NEWSTECHFORUM 2023

For TV News, Rebuilding Trust Is Core Imperative For Election Year

E.W. Scripps CEO Adam Symson and NewsNation anchor Connell McShane told a NewsTECHForum audience Tuesday that TV news needs a more durable model based on more consistent community engagement and more room for conversation and discovery around subjects. (Image: Symson, left, and McShane)

NewsTECHForum Keynote: Democracy, Technology, TV Journalism And The ’24 Election

News leaders from E.W. Scripps and NewsNation will confront the high stakes the industry faces in a pivotal election year, the journalistic and technological resources they’ll bring to bear against it and the repercussions for American democracy itself in a keynote panel at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum conference on Dec. 12 in New York. Register here.

EARNINGS CALL

Scripps Hits Home Runs With Sports, CTV

Its execs tells analysts to expect more sports deals and more new CTV networks. CEO Adam Symson says his company is “leading the broadcast renaissance in live sports” with deals impacting results with both advertisers and MVPD distributors. Pictured: WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and Scripps CEO Adam Symson.

RAISING THE BARR

Has Scripps’ Symson Offered Local News’ Best Path To Reinvention?

E.W. Scripps President-CEO Adam Symson has laid out a bold way forward for local TV news to reengage with substance, backing it with investments and more reporters. Will the market let him stay on that path?

Scripps Commits To Boost — And Better — Its News Coverage

CEO Adam Symson today announced a “news initiative,” in which the company will “invest nearly $10 million to increase compensation where needed to ensure we can attract and retain the best journalists” and “add about 250 on-the-ground resources to our local reporting teams.” It says it will also “rethink” its approach to local news coverage and content, “and the way we talk to our viewers/audiences through branding and promotion.”

E.W Scripps Not Done Making Sports Deals

After landing a deal to broadcast WNBA games Friday nights nationally on Ion, the E.W. Scripps Co. is looking for more sports leagues and teams to put on its national networks and local stations. “If we found another league that was the right fit and intersected so well with the demographics that we have on Ion, there’s room for more,” Scripps CEO Adam Symson says. And Scripps is also monitoring the regional sports networks situation.

TVN’S STATION GROUP OF THE YEAR 2022

For Scripps’ Symson, Journalism And Perpetuation Are Twin Pillars

The E.W. Scripps Co., TVNewsCheck’s Station Group of the Year, has a seasoned journalist and “person of mission” in Adam Symson, its president and CEO. His long-term vision for a sustainable company and commitment to news percolates into nearly every facet of its operations. Above, Symson at a Newsy editorial meeting. This is the second installment of a three-part series. Part one appeared yesterday here and part three will appear on Wednesday.

TVN’S STATION GROUP OF THE YEAR 2022

E.W. Scripps: A Company At Home With Continuous Change

The leadership and employees of The E.W. Scripps Co., TVNewsCheck’s 2022 Station Group of the Year, are guided by a devotion to impactful journalism and the long-term sustainability of the group. They’re not averse to bold moves and risks that will deliver it. This is the first installment of a three-part series. You can read part two here and part three here.

Scripps CEO Adam Symson Gets New Contract

The new pact runs through 2027.

Scripps: ‘Plus-Fatigue’ Will Drive OTA Growth

E.W. Scripps CEO Adam Symson told a Deutsche Bank media conference Tuesday that the proliferation of streaming subscription channels, coupled with internet access costs, are driving many younger consumers to “discover” free TV once more.

TVN FOCUS ON BUSINESS

Bumping Against Cap, Station Groups Have Their M&A Wings Clipped

With no ownership cap relief in sight from the FCC, broadcasters look to pick up ones and twos along with pursuing other avenues to grow their businesses. Meanwhile, the industry waits to see if Tegna will be sold. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

EXECUTIVE SESSION WITH ADAM SYMSON

Hybridity To Be Permanent At E.W. Scripps

E.W. Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson says the company will be very flexible about work from home hybridity after the pandemic abates, seeing multiple advantages to the new way of working on both the station and corporate levels. Read part one here.

EXECUTIVE SESSION WITH ADAM SYMSON

Scripps’ Symson: Omicron Won’t Stop Spot TV’s Upward Trajectory

E.W. Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson weighs in on the company’s streaming and diginet strategies, ad tech’s performance, Newsy’s overhaul and the ever-present threat of ransomware attacks against broadcasters in part one of a two-part exclusive interview.

Scripps CEO On Why He’s Bullish On OTA TV

E.W. Scripps is moving from new-school distribution to old-school to expand the audience for its Newsy channel: On Oct. 1, the news offering that’s available today via OTT apps will go on the air in Scripps’ 41 broadcast markets, reaching some 80% of U.S. TV households. in a Zoom video interview, Scripps President-CEO Adam Symson explained what the Cincinnati company hopes to get out of OTA — and offered a few suggestions about how the industry could upgrade one of its oldest mediums.

