Business
Scripps cost-cutting, AI integration is latest effort to grow earnings
FILE PHOTO: E.W. Scripps Co. signage is displayed on a monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Friday, June 3, 2016.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
E.W. Scripps is setting into motion what it calls a transformation plan for the broadcast station company — intended to generate growth for both earnings and its local TV stations.
The company announced Wednesday that it’s targeting growth of between $125 million and $150 million in annual enterprise earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by 2028. In order to get there, Scripps will go through a number of cost savings and revenue growth measures that lean on technology, namely artificial intelligence, CNBC can exclusively report.
“This will essentially be a reorienting of the entire company … with a much more agile and efficient cost structure,” CEO Adam Symson said in an interview with CNBC. “We have to act like a media startup. We’ve got to act like the company E.W. founded, because the marketplace cannot bear the legacy pace or legacy thinking.”
The company plans to outline more details about its efforts during its next earnings call with investors on Feb. 26, but Symson described making changes to the newsroom to alleviate journalists from administrative tasks and to focus more on gathering and reporting the news.
The company declined to comment on specific impacts to staffing as a result of the cost cutting, saying potential effects to jobs would be determined over the next several months.
“Everything is on the table, but our goal is to always preserve the journalism and the sales, the two things that make up our customer relationship,” said Symson.
Scripps owns more than 60 local affiliate broadcast stations across 40 markets, including Ion, which has become a broadcaster of the WNBA and other pro sports games.
The company’s stock has dropped 70% in the last five years, a decline not unlike many of its media peers.
The revitalization for the almost 150-year-old Scripps comes as the company — as well as the broadcast industry at large — finds itself at a historically challenging moment.
The broadcast station industry — which also includes publicly traded companies like Nexstar Media Group, Tegna, Sinclair and Gray Media — faces the same challenges as its cable and content studio peers, namely the defection of pay TV bundle subscribers for streaming alternatives.
As a result, the industry has been in pursuit of consolidation as it awaits key regulatory changes. Scripps itself has been an M&A target, with Sinclair recently making a hostile approach to merge with the company. Scripps has rejected such overtures.
Meanwhile, media outlets across print, digital and TV have been in the midst of massive layoffs in the last year. Paramount Skydance has cut thousands of jobs across the company, including at its CBS News, and most recently The Washington Post reportedly told staffers it would eliminate a third of its newsroom jobs.
The rise of AI has also fueled fears about mass layoffs, especially in newsrooms.
In 2024 Scripps announced the creation of an AI team that would report to Laura Tomlin, Scripps’ chief transformation officer. Symson said her first order of business has been to “consolidate technology from across the company.”
Symson said Scripps’ move to implement new technology is not meant to replace journalism jobs with AI, but instead help newsrooms work more efficiently and ensure a long runway for local news.
“This cannot be a cost-cutting exercise in service to incrementally trying to improve margins from cutting product. That has proven to be the beginning of the end,” said Symson. “This really has to be about starting with our consumer understanding, what it is they need out of us, both from our news product as well as our sales product.”
Transformation efforts
This week, Symson gathered 200 leaders from across the company at Scripps’ headquarters in Cincinnati to outline the latest plan, which will be announced more broadly on Wednesday to Scripps employees and investors.
The company will also reaffirm its most recent earnings guidance, noting it expects its 2026 financial performance to be lifted by midterm elections — local broadcast stations rely heavily on political advertising — as well as the airing of the Winter Olympics and upcoming World Cup on its affiliates this year.
Harini Logan, 14, from San Antonio, Texas, receives the trophy from Scripps CEO Adam Symson after winning the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee held at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S., June 2, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
This transformation, with the vision tagline, “We Create Connection,” is the latest step in recent years for Scripps to find new avenues of revenue growth.
“Scripps’ transformation effort is not unique, per se. Everyone in the space is cutting costs,” said analyst Dan Kurnos of Benchmark in a recent interview. “Last we checked, broadcast TV wasn’t the most rapidly growing segment of the media ecosystem. It’s just not as bad as cable.”
During a November earnings call with investors, Symson teased further initiatives the team has been working on, calling out its focus on “expense management.”
For the local media division, Scripps said its third-quarter expenses had decreased more than 4% year over year and the networks business saw expenses drop 7.5%, both due in part to “lower employee-related costs.”
Yet Kurnos said that Scripps has deviated from its peers with other moves, such as growing Scripps Sports with local media rights. Scripps’ networks now have the rights to air WNBA games, and the company has also been picking up the rights to NHL teams exiting their regional sports networks.
