E. W. Scripps CEO Adam Symson is standing by the company's decision to cut jobs and rebuild many of its local TV newsrooms around shared content between stations, artificial intelligence and round-the-clock streaming. In a memo to staff that he also posted publicly as a column this week, he argued the changes are starting to show results, and he signaled that more cuts may follow.
The centerpiece is a set of 24-hour online streams that carry each station's live and recorded newscasts. Many Scripps stations had previously streamed the company's national Scripps News network in that slot instead of their own local news. Symson said total viewing hours on the new local streams are up 23 percent, and that viewers now watch about 10 minutes longer than before. In four early markets, Tallahassee, Green Bay, Tucson and Waco, he said viewing hours grew by nearly 70 percent on average after eight weeks. He acknowledged those gains start from small audiences and said the streams have not taken viewers away from the stations' over-the-air newscasts. Scripps has not released independent figures to back up those numbers.
The restructuring has eliminated positions, changed newsroom workflows and moved some stations under regional management. At NBC affiliate KSBY (Channel 6) in San Luis Obispo, California, local leadership roles were cut and veteran newsroom staff left. In many markets, anchor-led newscasts have given way to a recorded 30-minute program built from packages by neighborhood reporters, with local weather and sports segments generally kept in place. Viewer reaction has been mixed, including criticism online in Baltimore.
"The most painful of those has been eliminating roles held by talented colleagues who gave so much to Scripps and cared deeply about our mission," Symson wrote. "These are not abstract changes on a spreadsheet to me. They are wrenching decisions that affect people and families."
Symson said the same reports will be pushed to station-branded Facebook and TikTok accounts, and that Scripps is exploring ways to connect Nextdoor users to its journalism. He said the company still has to improve programming, audience measurement and ad monetization. "The work ahead will still be hard, and we will have to make more difficult decisions," he wrote.
The memo lands as Scripps carries more than $2.5 billion in debt against roughly $13 million in cash, and about two weeks before the company is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings.