It was a day that saw a flurry of posts on social media from impacted employees and an irate email or two from individuals now seeking reemployment to journalists covering what most knew would be transpiring but with little indication of when — or how painful — the moves would be.
The E.W. Scripps Co. on Tuesday said goodbye to more than 400 employees tied to its newsgathering and production at the company’s local broadcast stations across the U.S.
CEO Adam Symson discussed the reduction-in-force in a companywide memo distributed to the media following RBR+TVBR‘s request for comment. With the opening of U.S. financial markets on Wednesday, investors and impacted Scripps staffers are digesting the news, along with a positive update on political advertising guidance offered by Scripps under the watchful eye of Chief Financial Officer Jason Combs.
With the Cincinnati-headquartered owner of such broadcast stations as flagship WCPO-9, WPTV-5 in West Palm Beach, WXYZ-7 in Detroit, KNXV “Arizona 15” in Phoenix and WKBW-7 in Buffalo releasing its fiscal results for the third quarter on November 5, following the closing bell on Wall Street, and hosting an earnings call the following morning, Scripps says its expectations for full-year 2026 midterm Local Media political advertising revenue have been increased to about $275 million. This, the company said, is about 40% above its 2022 midterm election revenue.
In the third quarter, Scripps’ Local Media political revenue was nearly $81 million, “driven by strong candidate, issue and advocacy spending across Scripps markets in Michigan and Ohio as well as Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Virginia.”
How significant is the political guidance bump? In August, the company had guided to a full-year range of $225-$250 million.
While that’s a bright spot for Scripps, the reduction of its workforce as part of a transformation across its broadcasting services arm is designed to generate between $125 million-$150 million of “enterprise EBITDA growth by 2028.”
With the completion of 431 job cuts on October 27, Scripps has reduced its total employee count by one-fifth from the start of 2026, with roughly 850 people given the opportunity to find new jobs or ponder career pivots. And, Symson said in the memo distributed to staff on Tuesday, there will be more job cuts in 2027 — just not to the extent that was seen in 2026.
For long-term Scripps investors, the pain is real: “SSP,” trading on Nasdaq, has lost 83.5% of its value from five years ago to where it stood just before 10am Eastern on Wednesday: $2.31. Scripps stock is down 41% since the start of 2026 and plunged to fresh lows in the last several days.
When can investors expect to see a positive impact from the job cuts? “The impact of the transformation work will become most evident beginning in the fourth-quarter results, and the company expects to have implemented about $100 million in annual run-rate savings by year end,” Scripps said.
Meanwhile, the cash versus the debt is a matter many will likely scrutinize as it pertains to Scripps. At the end of Q3, the company had just $83 million in cash, and plans to use that and Q4 political advertising revenue to pay down “at least” $150 million of debt during the final three months of this year.
For now, many are squarely focused on the reduction-in-force initiative that transpired on October 27. According to veteran local media reporter and columnist John Kiesewetter, for WVXU, “possibly more than a dozen” staff members at WCPO-9 were impacted by the RIF.
He cited “multiple sources” in reporting that WCPO eliminated half of its 12-person photo staff and two producers. “Also gone are some assignment editors, a video editor, engineers and other employees for a total ranging from 11 to 16 people,” Kiesewetter said.
A company spokesperson told Kiesewetter, “The station is moving to new newsroom workflows that support more local reporting from the field and allow WCPO journalists to update stories throughout the day across broadcast, streaming, digital and social platforms, with technology and automation helping enable those workflows.”
WXMI “FOX 17” in Grand Rapids was also impacted, MLIVE.com reported.
