The E. W. Scripps Company released a snippet of its upcoming earnings report to investor on Wednesday, affirming a higher political advertising revenue forecast for the year that should bring in nearly $275 million in revenue from its local stations and national multicast networks.
The revised forecast announced on Wednesday shows a 40 percent increase in political advertising revenue this year compared to the prior midterm election cycle in 2022, and is higher than the $225 million to $250 million in political-based revenue that Scripps had projected earlier in the year.
Scripps said its local media division generated nearly $81 million in political ad revenue on its own, driven by higher uptake in commercial spots by campaigns and causes in key markets like Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Virginia.
Employees at those same markets said goodbye to a lot of their colleagues on Tuesday after Scripps executed a new round of layoffs and buyout offers that affected more than 430 roles, though CEO Adam Symson promised the company was also creating nearly 100 new jobs and would try to backfill those opportunities with affected workers when practical.
The cuts represent nearly 20 percent of the company’s workforce at the beginning of the year. Scripps said the layoffs were done for now.
The reductions are part of a broader transformation plan intended to improve Scripps’ financial performance and reduce operating expenses. The company expects to have implemented approximately $100 million in annualized cost savings by the end of 2026, with the effects becoming more apparent in its fourth-quarter financial results.
Scripps is targeting between $125 million and $150 million in additional enterprise earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by 2028. The company will disclose its third quarter earnings report in early November.
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The restructuring has also involved changes to local television news production, including a system known internally as Stacker that allows newsroom managers to assemble prerecorded segments into scheduled newscasts.
Some employees have expressed concerns about technical problems associated with the system and the possibility of further job reductions as stations adopt the production model.
