Atlanta-headquartered media company Scripps News is slashing 118 jobs at its Buckhead outpost as part of a larger measure to reduce costs.
Affected positions include anchors, editors and producers, among several others, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice sent to the state. Employers must file WARN notices ahead of major plant closings and layoffs. The final day for affected workers is Nov. 15, according to the notice.
Scripps News, which provides 24-hour news coverage on cable, satellite and free, ad-supported streaming services such as Tubi, is scaling back its crew to 50, with most of the jobs based in Washington, D.C. The network no longer will broadcast over the air, but it still will offer news to streaming and digital platforms with weekday live coverage from field reporters, according to a LinkedIn post shared by Adam Symson, CEO of E.W. Scripps, the parent company of Scripps News.
E.W. Scripps, which is based in Ohio and owns more than 60 television stations across the U.S., announced company layoffs in September and said at the time that it would eliminate about 200 positions in total. But the number of jobs to be cut in Atlanta were not previously known.
Scripps shares doubled in price from late September to a recent high of $3.52 on Nov. 1. But the stock has tumbled since then, and shares closed Thursday afternoon at $2.40.
The reason: The network could not meet its revenue growth expectations amid a difficult market for advertising. During a third-quarter earnings call this week, Symson put some of the blame on the political environment in the U.S.
“Unfortunately, the hard reality is that the polarized nature of our country has made even quality objective journalism a hard sell to national advertisers in linear television,” Symson said.
The changes to Scripps News comprise one part of multiple actions E.W. Scripps is taking to reduce costs by about $35 million per year, CFO Jason Combs said during the call.
Advertising in linear TV — a term that describes traditional TV watched on a schedule through cable or satellite — has been on the decline in recent quarters. As consumers continue to “cut the cord” and cancel their cable packages in favor of streaming services and other digital media, advertisers are moving their spending, too. Audiences are splintered — no longer are millions of viewers seated around the television watching the same sitcom on weeknights and seeing the same advertisements.
In 2019, advertisers spent about $70.6 billion on linear TV, according to data from media research company eMarketer. In 2021, this number fell to $65.7 billion. In 2023, it was $58.6 billion.
On the other hand, advertising spend on social video and connected TV — which means a TV set connected to the internet, commonly used to stream video — increased during that period.
E.W. Scripps launched the network in 2023 as a rebranding of a free, over-the-air channel it owned called Newsy. The newly named network combined Newsy, Scripps’ Washington D.C. Bureau and its local media national news desk.
During E.W. Scripps’ earnings call, CFO Jason Combs said the company’s local advertising revenue was down about 9% from the same period last year. However, the company also recorded its highest-ever yearly total of revenue from political advertisements, which was about $340 million.
About the Author
