public local television and digital advertising company
TEGNA
Industry News
A public media company operating local television stations, digital news products, multicast networks, and Premion advertising technology. TEGNA keeps some local-news value but remains constrained by shareholder ownership, ad-tech monetization, and consolidation pressure in local broadcast markets.
Why this matters: TEGNA is a missing local-TV competitor next to Nexstar, Sinclair, Gray Media, Scripps, Gannett, and public-broadcast options.
Letter grade D Extractive Medium confidence (AI) Rubric gcd-rubric-v1
* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.
Request verification to have the evidence record checked against primary materials and organization-supplied documents. Verification does not buy a higher score; scores change only when review finds factual errors, omissions, or miscalibration.
Evaluation Overview
D - Extractive
The score turns mainly on Product Integrity, with the largest penalty coming from Accountability Opacity.
Strengths
- Product Integrity3/5
- Extraction2/10
- Solidarity with the Unemployed2/7
Penalties
- Accountability Opacity-2
- Surveillance Capture-2
- Ecological Harm-1
- Youth Capture-1
Evidence state
- ConfidenceMedium confidence (AI)
- ThoroughnessDeveloped (AI)
- Linked claims25
- Direct axis claims16
- Coverage16/16
Scoring Axes
| Axis | Score | Why this score |
|---|---|---|
Ownership
?
Control rights: shareholder-dominated at 0, worker cooperative control
at 10.
|
1 / 10 |
TEGNA is controlled through corporate ownership and executive management rather than listener, viewer, worker, newsroom, or affected-community ownership. Linked evidence
|
Governance
?
Binding decision authority: centralized control at 0, democratic
stakeholder control at 10.
|
1 / 10 |
TEGNA does not provide binding democratic governance for workers, audiences, local communities, or other affected stakeholders over its media operations. Linked evidence
|
Extraction
?
Surplus allocation, wage share, CEO pay ratio, margins, and structured
extraction judgment.
|
2 / 10 |
TEGNA monetizes attention and audience access through advertising, distribution, subscription, or investor-return structures, so useful media access remains tied to extractive revenue pressure. Linked evidence
|
Labor Sovereignty
?
Worker power: coercive conditions at 0, co-determination or ownership at
7. Employee dissatisfaction matters only when source-backed evidence
shows concrete limits on worker agency, such as coercive scheduling,
retaliation, wage theft, harassment, unsafe conditions, suppression of
worker voice, or extreme turnover.
|
1 / 7 |
TEGNA appears to provide conventional media employment rather than worker-controlled labor governance, co-determination, or durable collective authority. Linked evidence
|
Solidarity with the
Unemployed
?
Treatment of exits and nonworkers, including severance, redeployment,
and non-competes.
|
2 / 7 |
TEGNA receives limited credit where its programming or audience role serves underserved communities, but the record does not show robust institutional support for workers outside employment or audiences outside monetizable segments. Linked evidence
|
Loss-Bearing Fidelity
?
Willingness to absorb costs to preserve values, workers, users, and
public obligations.
|
2 / 7 |
TEGNA has some public-service or local-media function, but the evidence does not show a durable willingness to absorb major financial losses to protect workers, communities, or editorial independence. Linked evidence
|
Market Conduct
?
Pricing fairness, switching costs, lock-in, and rent extraction.
|
2 / 5 |
TEGNA competes in commercial media markets through advertising, distribution, retransmission, or audience aggregation, producing moderate lock-in and bargaining-power concerns. Linked evidence
|
Product Integrity
?
Preservation of quality rather than degradation for monetization.
|
3 / 5 |
TEGNA provides real news, audio, entertainment, or cultural access, while product quality is constrained by advertising load, platform packaging, syndication, or centralized commercial priorities. Linked evidence
|
Scale Integrity
?
Whether growth improves or degrades fairness and accountability.
|
2 / 5 |
TEGNA shows the mixed scale pattern of commercial media: reach expands access, but consolidation weakens local accountability and concentrates agenda-setting or advertising power. Linked evidence
|
Penalties
| Penalty | Applied | Why this penalty |
|---|---|---|
Ecological Harm
?
Footprint, trajectory, irreversibility, culpability, and scale,
including whether ecological harm is central to the model and continued
after credible notice. Range: -30 to 0.
|
-1 |
TEGNA has a lower direct ecological footprint than heavy industry, but large broadcast, office, event, streaming, and digital-advertising infrastructure still creates some material footprint. Linked evidence
|
Youth Capture
?
Manipulative youth-directed marketing, youth-data or attention
monetization, collectible/add-on traps, parasocial or identity capture,
surprise mechanics, or treating young people as lower-disclosure
consumers. Making useful toys or welcoming children is not itself
penalized. Range: -5 to 0.
|
-1 |
TEGNA operates audience, entertainment, contest, app, or advertising systems that can reach younger audiences, creating some youth-attention and youth-data concern even if children are not the sole market. Linked evidence
|
Accountability Opacity
?
Material opacity, reputation laundering, or hidden accountability
structures that prevent public accountability. Range: -2 to 0.
|
-2 |
TEGNA gives basic corporate and privacy disclosures, but ownership, advertising, data-sharing, distribution economics, and editorial-control implications remain difficult for ordinary audiences to evaluate. Linked evidence
|
Identity Capture
?
Customer pressure, employee pressure, and pervasive identity saturation.
Range: -3 to 0.
|
-1 |
TEGNA builds loyalty around lifestyle, local identity, political identity, religious identity, fandom, music taste, or community affiliation, turning identity into monetizable audience capture. Linked evidence
|
Surveillance Capture
?
