E.W. Scripps Co.

E.W. Scripps CEO Rich Boehne says he’s “never seen real R&D units work,” so he created the Digital Solutions Group, a unit directly tasked with executing Boehne’s vision of aggressively developing new business lines in this increasingly digital time. The five-person team works side by side with the company’s corporate leaders. This is the fourth in a series of Digital Deep Dive special reports on Scripps.

At the E. W. Scripps’ Co., there surfaces a picture of two men determined to confront the digital revolution head on, getting out in front of competitors with aggressive experimentation and investing in new products and distributed risk. The zeal and urgency for change generated by Rich Boehne and Adam Symson has pervaded and emboldened Scripps, whose entrepreneurial culture is manifesting on multiple digital fronts. This is the second in a series of Digital Deep Dive special reports on Scripps.

The WCPO Cincinnati experiment, whose boldness derives from an unprecedented ask of its users, ultimately has The E. W. Scripps Co. re-examining its entire approach to TV news content and cross digital/broadcast news production. Scripps is reframing its marketing message to consumers, and, in the process, re-examining how to give value to consumers beyond a content play, using the consumer data it’s now more closely collecting and parsing to heighten user affinity and personalization. The first in a series looking at digital innovation across Scripps.

The increase to $116 million was fueled by higher local, political and digital revenue as well as a 21% rise in retrans money.

The Scripps game show adds non-Scripps stations prior to its third season launch in September. Coverage rises to 70% with a new cable run on GSN factored in.

That’s how Rich Boehne, Scripps president-CEO, described the agreement that will combine the two companies’ broadcast operations and spin off the newspapers, creating two companies. Investors and analysts were bullish too, with both companies’ stock up by double digits today. With the deal, Scripps becomes the fifth largest independent station group in terms of reach, covering 22 million U.S. television households — roughly 18 % —  with 34 stations in 24 markets, including 14 in top 50 DMAs.

The merged broadcast and digital media company, based in Cincinnati, will retain The E.W. Scripps Co. name. Both companies’ newspapers will be spun off into a new company to be called Journal Media Group, which will be headquartered in Milwaukee. The new Scripps will operate 34 TV stations reaching 18% of TV homes and 35 radio stations in eight markets. Current Scripps shareholders will end up with majority stakes in both companies. More on this story after the companies’ conference call with reporters at 9 a.m. ET.

The live 4 p.m. show posted encouraging ratings in its first week on the air on ABC affiliate KMGH Denver and NBC affiliate KSHB Kansas City, Mo.

The new 4 p.m. show debuts today on KMGH Denver and KSHB Kansas City, Mo., with a focus on topics that are trending on social media networks. The content will be include viral videos, breaking news stories, content from Scripps stations and websites, original local content and national content that will originate from KMGH. It will eventually get rolled out to six more Scripps stations.

In addition to using the CRM and sales intelligence software, Scripps is joining Matrix’s digital development program .

Strong local advertising, retransmission revenue growth, Olympics and higher-than-expected political money boost the TV group to $102 million.

E.W. Scripps’ new, live 4 p.m. TV show debuting this fall on eight of its stations is ambitious even for the station group that in 2012 replaced CBS Television Distribution’s […]

Political disparity is the big culprit. Core local and national television advertising revenue rose 17%, retrans grew 42% and digital revenue was up 7.9%

The news-oriented program will have nationally focused content and some local content. It will air on ABC affiliate KNXV Phoenix and NBC affiliate KSHB Kansas City, Mo. and six other Scripps stations.

The E.W. Scripps announced this moring that it has a deal to buy two Granite Broadcasting stations — ABC affiliate WKBW and MNT affiliate WMYD Detroit — for $110 million in cash.

E.W. Scripps/Debmar-Mercury says they are shooting to roll out the syndicated legal show nationally next year.

Despite the fact that representatives from E.W. Scripps Co. toured WKBW Buffalo, N.Y.’s operations last week, broadcasting industry insiders say don’t assume anything. Scripps, according to several industry reports, is one of several media groups reportedly interested in Granite Broadcasting Corp.’s eight TV stations, including WKBW. Granite officials declined to comment. The tour, insiders say, was just that — a tour.

E.W. Scripps will use Newsy, which produces and curates video news reports for Web and mobile, as a news source on the Scripps digital products in local markets across the country.

E.W. Scripps has inked an agreement to move its Scripps Howard News Service clients to McClatchy-Tribune Information Services and has purchased political news startup DecodeDC. The company will also restructure its Washington, D.C., beureau, which will now provide content for all Scripps-owned media platforms.

