Howard Beale

How many people total are watching? Having 46% of the audience sounds impressive, but if the total audience size is -- for example -- 10,000 people, then big whoop. Ratings no longer matter as they once did. Broadcasters typically earn more-than half of their annual revenue from retransmission fees versus core advertising. Who needs to fight for viewers when you're getting the same check every month from the cable companies?

Let’s talk about something that’s a little more substantial… Scripps recently released its latest financial report after a nearly one-month delay, and we finally know why. The company needed the time to basically shore up its debt and kick the can a bit further down the road. Even the delay itself didn’t buy Scripps enough time to have a financial report worth praising. Here’s the total numbers for 2024 (with 2023 in parentheses for comparison) for Scripps Local Media: Core advertising: $552.2 million ($598.8 million) Political ad revenue: $342.8 million ($32.9 million) Retransmission/distribution revenue: $764 million ($752.3 million) Political ad revenue clearly saved the Scripps budget, because core advertising took yet another hit. Retransmission revenue grew from the previous year, but not by much. Scripps doesn’t have too much leverage against cable and satellite companies as some of the bigger competitors do. But it’s also possible that the cable and satellite companies have little juice left to squeeze out. In short, Scripps is somehow still afloat, but the boat is definitely leaking. Former KSTP news director Kirk Varner questions whether the bad news at Scripps could be a sign that some TV stations may eliminate local news altogether in 2025.

According to a post on Reddit, the layoffs affect every station in the Scripps group. Some worse than others. No details on exact layoffs just yet. This sounds like Scripps is desperately trying to make its upcoming quarterly report look good or at least not entirely terrible. The fact the company delayed its earnings report alone is a sign of trouble.

Further verification: https://thedesk.net/2025/02/tegna-lays-off-national-verify-fact-check-team/

This is definitely the newest trend in news consolidation. Allen already did it to its Wisconsin stations, Morris won't be the last either.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Broadcasting/comments/1i7nzaf/allen_reversal/ It's only a rumor at this point, but the Broadcasting subreddit has been pretty spot on about things like this. Perhaps even Byron Allen realized this was an incredibly dumb move.

Today is the last day for TEGNA's creative services and marketing departments. All are being laid off in favor of centralized creative services. I saw an example of the new TEGNA creative services AI-driven TV ads...and wow, it's not good. I'm sure it's cheap, and that's what matters to the bottom line, but wow it's bad.

Here's a new thread specifically for the Imagicomm pending sale.

Imagicomm Communications is getting out of the TV news business. Paywalled articles at News Blues and the Radio & Television Business Report say the company plans to sell the TV stations it purchased from Apollo (dba Cox Media Group), including: KYMA (Yuma, AZ) KIEM / KVIQ (Eureka, CA) KPVI (Pocatello, ID) KLAX (Alexandria, LA) WABG / WNBD / WXVT (Greenville, MS) WICZ (Binghamton, NY) WSYT (Syracuse, NY) KOKI / KMYT (Tulsa, OK) KMVU / KFBI (Medford, OR) WHBQ (Memphis, TN) KAYU (Spokane, WA) KFFX / KCYU (Yakima, WA) With President-elect Trump due to become President Trump in less-than one week, it seems clear that the broadcasting industry truly believes a Trump administration will be pro-merger. Many of these are small-market stations that probably turn very little of a profit, if any, so anyone’s guess is good at this point about what happens next.

You "guess it is still too scandalized?" My goodness, that's an understatement. Matt Lauer is persona non grata at NBC. He will never be allowed back on "Today" in person, even if it's a one-off appearance to wish a former co-worker well. NBC would sooner bring back J. Fred Muggs (kids, ask your grandparents) than Lauer. As for where Matt Lauer is now? Probably still laying low in the NYC area.

It is a win, small as it is, but the wins will not last. Broadcast's monopoly as THE place for live sports is no more. It's still the number-one reason why people watch broadcast TV, but the major sports leagues have already put some games on streaming services. I get it, Gray's just trying to grab any fruit off the tree, and I don't blame them for it. But this is not a hurrah for broadcast TV. It's a metaphorical fleeting jab from a boxer who's two or three more blows away from a knockout.

Technically, it is. But, despite what the Gray hype would have you believe, it's not that much more than nothing.

Big whoop. That amounts to one in ten games being shown on WPCH and elsewhere in the Gray universe. But, judging by how Gray promoted this, you'd think all 194 games (32 pre-season and 162 regular season) were coming to WPCH.

Guess I didn't watch far enough.

WANF (Atlanta) appears to be the next Gray station to have a sponsored 7 pm show. The station has a website with a countdown clock to January 6, 2024, when it will debut the revamped one-commercial-only newscast. I don’t know who’s sponsoring the show, but if it’s anything like KVVU in Las Vegas did, it’ll probably be a personal injury attorney. EDIT: A financial services company called Hoffman Financial Group is sponsoring the newscast.

