Cox Media Group decides on new logo from pool of employee contributions

Cox Media Group has unveiled a new logo design that’s a result of a company wide contest.

The design was created by Kim Colombero, the art director at WJAX, the company’s CBS affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida.

The design uses the company’s initials with the “C” and “G” in bold dark blue lettering inspired from the current logo. 

Meanwhile, the “M” has been stylized with yellow, orange, red and lighter blue and had its angled strokes redrawn to curve or flow downward.

The new logo design follows the formation of the “new” Cox Media Group after Apollo Capital Management acquired a majority stake in the company, along with bringing stations it acquired from Northwest Broadcasting, in 2019.

Parent company Cox Enterprises previously owned the “old” Cox Media Group that consisted of print, radio and TV holdings.

When the company was in the early stage of the Apollo deal, a name change to “Terrier Media” was floated in public filings, but ultimately the company stuck with the CMG branding. 

One driving force behind the change was so that Cox Enterprises, which also held onto the Atlanta-Journal Constitution newspaper (as opposed to selling it as part of the Apollo-CMG deal), would become a “non-attributable” owner of the TV and radio stations and most newspapers that allowed it to satisfy some regulatory issues with the deal.

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Cox Enterprises owns 19.9% percent — squeaking in just under 20% — of CMG with Apollo controlling 70.9%.

For example, the company owns a major TV station and multiple radio stations in its home market of Atlanta which would likely raise red flags if Cox held more shares of the “new” company.

Cox Enterprises (not Cox Media) also owns the city’s only major daily newspaper, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, meaning it’s technically not controlled by the same corporate entity.