The E.W. Scripps Company launched a new round of buyout offers and layoffs on Tuesday as part of its effort to reduce employment costs and ease its sizable debt load, with the cuts reaching nearly all of its television stations nationwide.
According to multiple employees familiar with the matter, the notices and offers are affecting stations across the country, including those in major markets such as Detroit, Cincinnati, Denver and Phoenix. The company has framed the reductions as one element of a broader plan to lower operating expenses tied to staffing.
The moves come roughly one week before Scripps is scheduled to report its third-quarter earnings. They also arrive about two weeks after the company arranged interviews for Chief Executive Officer Adam Symson with a small number of hand-selected publications, in which he discussed the use of artificial intelligence to evolve Scripps’ local news products.