Employers
The E.W. Scripps Company completed 431 workforce reductions on Tuesday, Oct. 27, bringing the total number of employees affected in 2026 to about 850, the Cincinnati-based broadcaster said in a release on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The company said that total equals nearly 20% of its employee count at the start of the year.
The two figures overlap: the 431 reductions made this week are included in the roughly 850 employees affected so far in 2026. They are not additive.
Scripps, which operates about 60 local television stations in 40 markets along with national networks including Scripps News and ION, filed the release with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an exhibit to a Form 8-K the same day.
Part of a cost-cutting transformation
The company said the reductions are part of a transformation plan intended to generate $125 million to $150 million of enterprise EBITDA growth by 2028. It expects to have implemented about $100 million in annual run-rate savings by the end of 2026 and said the effect of the transformation will become most evident beginning with fourth-quarter results.
In a note to employees on Oct. 27, which was published by the trade outlet The Desk, Chief Executive Adam Symson wrote that the company was “eliminating 431 positions across the company.” He also said Scripps was creating more than 100 new positions, including local reporting roles and new “community connection” roles, and that it aims to fill as many of them as possible with colleagues whose positions were affected. Those planned roles have not been filled, and the company did not say how many affected workers would move into them.
Symson told staff that the majority of the significant restructuring needed for the company’s future operating model “has now taken place, especially in our local newsrooms.” He said Scripps expects additional role eliminations during its three-year transformation, “but not at the scale of those in 2026.”
Who was affected
Scripps’ release did not break the cuts down by station, market or job type. According to The Desk, which cited multiple employees, layoff notices and buyout offers reached nearly all Scripps-owned stations, including those in Detroit, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix and West Palm Beach. The outlet reported that some non-union technical workers in information technology and broadcast engineering received layoff notices, while union-represented reporters, photographers and graphic designers were offered buyouts because of terms in their collective bargaining agreements. Some stations also cut engineering and marketing roles, it reported.
The Desk also reported that many Scripps news stations have adopted an internal production technique called “Stacker,” in which managers assemble recorded segments into 30- or 60-minute newscasts, and that some producers at stations using it received buyout offers. Those details come from The Desk’s sources; Scripps had not commented to the outlet.
Political revenue rose, separately
The workforce news arrived alongside an upgraded revenue outlook. Scripps now expects full-year 2026 midterm political advertising revenue in its Local Media division of about $275 million, about 40% above its 2022 midterm figure and up from an August guidance range of $225 million to $250 million. Third-quarter Local Media political revenue was nearly $81 million.
Political advertising peaks in election years, so the higher guidance is a 2026 revenue item rather than a change to the staffing plan. The company said it had $83 million in cash at the end of the third quarter and plans to use it, along with fourth-quarter political advertising proceeds, to pay down at least $150 million of debt in the fourth quarter. Full third-quarter results are due after the market closes on Thursday, Nov. 5.
What it means for local news jobs
For broadcast journalists and technicians, the announcement means fewer staff positions at local stations even in a strong political-advertising year. The roughly 850 reductions this year are the company’s own count, and Scripps has not said how many of those workers left through buyouts versus layoffs.
Sources
- The E.W. Scripps Company, “Scripps raises full-year political guide, completes 2026 workforce reductions,” October 28, 2026 (Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/832428/000083242826000037/ex991-pressreleasescrippsr.htm
- The E.W. Scripps Company, “Form 8-K, Current Report,” U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, October 28, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/832428/000083242826000037/ssp-20261028.htm
- The Desk, “Scripps begins new round of layoffs impacting technical, news production roles,” October 27, 2026. https://thedesk.net/2026/10/scripps-begins-new-round-of-layoffs-impacting-technical-news-production-roles/
Featured photo: The WCPO 9 television station building in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, May 28, 2019. WCPO is owned by The E.W. Scripps Company; Scripps has not said which stations' staff were affected. Photo: Warren LeMay, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0). Cropped from the original.
