By Dr, Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. President and CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association
American democracy is under siege across the board in different industries. Diversity is good for business and diversity is good for American democracy. Exclusive corporate policies and regulations erode democratic principles.
Local journalism is indispensable to the protection of civil rights and equality for all Americans, and in particular for Black American communities and other communities of color across the nation. Local-owned news media is crucial to community empowerment and civic participation.
Today we are facing another pivotal moment: huge corporate TV station groups seeking to weaken or eliminate the 39% national audience reach cap, alongside Nexstar’s proposed takeover of TEGNA. The cap is set by Congress and is not the FCC’s to discard. Media consolidation on this scale threatens the diversity of viewpoints, the independence of local newsrooms, and the public’s access to locally grounded information.
The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and other local print and television news media organizations take an urgent exception to the current attempts by huge corporate consolidations to effectively silence local media voices and businesses. Millions of Americans rely on local TV stations and local community-owned newspapers as their most trusted news sources.
Consolidation among the big station groups has already led to: shrinking newsrooms, fewer reporters, and worse working conditions; must-run corporate segments displacing locally-focused reporting: and, word-for-word duplication of newscasts across stations held by the same owner. The steady erosion of localism means fewer culturally relevant perspectives, diminished investigative reporting, and weakened community accountability.
The growing devastation of the print journalism ecosystem offers a stark warning: corporate roll-ups prioritized margins over missions; local newspapers were hollowed out by distant ownership; and, communities lost vital watchdogs and trusted sources and valued generational businesses.
The same consolidation playbook is now being deployed in local television. The country cannot afford another collapse of local journalism—this time in local TV news, where so many families rely on freely accessible information every day.
Absorbing TEGNA would give Nexstar control over 265 local TV stations reaching 80% of American homes. Such a combined entity would far exceed Congress’s 39% cap—making this not only a policy concern but also a legal one. This merger would trigger newsroom reductions, more content duplication, and a dramatic narrowing of editorial independence across dozens of cities.
Excessive consolidation gives a handful of corporate headquarters disproportionate influence over what the nation sees and hears. Communities of color are hit hardest when local storytelling disappears or when editorial direction is centralized far from the communities being covered. Local TV stations and other local journalism have long been essential entry points for young journalists of color; consolidation shrinks those pathways and reduces the diversity of the newsroom workforce.
Consolidation reliably drives up retransmission fees—costs that cable and satellite subscribers ultimately bear. Retransmission fees have risen over 2,000% in the past fifteen years. Nexstar has explicitly told investors that nearly half of its projected merger “synergies” come from raising retransmission revenues—effectively guaranteeing higher bills for millions of families without providing any new content or service. For households struggling with rising costs of living, these increases are especially burdensome.
The nation should not repeat the mistakes that allowed corporate consolidation to decimate local newspapers. Preserving strong, independent, community-rooted local print and television journalism is essential to democracy, equity, and civic life. The FCC should uphold the 39% cap, reject the Nexstar–TEGNA merger, and recommit to protecting localism, diversity, and the public interest. America’s airwaves belong to the people—not to a handful of corporate conglomerates.
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr, is President and CEO of the National Newspapers Publishers (NNPA) and Executive Producer of the Chavis Chronicles on PBS TV Network. dr.bchavis@nnpa.org
