More Cuts by Scripps
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It seems by now that Scripps has made so many cuts that there is no more positions left to be eliminated.
But, somehow, the company continues to find employees to put out of work.
Just to give you one example. At WRTV, Director of Sales Tony Hoffman will be laid off. This comes after Hoffman lead the WRTV sales department through a huge revenue gain during the Indiana Pacers' NBA Playoff run.
Hoffman isn’t the only one to get the boot, here is the internal memo sent to the staff, who now have to be numb when it comes to hearing about cuts.
Colleagues:
Our vision has never mattered more: to connect people, strengthen communities and be the best stations for those we serve. But the way audiences consume media is changing fast. Streaming now outpaces broadcast and cable combined, growing 71% in just four years, while broadcast has dropped 21% and cable 39%. [iicyvofab.cc.rs6.net] These shifts have affected our business dramatically, and we must adjust so we can continue to serve our communities.
In Local Media, we are making changes to our station leadership model as well as to the reporting structures for creative services and engineering to better position our stations for success in this changing environment. Our goal is to centralize our strategic approach so stations can focus on excellence in local journalism, revenue and culture.
Station leadership
The station manager model, where a market leader also serves as a department head, has worked effectively in a number of Scripps markets and amongst our peers in markets large and small across the country. We are changing the title of this role to become GM/department head, except for the station managers at our regional vice presidents’ (RVPs) home stations, where the RVP is already serving as the GM.
This new title will apply to all existing station managers, except those noted above. We also are expanding this combined GM/department head model to more markets across Local Media, with the following leaders, effective by mid-September:
· Baltimore: Bill Hooper, GM and director of sales
· Corpus Christi: open position
· Grand Rapids: open position
· Indianapolis: Charlie Grisham, GM and director of sales
· Lexington: Sean Franklin, GM and director of engineering
· Norfolk: Ed Reams, GM and news director
· Richmond: Stephen Hayes, GM and director of sales
· San Diego: Leon Clark, GM and director of sales
· Tucson: Leeza Glazier, GM and news director
In addition, we are creating a statewide VP/GM/department head role in Montana who will oversee the other Montana market leaders.
In some markets, the current GM has made the decision not to stay with the company, and in other situations we have had to eliminate a position in this new structure. These decisions are not a reflection of their many contributions to Scripps. It’s a business decision to make the stations more sustainable. We thank these employees for everything they have done for us.
Creative Services and Engineering
To reduce the administrative tasks on our station leaders across Local Media, and to be consistent with our focus on centralizing strategy and support, creative services directors (CSDs) and directors of engineering (DOEs), plus the teams reporting to them, will begin reporting directly into their centralized functions. Specifically:
We’re establishing three regional CSDs from our current group of CSDs: Philip Wrobel in Detroit, Jose Ochoa in Phoenix and Aaron Liversedge in Kansas City. They will report to Brent Chapin, senior director of creative services, who is part of Chief Marketing Officer Keisha Taylor Starr’s organization. All other CSDs will begin reporting to one of these three new regional CSDs. This reporting change will build a tighter-knit creative community at Scripps – giving stations better access to the company’s full suite of creative resources and expertise and better centralizing creative strategy and support.
The four existing directors of engineering and strategy, Phil Brooks, Jr in Corpus Christi, Gibson Prichard in Nashville, Jay Nix in Kansas City and Juan Cordero will report directly to Mark Gray, senior vice president of media operations. DOEs will begin reporting to one of the directors of engineering and strategy. This new reporting structure will strengthen relationships throughout our engineering organization and, in turn, increase the pool of engineering expertise available to help our local leaders understand their options and make the best possible technical decisions as the technology of our business becomes more complicated every day. This is in line with the company’s work to unify technology resources, including the recent creation of the Scripps Technology Group [iicyvofab.cc.rs6.net], which our local engineering and IT teams will become part of with these reporting changes.
For both creative services and engineering, the existing partnership with the local stations will continue, and both teams will remain focused on the success of their stations. These changes also will support all our station leaders in focusing on what they can best control at the station level – local journalism, revenue and culture.
All changes will take effect by mid-September. We will be working with stations over the coming weeks to ensure a smooth transition to this new structure.
We’ll be holding a Local Media town hall on Thursday, Aug. 21, 1-2 p.m. Eastern, where we’ll address these changes. The meeting is open to all employees. Click here to RSVP [iicyvofab.cc.rs6.net].
Thank you for the passion, creativity and commitment you bring every day.
Lyn Plantinga
SVP, Local Media