“I think Scripps has been forced to reinvent themselves a few times,” Kurnos told CNBC.
President and CEO of E. W. Scripps Company, Adam Symson poses for a photo with WNBA Commissioner, Cathy Engelbert.
Courtesy: Scripps
While Scripps has rejected a merger with Sinclair, the company has been doing smaller deals on its own, such as offloading stations and a station swap with Gray Media, which is still pending approval. This week the company also agreed to sell its Court TV network for less than $125 million, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be identified speaking about internal matters.
Symson acknowledged the need for consolidation as the industry forges ahead into a new era. But he fell short of saying it was a necessity, at least for Scripps, as some of his peers have said on recent public calls.
“Responsible consolidation is important for the industry, without question. But make no mistake about it, it is financial engineering,” said Symson. “It will create a tail wind for our business that investors should appreciate, and we will go after it, but it will not create the organic growth that we are talking about here.”
Symson’s history at Scripps runs deep and began in the newsroom. He started at the company as an executive producer of investigations and special projects at a Scripps-owned affiliate in Phoenix before joining the corporate parent in 2003 and taking over as CEO in 2017.
The latest transformation efforts follow similar shifts in 2023, when Scripps eliminated some anchor roles, added reporters in smaller markets and increased reporters’ wages, among other changes.
“It is very personal to me. I think at this point, I’m the only CEO of a broadcast company that comes from a journalism background and from the newsroom,” said Symson. “What we do is too important for us to not go on the offense and aggressively transform the company in order to ensure that we’re a company that continues to thrive.”
Disclosure: CNBC parent Versant is carrying NBC Sports-produced Olympic coverage on its networks, including USA Network and CNBC.
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A new investigation by Congress detailed how China is buying sanctioned oil from rogue regimes around the world at a discount.
The House Select Committee on China released its report on how China is evading sanctions to purchase tens of millions of barrels of oil from countries like Iran, Russia and Venezuela that are the subject of U.S. sanctions, using a “shadow fleet” of tankers to transport sanctioned oil.
It found that sanctioned oil accounted for one-fifth of China’s total oil imports after the country became the buyer of last resort for those rogue regimes, which allowed it to stockpile a large strategic reserve of oil while buying at below market rates.
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Selling oil is a key component of the economies of Iran, Russia and Venezuela, and the report noted that energy exports yielded roughly $120 billion in revenue for Russia in 2024, about 30% of its total revenue.
Iran’s oil revenue is projected at more than $50 billion in 2025, which represents about 35% of its budget. Similarly, crude oil sales were Venezuela’s main source of hard currency.
China has been a key consumer of sanctioned oil from countries like Iran, Russia and Venezuela. (Reuters)
“From this sanctioned crude, China assembled a massive strategic petroleum reserve – roughly 1.2 billion barrels by early 2026, equal to approximately 109 days of seaborne import cover – at well below market cost from the very barrels Western sanctions were designed to strand,” the committee wrote.
The select committee said China relies on foreign suppliers for about 70% of its oil, much of which is delivered by sea routes that could be blockaded by U.S. and allied naval forces during a crisis, such as one stemming from a Taiwan contingency. That vulnerability prompted Chinese leaders to declare energy security an “urgent requirement in great-power competition” and build its massive reserve.
The report detailed how China uses a shadow fleet of tankers, which are generally older tankers that operate through opaque ownership structures under foreign flags with non-Western insurance that allow them to avoid complying with Western maritime laws.
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China has built a substantial oil reserve in part through shipments conveyed by shadow fleet tankers. (Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images)
The panel cited data from commodity data and analytics firm Kpler, which tracks vessel movements and trade patterns using satellite imagery, that found shadow fleet and sanctioned tankers moved about 10.3 million barrels of crude oil per day last year, with about one-third going to China.
Additionally, it moved 2.2 million barrels per day of heavy refined products like fuel oil and crude residuals, with China receiving about 10.3%; while China also received about 45.8% of the shadow fleet’s chemical and biological cargo.
“China is the buyer of oil from desperate, rogue regimes through illicit, hard-to-track channels involving shell companies, Chinese refineries and a shadow fleet of oil tankers,” said Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich.
“This investigation brings to light key information on how the Chinese Communist Party keeps the economies of Iran and Russia afloat while fueling its own authoritarian agenda.”