Lionsgate-owned Debmar-Mercury is finalizing a deal with TV station owner E.W. Scripps to partner on a syndicated legal panel talk show with The View alum Star Jones as one of the co-hosts. There isn’t a full-fledged pilot for the project yet, but segments with Jones have been taped.

Rich Boehne, chairman-CEO-president: “The industry is far less consolidated than the headlines would suggest. There’ll be opportunities in the future. We have to be patient and focused. There’s not necessarily a benefit to winning an auction. We’ll pick our spots.” Scripps would like to add stations in its existing markets but is open to broadening its market reach with the right deal, he added.

Overall, TV revenue was down 4.9%, to $111.4 million, with the shortfall in political spending unable to offset a 34% gain in retransmission consent revenue from $7.8 million to $10.5 million. The television division’s segment profit in the second quarter was $30.5 million, compared to $34.9 million in the year-ago period.

After 42 years in the business, Mike Doback is ready for a retirement that will include a lot of time on the lake at his home in Michigan with family, and, in the short term, planning his daughter’s wedding. Under his leadership, all Scripps-owned stations now have uniform technology for all their news acquisition and production operations.

Increases in retransmission fees (35%), digital (23%) and national advertising (4.6%) were not enough to offset expected declines in political and local advertising. The television division’s segment profit in the first quarter was $16.5 million, compared to $17.9 million in the year-ago period.

Carolyn Pione Micheli will join The E.W. Scripps Co. as vice president of corporate communications and investor relations, effective March 25. “At Scripps we put a high value on effectively […]

The E.W. Scripps Co. today announced that Adam Symson, the company’s chief digital officer since 2011, has been promoted to senior vice president, effective immediately. “Adam has shown skill and […]

Political ad money fueled the rise in same-station revenue, aided by an 11% gain in local, a 12% rise in national and a 41% increase in retrans revenue.

Starting In February, the longtime NPR journalist and executive becomes VP and bureau chief overseeing a team of investigative reporters and leading the Scripps Howard News Service.

The company is aggressive in introducing paid apps for access to content to both its TV stations and newspapers. “Most of our apps today are paid and we will continue to introduce more and more paid apps on the TV side,” Scripps President Rich Boehne told the UBS Global Media and Communications conference Tuesday.

Strong political advertising, double-digit rises in local, national and retrans fueled the best third quarter ever reported by the company’s TV operations.

The Edward W. Scripps Trust, which has controlled The E.W. Scripps Co. since the trust’s inception in 1922, ended last week after the death of the founder’s grandson Robert P. Scripps. Investors speculated that the family might sell its stake.

The ratings services adds Scripps’ ABC affiliates in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit and West Palm Beach, Fla. The expansion makes Cleveland the first top-20 market to have all major TV affiliates subscribing to Rentrak’s local ratings.

The stations, including KMGH Denver, have begun switching over to the standardized websites used by new parent Scripps Broadcasting. Scripps, which bought the stations in 2011, is rolling out the new sites in batches, with KMGH and KERO Bakersfield, Calif., part of the initial rollout.

By replacing Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy with home-grown shows, it will control all of the access ad positions. Plus, it hopes to syndicate Let’s Ask America and The List to non-Scripps stations as well to generate more revenue.

A better-than-expected surge in political advertising, the contribution of television stations that were acquired in late 2011, and solid growth in spot television advertising led The E.W. Scripps Co. to report significant year-over-year improvement in operating results for the second quarter of 2012.

Beginning Sept. 17, Let’s Ask America and The List will move into access and early fringe lineups in seven markets. When contracts for syndicated shows expire in the remaining Scripps markets (Detroit, Denver, San Diego, Indianapolis, West Palm Beach, Fla., and Bakersfield, Calif.), the two new half-hours will move into those timeslots. The series will be made available outside of the Scripps markets through Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution for a fall 2013 national launch.

Retrans money increases 37%, digital revenue up 20%, local revenue grows 7.4%, while national dips 4.6%. The numbers are higher when the results of its nine stations acquired last year are added in.

Volicon today announced that Scripps Media is standardizing on the Observer TS (transport stream) digital video monitoring and logging system across all 13 of its stations. Each Scripps Media station […]

Rich Boehne, president and CEO of E.W. Scripps Co., discusses how the company — which owns 19 TV stations and newspapers in 13 markets — benefits from the digital advantages for each medium and how local TV and newspapers might leverage those assets in neck-and-neck battles, laments a still-fragmented newspaper industry, and speculates on how digital might yet be a galvanizing force.

The Scripps Washington bureau, home of Scripps Howard News Service (SHNS), is becoming a fully multimedia, national news organization pursuing enterprise and investigative stories for broadcast TV, newspapers and digital platforms.