CLEVELAND, Ohio — Nexstar Media Group’s $6.2 billion plan to acquire Tegna could reshape local television in Cleveland, where Nexstar owns FOX affiliate WJW Channel 8 and Tegna owns NBC affiliate WKYC Channel 3. If the deal goes through, it could bring both stations under a single owner — still a big if — potentially changing how each operates, especially in their newsrooms.

“We don’t know what will happen,” said Al Tompkins, a longtime broadcaster and senior faculty emeritus at the Poynter Institute.

Currently, FCC rules prohibit one company from owning more than one of the top four stations in a market, and any merger in Cleveland would have to navigate that restriction. But if that rule were lifted, it could open the door to some consolidation, though it’s too early to speculate wha

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