CEO Adam Symson today announced a “news initiative,” in which the company will “invest nearly $10 million to increase compensation where needed to ensure we can attract and retain the best journalists” and “add about 250 on-the-ground resources to our local reporting teams.” It says it will also “rethink” its approach to local news coverage and content, “and the way we talk to our viewers/audiences through branding and promotion.”
Scripps Sees Improvement In Current Quarter
CFO Jason Combs: “Looking ahead to the second quarter of 2023, we expect Local Media revenue to be flat to up in the low single digits percent range.”
Executives from NBCUniversal, Fox Television Stations, E.W. Scripps, Gray Television and Estrella Media told a TVNewsCheck webinar last week they’ve needed to embrace a wide range of tools and tactics to grow audience and revenue for their streaming channels. Ubiquity and flexibility, they said, are key.
Executives from Fox Television Stations, Gray Television, Tegna, Blackbird and E.W. Scripps will discuss how they’re diversifying local programming to replace syndicated content and create new options for their linear and streaming channels, all while containing costs, in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar on April 14 at 1 p.m. ET. Register here.
As misinformation spreads at alarming rates, the News Literacy Project and The E.W. Scripps Co. are continuing to promote the need for greater news literacy, a fundamental and important skill […]
E.W. Scripps Sees Surge In Core Advertising
E.W. Scripps said Friday that it topped its guidance with same-station advertising up 48% and services seeing a 35% year-to-year spending jump, leading all other categories.
Exclusives
In this newly created role, the ABC News veteran will be responsible for the news and programming strategy for Scripps Networks’ news brands Newsy and Court TV.
An ambitious project across the 60 Scripps stations in 42 markets is part of something bigger: it’s the latest incarnation of a conscious strategy designed to chart a new trajectory for local television news — a strategy that’s been nearly three years in the making. The new project is called The Rebound. The goal is to help communities recover from the devastating impact of COVID-19 with a combination of enterprise reporting, links to vital resources and inspiration.
TVN Focus On Advertising | Local OTT Ad Sales Gaining Traction
Local broadcasters are making headway getting advertisers on board with their nascent OTT platforms, drawn by OTT’s targetability and sponsored content opportunities. However, obstacles still abound from finding a common sales language for the platform to a lack of overall standards and major issues with the ad stack. Above: KSL Salt Lake City put together a six-part series called Ski Lessons with Andy Phillips, who is a local Olympian skier. The series was sponsored by car dealers along with a ski resort and Ski Utah. (Source: KSL)
The first National News Literacy Week, designed to raise awareness of news literacy as a fundamental life skill, will be held Jan. 27-Jan. 31. The initiative, presented by The E.W. Scripps […]
Court TV, the network devoted to live, gavel-to-gavel coverage, in-depth legal reporting and trial analysis launched Monday in 19 stations. The stations are: New York – WPIX (Channel 11.3) Los […]
Broadcasters Stress Need For Revenue Diversity
Broadcasters have natural revenue opportunities in business lines like OTT, podcasting and ATSC 3.0, said executives from Sinclair, E.W. Scripps, Gray and Bonneville Salt Lake at TVNewsCheck’s TV2020 conference.
Scripps 2Q Local Media Rev Dips 4.3%
The drop in pro forma revenue was offset somewhat by a 10% increase in retrans revenue.
The board of directors of the E.W. Scripps Co. has declared a cash dividend for the third quarter of 2019. Scripps shareholders of record as of Sept. 13 will receive […]
The former NAB and station executive has more than 40 years of experience in broadcasting, communications and government relations.
TVN Focus On Digital | Newsy Pushes Forward As Rivals Falter
Six years after acquiring the digital news upstart, E.W. Scripps is nudging Newsy closer to profitability and wider audiences. The largely millennial viewership sees Newsy’s “anti-partisan” approach as a balm to the louder polarities of its larger digital and cable peers.
SummitMedia is paying $47 million for the company’s final 19 outlets.
Most recently, Robert Kalutkiewicz was responsible for mergers and acquisitions at Tronc. Now he will oversee Scripps’ growth strategy and identify, develop and evaluate national media investment, acquisition and partnership opportunities.
