Pressure of Truth
Exposing the spin on all sides of the news.
Outlet profile

Nexstar Media Group

U.S. center to center-right

Owned byPublicly traded corporation (NASDAQ: NXST); no single controlling shareholder. Chairman and CEO Perry A. Sook is a key insider. Largest institutional holders include major index and asset managers. Nexstar agreed in August 2025 to acquire rival Tegna for $6.2 billion, pending FCC approval.
FundingPrimarily advertising revenue and retransmission consent fees charged to cable and satellite operators. In 2024, retransmission fees accounted for roughly 54% of total revenues (~$5.4 billion); advertising made up most of the remainder. No state funding or philanthropic backing.
On the administrationbroadly supportive

Background

Nexstar was founded in 1996 by Perry A. Sook, who acquired Scranton, Pennsylvania station WYOU with backing from the private equity firm ABRY Broadcast Partners, capitalizing on the deregulation opened up by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The company's early strategy focused on acquiring stations in mid-sized markets where costs could be managed efficiently while still delivering strong local news. Over the following two decades Nexstar grew aggressively through acquisitions, most notably purchasing Media General in 2016 and Tribune Media — including WGN America, which it rebranded as NewsNation in 2021 — for about $4.1 billion in 2019. By the early 2020s it had become the largest U.S. local TV group by station count, with its local outlets generally rated as least biased or centrist by media-analysis organizations. NewsNation was initially pitched as a centrist alternative to partisan cable news, but by 2025–2026 it had hired a wave of former Fox News personalities, including primetime anchor Katie Pavlich, and internally and externally it was described as having embraced a right-leaning, Trump-friendly posture. Critics and former employees alleged the shift was driven in part by Nexstar's desire to win FCC approval for its planned $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna, announced in August 2025; the company hired lobbyist Jeff Miller — a finance chair on Trump's second inaugural committee — and openly praised President Trump during its lobbying push. Nexstar spent roughly $3.2 million on federal lobbying in 2025, about ten times its pre-2025 annual average. Despite the ratings strategy, NewsNation's audience continued to decline in early 2026.

Sources

  1. Nexstar, Sinclair spend millions lobbying to rewrite TV station ownership rules – OpenSecrets
  2. NewsNation: Nexstar's centrist cable news experiment embraced MAGA – Slate
  3. As Nexstar pursues a merger with Tegna, NewsNation goes after Trump-friendly neutrality – Columbia Journalism Review
  4. Nexstarving for Trump's Approval – Status News
  5. NewsNation's Trump-Loving MAGA Makeover Backfires – The Daily Beast
  6. Nexstar Media Group History – Nexstar.tv
  7. Nexstar Media Group – Factually
  8. Who Owns Nexstar – Free Press
  9. Nexstar Nation – Columbia Journalism Review
  10. NewsNation Media Bias – AllSides
  11. NewsNation – Bias and Credibility – Media Bias/Fact Check
  12. Nexstar 2025 Annual Report (SEC filing)

Profile compiled 2026-08-09; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

← Back to track record