Private Equity: So Who Are These Guys?

PRIVATE EQUITY: SO WHO ARE THESE GUYS?
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Price Colman]
As private equity funds increase their investments in broadcast, the ownership landscape is changing. Get past the network O&Os and the stations owned by old-line newspaper publishers like Scripps, Hearst, Gannett and the Washington Post and it seems the industry is being taken over by the big-money private equity firms. Among the TV groups in their thrall (or soon to be) are Barrington, Nexstar, the New York Times stations, BlueStone, Montecito, Freedom, Ion Media, Clear Channel Television, Tribune, LIN TV and Univision. The names of the private equity owners behind those companies are not so familiar: ABRY, Blackstone, Cerberus, Diamond Castle, HM Capital, Oak Hill, Pilot Group and Providence Equity. And, for the most part, the people who run the funds and ultimately control the stations are unknown in traditional broadcasting circles and to the men and women who actually run the stations. They aren't active in the trade associations, they don't give speeches or sit on panels at TV conventions and they may never have stepped inside of a TV station. Yet, so far, their growing presence in broadcasting has not tripped any alarms, or caused any upheavals in the way business is being done, although a private equity takeover almost invariably means the imposition of great efficiencies—that is, fewer jobs.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/05/09/daily.2/