The company’s stock value is up by 37% from one year ago. However, there’s a much different perspective for longtime shareholders of The E.W. Scripps Co. and media industry observers who have played much scrutiny on CEO Adam Symson and the wholesale reimagining of the broadcast TV station ownership group’s local news operations in market after market. Since October 2021, “SSP” has shed nearly 83% of its value. A debt load of more than $2.5 billion persists against roughly $13 million in cash on hand.
Symson, Scripps’ Chief Executive since 2017 and its former Chief Digital Officer, is convinced that he’s scripted the best playbook for the company with properties in markets as diverse as West Palm Beach, Detroit, and San Luis Obispo, Calif., in a time when consumers may be getting their news first from TikTok or a social media alert on their smartphones. Now, he’s being candid about “the cost of this transformation” that has greatly changed how local news is being produced and delivered across the company’s local media properties.
