KABC Los Angeles will be closing its Sacramento, California news bureau after 10 years, one of the last-remaining out-of-market news bureaus to operate.
Sacramento bureau reporter Nannette Miranda confirmed the news on Twitter Wednesday morning.
KABC opened the bureau in 2003 when Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California. For 10 years, Miranda filed political and general interest stories that appeared regularly on four California TV stations: KABC, KGO San Francisco and KFSN, all owned by ABC, along with Gannett-owned ABC affiliate KXTV.
KABC paid Miranda’s salary while KGO paid the salary of Miranda’s photographer. KFSN paid the rent on Miranda’s space at KXTV’s studio in Sacramento.
“It’s been a wonderful experience,” Miranda said in a statement emailed to The Desk. “I am grateful for the opportunity to tell Californians what their leaders are up to and how they are handling our tax dollars. I hope viewers continue to keep tabs on Sacramento without me.”
Miranda’s reporting during the four-year California budget crisis became instrumental for ABC affiliates throughout the state and across the nation, with more stations adding Miranda’s coverage as the state bled money.
Miranda says she hopes that kind of coverage doesn’t change.
“I’m really sad to go and worried that fewer media outlets are covering the State Capitol,” Miranda told The Desk. “Unchecked government means politicians will try to do things they shouldn’t.”
Miranda also filed general assignment reports on stories of national interest originating from Northern California; she recently covered a massive 140,000-acre wildfire burning near Yosemite National Park in Tuolomne County.
The bureau’s closure comes ahead of planned layoffs at ABC’s local and cable stations. Layoffs are expected to hit ABC’s eight owned-and-operated local stations as well as ABC-operated cable networks including the Disney Channel (ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Company).
A spokesperson for ABC confirmed to The Desk that the Sacramento bureau would close by October, but would not say if Miranda would be reassigned or laid off. December would have been Miranda’s 10th anniversary reporting from Sacramento.
