When Nexstar Media Group announced its $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna, most of the conversation — including recent coverage in Arkansas Business — focused on newsroom layoffs, homogenized coverage, and fewer opportunities for new journalists. Those concerns are real. But the impact of this merger reaches far beyond the newsroom. It’s also about how communities consume information, how advertisers reach audiences, and how local influence will be defined in the years ahead.
I’ve lived through these cycles before. At KYXK radio in Arkadelphia, I covered the Clark County Quorum Court, the Arkadelphia City Board, and the Gurdon City Council. It was small-market journalism that mattered to real people. Later, at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, I helped launch the paper’s first online team. When the collapse of classified ads gutted the business model, I watched the newsroom shrink and local coverage fade. Those experiences taught me something simple and important: when ownership consolidates and local voices are squeezed out, communities lose connection and trust.
That’s the concern for Arkansas today. If the merger is approved, Nexstar will control both KARK and KTHV in Little Rock, and KNWA and KFSM in Northwest Arkansas. Two of the three biggest network affiliates in each market would operate under one corporate roof. Viewers will see fewer truly independent newsrooms. Advertisers will face fewer choices and less leverage.
For local businesses, that means less competition and higher barriers to entry. Bundled packages and limited alternatives will make television advertising harder to access for small and mid-sized businesses. National and regional dollars will take priority as Nexstar sells across dozens of markets at once. A local coffee shop or nonprofit will find it harder to compete with national brands that can afford the minimum spends.
But this is also where local still wins.
The future of local advertising is not just about who owns the airwaves. It’s about who understands the audience. Connected TV (CTV) and digital platforms now allow advertisers to reach households with surgical precision — by ZIP code, neighborhood, or even lifestyle. But precision without perspective doesn’t work. It takes local insight to know how to talk to Hillcrest homeowners differently than Fayetteville students or Northwest Arkansas’ growing Latino population.
That’s where local agencies matter more than ever. A local agency can build a campaign that reflects its community’s culture and energy. It can blend CTV with social, search, outdoor, and sponsorships — creating a cohesive, authentic strategy that national packages simply can’t match. Local agencies help stretch budgets, tailor creative, and connect businesses with real people in real neighborhoods.
And as broadcast content becomes more uniform, the advertising landscape risks following the same pattern. With fewer independent media owners, campaigns become repetitive, stripped of the local texture that makes them effective. Local expertise is the antidote. Agencies rooted in their communities know how to make a message feel personal again — not by being louder, but by being more relevant.
At the same time, the definition of “local influence” is changing. The decline of traditional local journalism has fueled the rise of digital creators and “news influencers” who report on city councils, school boards, and community issues through platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and podcasts. They’re authentic, interactive, and trusted. As local TV grows more corporate, these independent voices are filling the gap — and advertisers are following.
This isn’t the end of local media. It’s the next version of it. Traditional broadcasters will remain powerful, but they no longer hold community trust by default. Trust now belongs to whoever shows up, listens, and speaks with authenticity — whether that’s a television station, a TikTok creator, or a local business running a smart CTV campaign.
I find hope in what I’ve seen before. When newspaper chains gutted local coverage, some communities fought back. My college roommate and close friend Andrew Bagley has done just that in Arkansas, reviving The Helena World, The Waldron News, and The Monroe County Argus. As president of the Arkansas Press Association, he’s helping rebuild local journalism from the ground up. That’s proof that when locals invest in their own voices, communities respond.
The Arkansas Business article was right to warn about newsroom cuts and homogenized coverage. But the bigger story is this: even as ownership consolidates, local advertising, local storytelling, and local expertise still win. The businesses that will thrive are those that diversify beyond broadcast, invest in precision-driven strategies, and partner with agencies that understand both the culture and the commerce of their communities.
The future of local media won’t be defined by who owns the most stations. It will be defined by who earns the most trust — and that’s a game local agencies are built to win.
