wisconsin The company appears to be leaning into its focus on health recently. It’s also aiming to launch protein cold foam later this year, after seeing a 23% year-over-year increase in cold foam modifications, CEO Brian Niccol stated during Starbucks third-quarter earnings call in July. He added that Starbucks also tested the protein cold foam through the Starting 5 program. But if you still want pumpkin over coconut, dont fret: Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte makes its 2025 debut on Wednesday, August 26.
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Jamel Bishop is seeing a big change in his classrooms as he begins his senior year at Doss High School in Louisville, Kentucky, where cellphones are now banned during instructional time.In previous years, students often weren’t paying attention and wasted class time by repeating questions, the teenager said. Now, teachers can provide “more one-on-one time for the students who actually need it.”Kentucky is one of 17 states and the District of Columbia starting this school year with new restrictions, bringing the total to 35 states with laws or rules limiting phones and other electronic devices in school. This change has come remarkably quickly: Florida became the first state to pass such a law in 2023.Both Democrats and Republicans have taken up the cause, reflecting a growing consensus that phones are bad for kids’ mental health and take their focus away from learning, even as some researchers say the issue is less clear-cut.“Anytime you have a bill that’s passed in California and Florida, you know you’re probably onto something that’s pretty popular,” Georgia state Rep. Scott Hilton, a Republican, told a forum on cellphone use last week in Atlanta.Phones are banned throughout the school day in 18 of the states and the District of Columbia, although Georgia and Florida impose such “bell-to-bell” bans only from kindergarten through eighth grade. Another seven states ban them during class time, but not between classes or during lunch. Still others, particularly those with traditions of local school control, mandate only a cellphone policy, believing districts will take the hint and sharply restrict phone access. Students see pros and cons For students, the rules add new school-day rituals, like putting phones in magnetic pouches or special lockers.Students have been locking up their phones during class at McNair High School in suburban Atlanta since last year. Audreanna Johnson, a junior, said “most of them did not want to turn in their phones” at first, because students would use them to gossip, texting “their other friends in other classes to see what’s the tea and what’s going on around the building.”That resentment is “starting to ease down” now, she said. “More students are willing to give up their phones and not get distracted.”But there are drawbacks like not being able to listen to music when working independently in class. “I’m kind of 50-50 on the situation because me, I use headphones to do my schoolwork. I listen to music to help focus,” she said. Some parents want constant contact In a survey of 125 Georgia school districts by Emory University researchers, parental resistance was cited as the top obstacle to regulating student use of social and digital media.Johnson’s mother, Audrena Johnson, said she worries most about knowing her children are safe from violence at school. School messages about threats can be delayed and incomplete, she said, like when someone who wasn’t a McNair student got into a fight on school property, which she learned about when her daughter texted her during the school day.“My child having her phone is very important to me, because if something were to happen, I know instantly,” Johnson said.Many parents echo this generally supporting restrictions but wanting a say in the policymaking and better communication, particularly about safety and they have a real need to coordinate schedules with their children and to know about any problems their children may encounter, said Jason Allen, the national director of partnerships for the National Parents Union.“We just changed the cellphone policy, but aren’t meeting the parents’ needs in regards to safety and really training teachers to work with students on social emotional development,” Allen said. Research remains in an early stage Some researchers say it’s not yet clear what types of social media may cause harm, and whether restrictions have benefits, but teachers “love the policy,” according to Julie Gazmararian, a professor of public health at Emory University who does surveys and focus groups to research the effects of a phone ban in middle school grades in the Marietta school district near Atlanta.“They could focus more on teaching,” Gazmararian said. “There were just not the disruptions.”Another benefit: More positive interactions among students. “They were saying that kids are talking to each other in the hallways and in the cafeteria,” she said. “And in the classroom, there is a noticeably lower amount of discipline referrals.”Gazmararian is still compiling numbers on grades and discipline, and cautioned that her work may not be able to answer whether bullying has been reduced or mental health improved.Social media use clearly correlates with poor mental health, but research can’t yet prove it causes it, according to Munmun De Choudhury, a Georgia Tech professor who studies this issue.“We need to be able to quantify what types of social media use are causing harm, what types of social media use can be beneficial,” De Choudhury said. A few states reject rules Some state legislatures are bucking the momentum.Wyoming’s Senate in January rejected requiring districts to create some kind of a cellphone policy after opponents argued that teachers and parents need to be responsible.And in the Michigan House in July, a Republican-sponsored bill directing schools to ban phones bell-to-bell in grades K-8 and during high school instruction time was defeated in July after Democrats insisted on upholding local control. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, among multiple governors who made restricting phones in schools a priority this year, is still calling for a bill to come to her desk. Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed. Jeff Amy, Associated Press
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