The local TV stations KKCO (NBC) and KJCT (ABC) will change ownership from Gray Media to the E.W. Scripps Company later this year. Gray Media and Scripps issued a joint press release July 7 saying the two companies would swap ownership of some stations in their smaller and medium-sized markets in the fourth quarter of this year. No cash will be exchanged in the transactions because the companies consider the swap to be “an even exchange of comparable assets.”
Scripps’ President and CEO Adam Symson says the swaps will “allow us to further invest in our connection to our communities, offering even richer coverage of these neighborhoods and regions.”
Scripps owns and operates about 60 stations across the U.S., only four of which are Fox News affiliates (in West Palm Beach, FL, Lansing, MI, Salt Lake City, UT and Grand Rapids/Battle Creek/Kalamazoo, MI). The rest of their TV holdings are either independent, CBS, NBC, ABC affiliates or ION channels. Their entertainment holdings include ION, Bounce, Grit, ION Mystery, ION Plus, Court TV, DeFy TV and Laff. Scripps has also owned many major newspapers, and was the owner of the Rocky Mountain News from 1926 until it closed on February 27, 2009. Scripps has also operated the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 1941.
I wonder if their PR department has been taken over by an AI robot. All of these corporate announcements sound the same.
Can’t get any worse.
Yea! Perhaps we will get some local weekend news
Whew! When I saw the words “change ownership”, I was afraid our stations were being bought by the right-wing Sinclair network.