EXCLUSIVE: Tegna has named Fox Television Stations veteran Patrick Paolini CEO as the station group looks to resolve litigation seeking to undo its merger with larger rival Nexstar.

Paolini spent 26 years at the Fox stations, including most recently as EVP of ad sales, departing the company last week. Before assuming the role at Fox in 2023, the exec spent 10 years as general manager of WTTG and WDCA, the Fox duopoly in Washington, D.C.

The new CEO will officially start on Monday, Tegna said.

Tegna and Nexstar revealed their $6.2 billion combination last summer. In March of this year, the FCC approved the transaction, a game-changing combination creating an entity with reach to 80% of U.S. households, more than twice the current legal limit on station ownership. Nexstar announced the deal had closed mere minutes after the FCC’s blessing.

Pay-TV operator DirecTV and the attorneys general of several states then filed a lawsuit seeking to undo the deal on antitrust grounds. A federal judge sided with the plaintiffs, issuing a preliminary injunction pausing the merger and a “hold-still” order requiring the two companies to be kept separate pending the outcome of Nexstar’s appeal of the ruling.

Mike Steib, a Google and NBCUniversal veteran who became CEO of Tegna in 2024, stepped down after the announcement of the merger’s close in March. He has remained with the company in a non-CEO role but will officially conclude his tenure on Friday.

Given the highly unusual circumstances of a completed merger being legally prevented from moving forward with an integration of the two companies, the details of Paolini’s remit in the CEO role are not completely clear. He will report to the Tegna board.

During Nexstar’s first-quarter earnings call this month, CEO Perry Sook fielded multiple questions from Wall Street analysts about the lawsuit and how Tegna is being managed during the legal process. “They operate as a subsidiary,” the exec explained. “We can have conversations with them. The executives running the entity report to the board” of Tegna, which includes Nexstar executives. “We just can’t, basically, influence decision-making,” he added.

Last week, however, Nexstar painted a stark picture of the impact of the preliminary injunction. In a brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District, the company called the ruling a “straightjacket.” It is “more likely Tegna will not survive while waiting for the transaction to be vindicated,” Nexstar added.

Paolini has a connection with Nexstar leadership. During his time at Fox, he worked with Mike Biard, who spent 23 years at Fox before being named president and COO of Nexstar in 2023.

“Patrick is an ideal choice to lead Tegna,” Tegna’s board said in a collective statement. “He brings deep expertise in the broadcast television industry, major-market station management, and high-quality local news, along with a proven track record of driving revenue growth across linear and digital platforms. He is an innovative thinker and a proven leader with an established history of success. We look forward to Patrick’s leadership of this great company.”

Prior to his tenure in Washington, Paolini was SVP of Fox Stations ad sales. Earlier in his career, he served as VP and GM for WTXF in Philadelphia, and before that held the role of VP and director of sales at WNYW and WWOR, the Fox owned-and-operated duopoly in New York.

“I am honored to be joining Tegna,” Paolini said. “I have tremendous respect for the Tegna brand, for the outstanding local news delivered across its 64 local television stations and hundreds of digital platforms, and for the company’s dedicated employees and local journalists. Tegna will remain committed to providing the exceptional service our viewers, advertisers, and communities expect, while continuing to innovate and expand across the platforms that define the modern media landscape. I am excited by the opportunities ahead.”