How TV Stations Plan To Remain Relevant As Viewers Shift To Streaming

The technology behind the distribution of television has evolved with time, from the antenna to cable to satellite, and most recently to streaming. Now, according to E.W. Scripps Chief Executive Officer Adam Symson, the time has arrived for the next frontier of TV viewing: The antenna.

Scripps CEO Adam Symson Bets On Broadcast

Symson is an investigative journalist turned digital content strategist who took over as CEO in 2017. Since then, he’s aggressively expanded Scripps’ TV station holdings, growing from just nine four years ago to 61 outlets in 41 markets. Buying more broadcast TV stations — as Scripps did in January with its $2.65 billion acquisition of Ion Media — would seem counter to a modernization push. But Symson said the view of local broadcast stations being outmoded by internet-delivered signals is unsophisticated.

Scripps’ Symson On Why News Literacy Matters

E.W. Scripps Co. and its CEO Adam Symson are taking National News Literacy Week seriously. The company’s local local and national outlets are running public service announcements that aim to fight back fake news by urging viewers to be well informed by raising their news literacy fitness.

TVN’S TV2025

TV Group CEOs Bullish On Core Recovery, M&A Pickup In ’21

The chief executives of E.W. Scripps, Sinclair, Graham Media and Allen Media see brighter days coming in 2021 with the prospect of the Supreme Court quashing outdated ownership rules and M&A activity heating up, along with core advertising bouncing back from the pandemic. Read the story and/or watch the full video  above.

TV CEOs On Industry’s Dramatic Year At TV2025

Leaders from Sinclair, E.W. Scripps, Graham Media and Entertainment Studios will share their outlook on a momentous year and its implications for revenue prospects, M&A, NextGen TV and an evolving relationship with the networks at TVNewsCheck’s virtual conference TV2025: Monetizing the Future on Oct. 21. Register here.

EXECUTIVE SESSION WITH ADAM SYMSON

Executive Session | Scripps On ‘Business Equivalent Of Adrenaline’

E.W. Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson feels the audience increase its stations have experienced since the pandemic will endure through to the other side of the crisis. For now, he says, the company is on a firm financial footing and jobs are secure, “but the real questions that we have to wait and see on are how deep this goes and how long it lasts.”

Scripps Renews Adam Symson Through 2022

He will continue to serve as the company’s president and CEO for three more years.

TVN EXECUTIVE SESSION WITH ADAM SYMSON

TVN Executive Session | Scripps: Don’t Overconsolidate In One Business

Adam Symson, president and CEO of The E.W. Scripps Co., says leading the company isn’t a quarter-to-quarter proposition, but rather about taking a decades-long view. From that vantage, he sees a growing marketplace for podcasts and multicasting, along with a deepening the OTT sales business and ATSC 3.0’s longer-term potential as crucial fronts to buttress the company’s core broadcast business.

TVN FOCUS ON DIGITAL

TVN Focus On Digital | Newsy Pushes Forward As Rivals Falter

Six years after acquiring the digital news upstart, E.W. Scripps is nudging Newsy closer to profitability and wider audiences. The largely millennial viewership sees Newsy’s “anti-partisan” approach as a balm to the louder polarities of its larger digital and cable peers.

Scripps Makes Changes To Top Management

The moves follow Adam Symson’s move to president-CEO earlier this month. The moves are promotions for Brian Lawlor, Laura Tomlin, Lisa Knutson, Tim Wesolowski and William Appleton.

Scripps: Boehne-Symson Move Set For Aug. 8

Nearly eight months after announcing that Rich Boehne (far left) would cede the president and CEO roles to Adam Symson, but continue as chairman, E.W. Scripps finally set the date for the transition: Aug. 8.

 

Scripps Nominates Three New Board Members

At the May 2 Scripps shareholder annual meeting, Adam Symson, R. Michael Scagliotti and Peter B. Thompson will stand for election by Scripps family members as holders of the common voting shares.

TVNEWSCHECK STATION GROUP OF THE YEAR

Behind Scripps’ Podcasting Bet

Adam Symson, E.W. Scripps Co.’s incoming CEO, is unflappably bullish on podcasting’s potential — both as a narrative product and monetization engine. “Podcasting represents one of the most important platforms […]

TVNEWSCHECK STATION GROUP OF THE YEAR

From Boehne To Symson: In Sync On Digital

BoehneSymsonRich Boehne will retire as CEO later this year and, in just one of many signs of the company’s digital ambitions, Chief Digital Officer Adam Symson has been tapped to be his successor.

 

Symson To Succeed Boehne As Scripps CEO

BoehneSymsonCompany President-CEO Rich Boehne will retire next year. Chief Digital Officer Adam Symson now becomes COO and is slated to take over the CEO slot after Boehne leaves.

Scripps Promotes CDO Symson To SVP

The E.W. Scripps Co. today announced that Adam Symson, the company’s chief digital officer since 2011, has been promoted to senior vice president, effective immediately. “Adam has shown skill and […]

Scripps Merges All TV, Paper Digital Efforts

Adam Symson is picked to lead the digital and mobile businesses for all Scripps television stations and newspapers.