Newswise — Scripps News is shutting down its 24/7 national, over-the-air broadcast news channel, a move that will result in 200 layoffs across Scripps News. According to Axios, the company’s CEO blamed the move on financial challenges. While the broadcast news channel will shut down by November 15th, Scripps News' live coverage will continue streaming and digital platforms on weekdays.
If you would like more context on this matter, please consider Jesse J. Holland, the associate director and associate professor at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. He is an award-winning journalist and the author of the first novel featuring comics’ most popular black superhero, The Black Panther. Holland is a former Race & Ethnicity writer for The Associated Press, having been recognized as one of the few reporters to be credentialed to cover all three branches of the American government during his career: the White House, the Supreme Court and Congress.
“Scripps seems to be going back to its bread-and-butter basics instead of putting millions into trying to compete in the rough and tumble national TV market, especially in a declining TV advertising market,” Holland says.
“Right now, trying to compete with a fact-based, objective news operation in a tough political election year — when other news networks are clearly choosing sides and playing to specific conservative or progressive markets — is tough sell for advertisers, making it difficult to sustain any hopes of profitability. Maybe when the mood of the country is no longer on national and international politics, the appetite for well crafted, straight down the middle, classic journalism will become more appealing to advertisers and consumers again.”
If you would like to speak with Prof. Holland, please contact GW Senior Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass Restuccio at [email protected].
-GW-
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