Newsroom Shut Down with No Warning

In a move that stunned its own employees and local officials, News-Press & Gazette (NPG) abruptly shut down the news operations at KION-TV, its CBS affiliate on California's Central Coast, after 56 years on the air. The decision was effective immediately, leaving journalists in the middle of their workday without a newsroom.

Reporters were in the field and anchors were preparing for their shows Tuesday when the call came.

"I did not see this coming," one reporter shared. "I was heading out to do a story about affordable housing in Santa Cruz and got a call to come back, and it just hit me out of nowhere."

Corporate executives from NPG, who purchased the station in 2013, were reportedly on-site to deliver the news. The explanation, according to staff, was brief and final.

"It was some corporate people from NPG that I hadn't met before, and they said, 'You must be Ata, we're never doing live news again,'" recounted KION reporter Ata.

The closure also silences a vital voice for the region's largest demographic. The KION newsroom was shared with Telemundo 23, which produced the only local Spanish-language newscast on the Central Coast. In Monterey County, where Hispanics constitute 60% of the population, that broadcast has now been eliminated.

"We're coming into work just a regular day, you know. But eventually we had our morning meeting, and that's when we find out about the transition," said Sandy Santos, a Spanish-language reporter and anchor for Telemundo 23. "It's not just a job. It's something that we do for the passion and for the area. We do want to be out there and communicate to everyone what's going on."

The shuttering of KION's news department reflects a growing and concerning trend in the industry, where local coverage is being consolidated or replaced. KION's news slots will now be filled by programming from KPIX, a CBS-owned station broadcasting from the San Francisco Bay Area, over 100 miles away.

"It certainly speaks to a very changing media landscape," commented Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue. "How people are going to get their information... I like folks to have as much local news as possible. And certainly, there'll be less of that in the near term."

Requests for comment from News-Press & Gazette have gone unanswered.

H/T KSBW