The board of directors of The E.W. Scripps Co. on Wednesday declared a cash dividend for the third quarter of 2018. Scripps shareholders of record as of Sept. 14 will receive 5 cents per share on Sept. 25. The dividend will be paid out of the company’s capital surplus. The cash dividend is the company’s third since reinitiating a quarterly dividend in February.
Lotus Communications is buying the nine stations in Idaho and Arizona for $8 million. The sale is the third in a series of radio sale transactions for Scripps, which announced in January its intent to sell its portfolio of 34 radio stations in eight markets.
The three are the latest station groups that will employ end-to-end technology powered by automated intelligence to advance marketing solutions.
Scripps’ millennial-targeted OTT news network expects to be available in about 40 million cable homes by the end of next year after purchasing carriage contracts from the Retirement Living Television cable network for up to $23 million.
He will end a 45-year broadcasting career on Jan. 1, 2018. Since 2012, he has been divisional GM.
The E.W. Scripps Co. says its balance sheet is well positioned to make more acquisitions in a deregulated environment if potential stations meet its criteria. But the company also isn’t clamoring to build up to the new cap, wherever that may be, its COO says.
At the May 2 Scripps shareholder annual meeting, Adam Symson, R. Michael Scagliotti and Peter B. Thompson will stand for election by Scripps family members as holders of the common voting shares.
Veteran news executive Katherine Green will lead recruiting efforts for top news management positions in Scripps’ 24 TV markets.
Scripps Expects Core Rev To Grow In 2017
Core spot will be flat in the first quarter, say company execs. But momentum is building due to strength in the automotive, communications and home improvement categories and should be positive by the end of the year.
Scripps 4Q TV Rev Climbs 37% To $233M
Strong political and a 69% rise in retransmission consent money drive the increase. Core local and national advertising was down 12% due to displacement from political.
The company said none of the spectrum it put up for sale “was selected during the auction process because the prices available in the auction fell below the value we ascribed to it.”
KSHB Journo Suing For Discrimination
Reporter Lisa Benson alleges in a lawsuit that she has been discriminated against by the Scripps Kansas City NBC affiliate because of her race.
How Scripps Is Driving Toward OTT Success
The company’s Newsy digital video service now produces around 30 pieces of short-form video content per day. While Newsy is on 21 OTT platforms, its GM, Blake Sabatinelli, says the company is very much pursuing a “plant the flag” approach in anticipation of the coming consolidation, which he views as inevitable.
Company President-CEO Rich Boehne will retire next year. Chief Digital Officer Adam Symson now becomes COO and is slated to take over the CEO slot after Boehne leaves.
WCPO Hit With Complaint Over Issue Ad IDs
The Campaign Legal Center reiterates its charge that many stations are not complying with rules to make available online information about their political advertising, including who is paying for the spots. It adds the Scripps-owned Cincinnati ABC affiliate to its earlier list and urges the FCC to move before the election “to ensure transparency in our electoral system and to protect voters’ right to know by whom they are being persuaded.”
Scripps 2Q Television Revenue Up 15%
Strong political and retrans drive the total to $192 million. The digital segment adds another $15.2 million to the company’s overall total.
WCPO Is Building A Digital-First Newsroom
Anna Clark goes in-depth on WCPO, the Scripps-owned CBS affiliate in Cincinnati that several executives described as a “petri dish” of digital experimentation. The idea, Clark writes, “is less to demonstrate an entire model that can be replicated elsewhere than to test a variety of editorial, technological, and marketing strategies.”
Scripps Names Adam Chase KERO GM
He moves crosstown from KGET where he was general sales manager to take over the top spot at the market’s ABC affiliate.
Digital still makes up a sliver of Scripps’ revenues, but the company is making big investments in podcasts.
Katie LaGrone, an award-winning investigative journalist, is expanding her role for E.W. Scripps to support all three Scripps stations in Florida with original investigative reports, beginning in September. LaGrone, whose […]
Scripps Swaps Some Local For Political
Broadcast SVP Brian Lawlor: “We did make some conscious decisions about cramping some core advertisers in favor of political [in the first quarter]. We look at it terms of what’s the total revenue we can drive and we have a heck of a quarter, up over 13%, and we’re looking at second quarter in the same way.”
Scripps 1Q Television Revenue Up 13%
Strong political and retrans drive the total to $180 million. The digital segment adds another $12.3 million to the company’s overall total.
