Standard General to Buy KARE, WOI-TV, WQAD; KLKN Goes to Cox

Standard General will be the new owner of Minneapolis NBC affiliate KARE 11 and two ABC affiliates in Iowa as Standard General’s current station in Nebraska goes to Cox Media Group.

The series of transactions was announced Tuesday after months of speculation about who would buy Tegna, the current owner of KARE, ABC affiliates WOI-TV/5 (Ames-Des Moines) and WQAD/8 (Moline-Quad Cities), and CW affiliate KCWI/23 (Ames-Des Moines).

First, Standard General affiliate Community News Media LLC will sell its existing stations to Cox, including ABC affiliate KLKN/8 (Lincoln, NE), the ABC affiliate in Providence, RI, and the FOX affiliate in Cape Girardeau, MO. KLKN will be Cox’s only station in the Upper Midwest.

Then, an affiliate of Standard General will by Boston FOX affiliate WFXT from Cox to serve as the “anchor” of the new station group. Cox and funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management will hold a non-voting interest in the new entity.

Third, Standard General will buy Tegna for an equity value of about $5.4 billion, making it a privately-held company.

Finally, Standard General will sell stations in the Austin, Dallas, and Houston markets to Cox. The stations include ABC affiliate WFAA (Dallas), which is the largest independently-owned network affiliate by market rank.

Nationally, the Standard General affiliate will own stations in 12 of the top 25 markets, the largest of which will be Washington, DC (CBS affiliate WUSA-TV).

In the Upper Midwest, it will take Tegna’s place as the third-largest TV owner by household reach.

Standard General’s Soo Kim will serve as chairman of the new entity and Deb McDermott, who now runs Community News Media, will become CEO. McDermott previously worked in executive roles at Media General and Young Broadcasting.

Tegna’s news release announcing the sale says the new Standard General entity will be the country’s largest minority-owned, woman-led broadcast group.

The transaction has already been approved by Tegna’s board but still needs approval from Tegna shareholders and federal regulators.

Tegna and its predecessor, Gannett, have owned KARE since 1982. The transaction will represent the first sale of a major network affiliate in the Twin Cities since FOX bought WFTC in 2001.