E.W. Scripps Co. eliminated 431 positions across the company, according to a memo sent Tuesday by Chief Executive Officer Adam Symson, and the cuts landed hard at the company's own backyard station, WCPO-TV in Cincinnati. Up to 16 WCPO employees lost their jobs, including half of the station's 12-person photography staff, as part of a nationwide restructuring that stretched from Detroit to Phoenix.
Cincinnati Station Loses Photographers, Producers and Editors
According to Bloomberg, the 431 nationwide eliminations were spelled out in the Tuesday memo from Symson, whose company is headquartered at the Scripps Center on Walnut Street in downtown Cincinnati. At the local level, WCPO-TV eliminated a total ranging from 11 to 16 people, per WVXU, with the broader company-wide figure not specifying an exact station-by-station breakdown.
The station's cuts fell disproportionately on its photo department, where half of the 12-person staff was let go along with two producers, the public radio station reports. Other eliminated roles included some assignment editors, a video editor, engineers and other employees, according to the same report. Scripps said the affected WCPO roles were primarily tied to traditional newscast production, and that live newscasts will continue despite the reductions.
New Roles Promised, But Not Guaranteed to Go to Laid-Off Staff
Even as it cut staff, Scripps said it was creating more than 100 new positions company-wide, including local reporting roles and new community connection roles, according to The Desk. The company told WVXU it aims to fill as many of these new roles as possible with colleagues whose positions have been affected, though it stopped short of guaranteeing placement for every laid-off worker.
The Desk reports the layoffs and accompanying buyout offers hit nearly all Scripps-owned stations across the country, including key markets like Detroit, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix and West Palm Beach. Scripps told the outlet it does expect additional role eliminations across the company as its three-year transformation continues, but not at the scale of those in 2026. The company had executed a similar round of layoffs in September as part of its restructuring of local television news operations, the same report notes.
Streaming, AI and a Costly Year for Scripps
The cuts are tied to a broader shift the company has been engineering for months. Scripps is adopting a 24-hour streaming news model enabled by artificial intelligence, automation, technology and centralization of some roles, according to Yahoo Finance. The outlet also reported that the company has eliminated 432 positions and 126 open jobs since the beginning of the year — a cumulative figure that differs from the separately reported 431-position reduction announced this week.
Those moves come against a difficult financial backdrop. Scripps reported second-quarter revenue of $490.4 million, down 9% from the year-ago period, with a net loss of 34 cents a share, per the same Yahoo Finance report. The company has said its transformation includes expanded 24/7 streaming news, digital publishing, centralized production, AI-assisted operations and expanded local reporting, according to an earlier WVXU report on leadership changes at WCPO-TV.
A Hub-and-Spoke Model Taking Shape Nationwide
Part of the strategy involves plans to launch 24/7 local news streams in approximately a dozen smaller markets before expanding them to all local stations, according to TVNewsCheck. The outlet reports Scripps is introducing a hub model to centralize digital news production while local stations focus on community-specific reporting, with linear broadcast schedules remaining in place for traditional viewers. The company is also promoting an automated news-production technique called Stacker across its owned stations because it sees the tool as a way to cut down on costs, The Desk reports.
In some markets, the restructuring has gone further than layoffs alone. TVNewsCheck reports Scripps is consolidating operations in cities such as Lexington, Colorado Springs, and Twin Falls, where it recently established duopolies. For now, Scripps says WCPO-TV's newscasts will keep airing, even as the station — like the rest of the company — adjusts to a leaner, more automated future, as first detailed by the Cincinnati Business Courier.