TEGNA already has job openings listed for its cutdown version of creative services. I see 40 jobs for “multi-market commercial producer” or “multi-market creative producer” listed. Some stations have openings for both positions: KARE Minneapolis KGW Portland, OR KHOU Houston KPNX Phoenix KSDK St. Louis WFAA Dallas WGRZ Buffalo, NY WKYC Cleveland WTHR Indianapolis WUSA Washington, DC WXIA Atlanta Most only have an opening for a single commercial producer: KENS San Antonio KFSM Fayetteville, AR KREM Spokane, WA KTHV Little Rock KTVB Boise KVUE Austin, TX KXTY Sacramento WBIR Knoxville, TN WBNS Columbus, OH WCSH Portland, ME WLBZ Bangor, ME WMAZ Macon, GA WNEP Wilkes-Barre, PA WTOL Toledo, OH WWL New Orleans And these stations have openings for a single creative producer: KING Seattle KUSA Denver WCNC Charlotte What will these jobs pay? According to the salary listings for WGRZ — thank you New York and your salary transparency law — both jobs pay between $20 and $40.38 per hour. Or, $41,600 to $83,990 per year. In related news, one of TEGNA’s soon-to-be-former marketing directors said on LinkedIn that the company laid off at least 300 people in its creative services purge. Yikes!

I'm quoting the post here in case it gets deleted. Some people who've posted about TV news layoffs in that subreddit later deleted their posts.

I can't find a thread for general discussion about Cox Media Group, so let's start one with some actual news! WSB-TV anchor Justin Farmer is leaving the station after 16 years for an undisclosed finance job. Here's what's odd about this. WSB management announced the news to employees today (November 25) at the morning editorial meeting, and Farmer's last day is tomorrow (November 26th). A 24-hour turnaround from announcement to goodbye? This reeks of either a budget cut or a failed contract negotiation.

Chuck did not break the Guinness World Record. Former WHAM (Rochester, NY) anchor Don Alhart still holds that record.

I don't think this is as surprising as many of you would think. NBC has made clear that it is cutting costs. That includes salaries of its top-earning anchors. Chuck is a man with a seven-figure salary (as of 2011, it was estimated that he made $1 million per year, and that price has no doubt risen in the subsequent 13 years) that I'm sure NBC would like to not pay. I believe Chuck's decision to retire is his own, but even he surely saw the writing on the wall and figured it was time to get out while the getting was good. Not even veteran local news anchors like Chuck Scarborough are immune to the realities of the TV news business.

I saw a post from someone on LinkedIn who claimed that KREM in Spokane got rid of its producers in favor of AI. I can't verify that but I wouldn't put it past TEGNA to do that.

I think TEGNA is doing this as part of a prospective buyout or merger. Why do I believe this? Two reasons: Meredith Corporation did the exact same thing in 2020. It eliminated creative services departments at its TV stations in favor of two marketing hubs. At that time, Meredith executives were eagerly planning to get out of the TV business, and they hoped cost cutting would appeal to a prospective buyer. Gray Television (now Gray Media) answered the call a year later. TEGNA wants out of the business while the getting is somewhat good. Under previous CEO Dave Lougee, TEGNA tried to merge with Standard General, but the FCC effectively blocked the merger. TEGNA management knows that the incoming Trump administration will likely deregulate broadcasting in whole or part, so they’re hoping 2025 is the year they can cash out and get their golden parachutes.

TVNewsCheck has a glorified Gray Media press release under a Mark K. Miller byline, which announces the “retirement” of three general managers of the following stations: WAGM, Presque Isle, Maine WIBW, Topeka, Kansas WYMT, Hazard, Kentucky I say “retirement” because I believe these GMs retired in lieu of being fired in any future Gray budget cuts. These are all small-market stations, and I know WYMT lost a few people in the last round of Gray budget cuts. Perhaps Gray will have one of its many regional VPs oversee these stations, or a GM from a nearby market will also pick up one of these stations.

I wonder if Gray has decided to give up on promoting its news jobs due to the layoffs? I point this out because Gray's various recruiters on LinkedIn are only posting sales jobs. However, Gray's jobs website still has more news jobs versus sales jobs, and news jobs are still being posted. Just not being promoted by the recruiters anymore.

FTVLIve claims, in a paywalled story, that Scripps is going to lay off 100+ people. The insinuation is these layoffs are on top of the ones Scripps already announced. However, I believe FTVLive is basing that on a WARN notice Scripps filed with the Georgia Department of Labor, where Scripps discloses it will lay of 118 Georgia-based Scripps News employees. Scripps already disclosed those layoffs, but had to file a required WARN notice.