We’ll start here with an infamous quote from an infamous business leader. Jack Welch was the aggressive and outspoken Chairman and CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 2001. He earned the nickname “Neutron Jack” for the speed and efficiency with which he made deals to transform the industrial giant that brought the light bulb into American homes into one of the world’s most valuable companies. Along the way, he also oversaw a small GE division known as the National Broadcasting Company.
On transformation, Welch is often cited as saying, “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.”
We came across the quote while thinking about transformation, specifically in the case of another broadcasting company, The E.W. Scripps Company of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Scripps, as it is typically referred to in shorthand, recently announced its quarterly earnings. In what can be best described as a “pay no attention to the disappointing results but look over here at what we are doing” move, Scripps CEO Adam Symson took the opportunity to dazzle investors with his plan for “refounding” the 148-year-old company.
This “refounding” is the latest version of whatever strategy the company has been trying to execute for the last few years. Along the way, it has been active in the buying, selling, and trading of local television stations, while at the same time ramping up and then all but shuttering its aspirations to have a national news network in Scripps News. It also forged a new path in the television sports arena with the creation of Scripps Sports, which was an early home for the WNBA and local NHL teams in several markets, built on the back of its portfolio of the former ION station group (itself the former network of Home Shopping Network stations from back in the day)
Along the way, Scripps shed hundreds of employees across its local stations in a series of staff reductions, even as it touted a “reinvention” of local TV news production that it called “the Scrippscast.” This plan, which began under then Senior VP of Local News, Sean McLaughlin, sought to replace the traditional model under which most local stations produced their daily newscasts with a more streamlined and efficient system that would do away with anchors in favor of a linear stream of local news, produced by a staff of camera-toting-reporters who would shoot and edit their own stories. The Scrippscast could play in a 24/7 “loop” via a streaming service and then fill traditional news hours on a broadcast signal, so viewers could catch up at an hour of their own choosing—on whatever platform they might prefer.
It’s now a few years later, and the Scrippscast plan (now apparently tweaked a bit and part of the new “refounding”) has been unfolding across the company’s smaller markets. It is now debuting on larger Scripps stations, such as its perennial underperformer in Baltimore, WMAR-TV, the ABC affiliate in “The Charm City.”
Our research team recently had a chance to watch an 11 pm newscast, or rather “a Scrippscast,” on WMAR 2 News after it debuted last Wednesday. They sent back their terse note on what they watched:
“Uninspired. Unimaginative. Unwatchable.”
We immediately recognized that they were making a sarcastic play on the old local news branding of “Dedicated, Determined, Dependable,” which first debuted on Atlanta’s WAGA-TV back in the late 1980s. Yes, some forty years ago, we somehow expected a whole lot more from the nightly news on our local TV outlets.
We then saw that Scott Jones of FTVLive.com got a look at a WMAR newscast, and he had this to say about what he saw:
“…Viewers were treated to an “anchorless” newscast. The show starts with a live weather hit and then immediately shifts into an automated roll of pre-recorded packages, topped off with centralized national filler fed in from Scripps hubs.”
While we acknowledge that Mr. Jones can often be a bit reactionary in his hot takes on the local TV business, he isn’t wrong about what is happening at WMAR and, in turn, across the Scripps stations. He continued with this truth bomb:
“This isn’t an “investment” in local news. It’s an exercise in doing local TV news as cheaply as humanly possible, with the absolute bare-minimum number of warm bodies inside the building.”
The “new” template for WMAR 2 News also got some coverage from The Baltimore Banner. (That’s the scrappy local newsroom that has risen to challenge the local newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, which was sold to Sinclair’s Executive Chairman David Smith back in 2024.) The Banner’s Shayla Colon framed the debut of “the Scrippscast” on WMAR-TV this way:
“For WMAR, which has been broadcasting in Maryland since 1947, the switch not only changes how people in the Baltimore region will get their information, but signals a shift in how technology is changing the economics of the news industry.”
Of course, for those of us who have worked in the local TV news business for decades, that is putting it mildly. The tidal wave of change breaking over the industry is unprecedented.
And it doesn’t show any signs of relenting any time soon.
While it is far too easy to criticize a company like Scripps for doing whatever it can to keep its head above the floodwaters, especially given that the company still has its name on an annual awards competition for journalism. The simple fact is that Jack Welch’s previously mentioned quote might be way more accurate than we first thought.
If Adam Symson’s “refounding” of Scripps doesn’t produce the desired results—and to be honest, we frankly can’t imagine what those desired results might actually be, other than just losing a lot less money—then what happens next?
Scripps was the target of an unsolicited bid last November from David Smith’s Sinclair to combine into a single company. Sinclair spent just over $15 million for an 8% stake in Scripps, which it still appears to hold. For its part, the Scripps board of directors rejected Sinclair’s offer to acquire all outstanding shares of SSP for $7 a share and instead adopted a so-called “poison pill” measure to block Sinclair from moving forward.
In February of this year, that same board decided to extend CEO Symson’s five-year contract, originally set to expire at the end of 2027. His new deal now runs through the end of 2029, and includes a one-time $10 million bonus if he can hit “a target of boosting adjusted earnings by $125–150 million over the next three years,” according to Variety.com
His “refounding” plan got a pretty positive write-up earlier this week from Tom Sly in TVNewsCheck.com. We’ll note that Mr. Sly is acknowledged at the end of his piece as most recently being the “VP of Enterprise Strategy” for Scripps. So make of his take on their “strategy” what you will.
Our take is this—we wonder how long it might be for the probably Artificial Intelligence-powered business analysis tools being used inside the Scripps corporate HQ to come up with the same answer that the WOPR computer arrives at in the climactic scene of John Badham’s 1983 movie, “WarGames.”
“What a strange game. The only winning move is not to play.”
Back in a previous career stop, in what seems like a lifetime ago now, we made the offhand prediction that at some point in the future, we wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one, or maybe more, local TV stations get out of the local news business altogether. In markets with a relatively fixed “pie” of advertising dollars, the stations with the smallest share of both the news audience and those same ad dollars would likely realize that their futures were brighter without the expense—and the declining returns—of producing daily local newscasts.
We’re not sure how many “reinventions,” “refoundings,” or “reorganizations” happen before that now seemingly flippant prediction unfortunately becomes reality. Still, you’ll forgive us for thinking the clock is running out of time before it does.
For more stations than anyone might expect.
And to us, that will be nothing but a damn shame.
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This is either a Hail Mary or a desperation play. SOMEONE in this business needs to get serious about "digital first" but I'm not sure this is the way.
Kirk, Early in my career, at a Cap Cities Broadcasting retreat (Cap Cities was then the owner of these powehouse stations: WPVI, KTRK, WKBW, WTHN, WTVD and a Fresno station) CEO Tom Murphy told us: "Do what is right for your viewers, and you will be doing what is right for our company." I've never forgotten that. Unfortunately, that is not the case for many station owners today. Many are doing right for their own portfolios. It is sad, that a handful of station owners will be in control of local stations across the country. No doubt, that will not be what is best for their viewers.