Nexstar Media Group has started shrinking its workforce just a few months after closing a deal that sealed its fate as the largest operator of local television stations in the country.
Dozens of people have been laid off at Nexstar’s stations in Denver, Des Moines, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City and Greensboro, North Carolina, according to two sources familiar with the move.
Each newsroom lost between four and 12 people, according to the sources, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the company’s behalf. Most of the layoffs affected newsroom staff, though some station executives were also let go, the sources said.
The five markets where Nexstar issued pink slips happened at stations the company acquired through its $4.1 billion takeover of Tribune Media in September.
One source said additional pink slips were likely to be issued at other stations in the coming weeks. The source, an employee with a managerial title, said they had no information about the stations that could see additional layoffs.
The Texas-based company operates nearly 200 local broadcast stations across the country as well as the national cable channel WGN America, the regional cable news channel Chicagoland Television, a partial stake in the Food Network and Cooking Channel and the entertainment news wire Zap2It.
