August 19, 2025 11:59 AM UTC

Why 9News Could be on the Verge of Extinction...and Why You Should be Concerned

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• by: Colorado Pols

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: John Wenzel of The Denver Post has more on the proposed sale and reaches many of the same conclusions:

A proposed merger between the parent companies of two of Denver’s top TV news operations could result in layoffs, consolidation and programming changes, according to media experts.

Fox31 KDVR parent company Nexstar Media Group, based in Irving, Texas, on Tuesday said it planned to acquire Virginia-based Tegna Inc., the owner of Denver NBC affiliate 9News KUSA, in an industry-shaking deal worth $6.2 billion. The proposal still requires federal approval.

“What’s happening in Denver isn’t just a local or even national media story,” said Laura Frank, a professor of media and journalism studies at the University of Denver. “This is part of a much bigger pattern we’ve seen across industries.”

Nexstar oversees more than 200 owned and partner stations in the U.S., while Tegna owns 64. If the deal goes through, as it’s expected to in the latter half of 2026, Nexstar will quickly find efficiencies by cutting staff and combining news operations, experts said, while syndicating its existing content on the newly acquired stations.

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Nexstar Media Group has reached agreement to buy Tegna, a broadcaster that owns (among other stations) the market-leading 9News in Denver. This is bad, bad news for anyone who values local media.

As The Associated Press reports:

Nexstar oversees more than 200 owned and partner stations in 116 markets nationwide, including Denver’s Fox31, and also runs networks like The CW and NewsNation. Meanwhile, Tegna owns 64 news stations across 51 markets, including 9News in Denver.

“The initiatives being pursued by the Trump administration 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,” Nexstar Chairman and CEO Perry Sook said in a statement on Tuesday. “We believe Tegna represents the best option for Nexstar to act on this opportunity.” [Pols emphasis]

Nexstar said Tuesday that the deal will also help it give advertisers a bigger variety of local and national broadcast and digital advertising options.

Notice the quote above, in which Nexstar Chairman and CEO Perry Sook immediately mentions President Trump in his statement about the deal. You can easily read between the lines as the AP story continues:

The deal could potentially help kick off even further consolidation in America’s broadcast industry. 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…

…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.

9News has been the gem of Colorado’s local television market for 50 years and has dominated the ratings in Denver for decades in large part because it has always prioritized real journalism and asking the difficult questions beyond just repeating talking points from sources. Nexstar believes it can just use the brand and the television signal to repeat the same content it does with Fox 31 in Denver. This is not a new idea.

If this deal is approved by the FCC, what will likely happen to 9News is the same thing that happened to Channel 2 News after it merged with Fox 31 in 2008 (Sinclair Media, then the owner of the stations, faced a big scandal ten years later when it started forcing local news stations across the country to produce the same scripted right-wing news broadcast every evening). Within two years of that sale, Channel 2 News had been stripped for parts — its staff of about 100 fired and all operations moved from its building in the Denver Tech Center to the Fox 31 HQ in downtown Denver. Channel 2 still produces a “news” broadcast every day, but now it is just the same content from Fox 31.

The Nexstar sale is expected to close in early 2026 unless there is pushback from the FCC, which under Trump appointee Brendan Carr isn’t very likely without significant pressure from elected officials and community leaders. Carr was the author of a section on the FCC that was part of the infamous “Project 2025.” Making it harder to speak truth to power is a feature, not a bug, of what is happening here.

The solution is probably to ask the FCC to require that Nexstar divest from 9News and sell it to someone else. We know what happens otherwise, because we’ve seen it with the Fox 31/Channel 2 consolidation; the loss of the Rocky Mountain News; and the bleeding of The Denver Post by its hedge fund owners.

No community ever benefitted from less objective journalism. Colorado won’t be the first to buck that trend.