Invasive surveillance, unreasonably non-optional tracking, facial
recognition, biometric identification, or AI behavior scanning of
customers, workers, bystanders, or the public. Range: -5 to 0.
|
-2 |
TEGNA privacy materials describe collection, sharing, targeting, analytics, app, cookie, or advertising uses of personal information across digital media services. Linked evidence
|
Ideological Disavowal
?
Concealed ideology presented as neutrality, expertise, professional
necessity, public-service administration, market inevitability, or
non-ideological common sense while exercising power. Range: -3 to 0.
|
-1 |
TEGNA is penalized only where it presents commercially or institutionally situated media judgment as neutral public service without fully exposing the underlying ownership, advertising, or editorial incentives. Linked evidence
|
Bonus Credits
| Bonus | Credit | Why this credit |
|---|---|---|
Constitutional Spirit
?
Credit for respecting constitutional rights and civil-liberties norms
even where private law does not strictly require it.
|
1 / 3 |
The institution respects speech, privacy, due process, conscience, or civil-liberties norms beyond bare legal compulsion. Linked evidence
|
Confidence Basis
Confidence Basis
Confidence is computed from the evidence trail and review state, not typed into the profile by hand.
Medium 78/100
25 verified linked claims 16 direct axis claims 0 disputed claims 16/16 components covered
This confidence label measures the source-backed evidence trail. AI-scaffolded scores remain tentative until human review.
Claim confidence 13/20
25 verified linked claims
Source quality 12/18
Best source per verified claim, weighted by institutional reliability
Direct axis-specific claims 14/18
16 direct claims across 16 active components
Dispute load 12/12
0 disputed claims on this entity
Recency 10/10
Newest accepted timestamp: May 13, 2026
Reviewer status 7/12
Human-reviewed components score higher than AI scaffolding
Component coverage 10/10
16/16 evidence-bearing components have direct support
Evidence State
Evidence State
Claims and Sources
Claims are the evidence record. Each claim needs a source link, axis category, status, confidence level, and timestamp before it can support a score.
* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.1TEGNA is controlled through corporate ownership and executive management rather than listener, viewer, worker, newsroom, or affected-community ownership.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
2TEGNA does not provide binding democratic governance for workers, audiences, local communities, or other affected stakeholders over its media operations.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
3TEGNA monetizes attention and audience access through advertising, distribution, subscription, or investor-return structures, so useful media access remains tied to extractive revenue pressure.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
4TEGNA appears to provide conventional media employment rather than worker-controlled labor governance, co-determination, or durable collective authority.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
5TEGNA receives limited credit where its programming or audience role serves underserved communities, but the record does not show robust institutional support for workers outside employment or audiences outside monetizable segments.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
6TEGNA has some public-service or local-media function, but the evidence does not show a durable willingness to absorb major financial losses to protect workers, communities, or editorial independence.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
7TEGNA competes in commercial media markets through advertising, distribution, retransmission, or audience aggregation, producing moderate lock-in and bargaining-power concerns.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
8TEGNA provides real news, audio, entertainment, or cultural access, while product quality is constrained by advertising load, platform packaging, syndication, or centralized commercial priorities.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
9TEGNA shows the mixed scale pattern of commercial media: reach expands access, but consolidation weakens local accountability and concentrates agenda-setting or advertising power.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
10The available public record for TEGNA does not show unusually strong, binding protection for worker, audience, newsroom, or public dissent beyond ordinary corporate process.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
11TEGNA receives limited credit where local journalism or public-affairs programming supports civic information, but the structure is still commercial and management-controlled.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
12TEGNA offers some free or broadly available media access, but the value is paid for through advertising, data collection, attention capture, or bundled distribution economics.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
13TEGNA does not provide unusually clear public cost, margin, advertising, retransmission, or surplus-allocation transparency for audiences and affected communities.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
14The available public record for TEGNA does not document a rare non-punitive anti-mobbing or anti-scapegoating institutional practice strong enough for this bonus.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
15The score for TEGNA is not being raised because of a specific living founder or leader whose personal control would make the positive conduct unusually reversible.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
16The available evidence for TEGNA does not describes conduct considered under Human Harm beyond ordinary commercial-media harms already captured elsewhere.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
17The available evidence for TEGNA does not show direct institutional coercive violence, armed repression, detention abuse, or violent domination.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
18TEGNA has a lower direct ecological footprint than heavy industry, but large broadcast, office, event, streaming, and digital-advertising infrastructure still creates some material footprint.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
19The ordinary use of TEGNA media products does not itself create a material toxic-product exposure comparable to chemicals, weapons, tobacco, or unsafe consumer goods.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
20TEGNA operates audience, entertainment, contest, app, or advertising systems that can reach younger audiences, creating some youth-attention and youth-data concern even if children are not the sole market.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
21TEGNA retains conduct relevant to the this penalty: where recurring subscriptions, bundled distribution, account registration, or cancellation-friction risks are material to the consumer relationship.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
22TEGNA gives basic corporate and privacy disclosures, but ownership, advertising, data-sharing, distribution economics, and editorial-control implications remain difficult for ordinary audiences to evaluate.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
23TEGNA builds loyalty around lifestyle, local identity, political identity, religious identity, fandom, music taste, or community affiliation, turning identity into monetizable audience capture.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
24TEGNA privacy materials describe collection, sharing, targeting, analytics, app, cookie, or advertising uses of personal information across digital media services.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
25TEGNA is penalized only where it presents commercially or institutionally situated media judgment as neutral public service without fully exposing the underlying ownership, advertising, or editorial incentives.
- TEGNA company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- TEGNA privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- TEGNA investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
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Audit Log
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