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have deepened the relationship between the two countries, with the energy trade a key component of their partnership. (Contributor/Getty Images)
China’s oil sources have been under pressure after U.S. action to detain Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and enforcement activities targeting Venezuelan oil, as well as the war in Iran, which has slowed the flow of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Before the war, China imported 3.4 million barrels per day of oil from Gulf producers via the Strait. While Iran’s shadow fleet continues to make deliveries at near pre-war levels, shipments from other countries in the region have slowed to a halt, prompting China to ban fuel exports and raise retail prices to mitigate the impact of the oil disruption.
The committee’s investigation led to several policy recommendations for lawmakers to consider as they look to counter the flow of sanctioned oil that benefits rogue regimes.
Those suggestions include authorizing sanctions on ports, terminal operators and similar businesses that receive cargo transported by shadow fleet vessels and establishing a whistleblower reward program for reporting sanctions evasion – particularly in transshipment hubs like Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Dubai.
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They also include having financial regulators probe potential commodity market manipulation and transactions by entities involved in systematically purchasing and routing steeply discounted Russian crude by foreign refiners.
The panel also called for creating a contingency framework with major oil producers like Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iraq to expand supply because sustained lower prices would reduce the discount available on sanctioned crude oil from Iran and Russia.
European stock markets opened higher after the US president said the conflict would “end very soon”.
SlateStone Wealth Chief Market Strategist Kenny Polcari analyzes the upward trend in the markets amid developments in the conflict with Iran on ‘Varney & Co.’
Apple is scrapping its high-end Mac Pro desktop after two decades, signaling a shift in how the tech giant targets professional users, according to reports.
The company has quietly removed the Mac Pro from its website, according to Bloomberg and 9to5Mac, marking the end of a product line that once served as a “halo” device for video editors and developers. The machine, known for its modularity and “cheese grater” design, carried a starting price of $6,999.
The move underscores Apple’s pivot toward more scalable devices powered by its proprietary silicon. By streamlining its lineup, Apple is prioritizing higher-margin, integrated hardware like the Mac Studio – a compact desktop that offers comparable performance to the Mac Pro at a significantly lower entry cost.
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The decision comes as Apple marks its 50th anniversary, highlighting its evolution from a niche enthusiast hardware maker into a global company built on mass-market, tightly integrated ecosystems.
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Apple has been selling through remaining inventory in retail stores. The company confirmed to 9to5Mac that it has no plans for future updates to the Mac Pro line, effectively ending the era of the internally expandable Apple desktop.
Apple’s new Mac Pro sits on display in the showroom during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Jose, California on June 3, 2019. (Brittany Hosea-Small /AFP via Getty Images)
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The shift reflects Apple’s broader strategy to consolidate its desktop lineup around fewer, more scalable products aligned with its in-house chip roadmap.
Apple shares are up fractionally in afternoon trade and are down about 6.2% year to date.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | APPLE INC. | 255.27 | +1.48 | +0.58% |
FOX Business has reached out to Apple for further comment.
FOX Business correspondent Jeff Flock joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to break down the surge in SUV and truck sales, the slowdown in electric vehicle demand and how billions in tariffs are reshaping the auto industry.
A shift in the auto market is becoming harder to ignore as consumer demand tilts back toward larger, gas-powered vehicles, even as electric vehicles struggle to maintain momentum.
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FOX Business correspondent Jeff Flock joined FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” to report from the New York Auto Show, where automakers are leaning into SUVs and trucks amid changing buyer preferences.
Nissan Americas Chairman Christian Meunier discusses the debut of the 2027 Z Nismo at the New York Auto Show, highlighting performance upgrades and the brand’s next-generation sports car vision on ‘Mornings with Maria.’
Recent sales data underscores that pivot. Midsize SUVs and trucks are seeing notable gains, while smaller cars and electric vehicles are losing ground, highlighting a widening gap between industry ambitions and what consumers are actually buying.
According to Cox Automotive and Kelley Blue Book, midsize SUV sales are up 15%, midsize truck sales are up 14%, while compact car sales are down 8% and EVs are down 26% in February compared to the same time last year. EV momentum has become increasingly uneven. Electric vehicles reached 10.5% of U.S. new-vehicle sales in the third quarter of 2025 but fell to 5.8% in the fourth quarter as incentives faded, highlighting a sharp pullback after earlier gains.
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Nissan Americas Chairman Christian Meunier pointed to another pressure shaping the market: tariffs. Automakers and suppliers have absorbed billions of dollars in added costs, limiting their ability to pass those expenses on to buyers.
A vehicle frame moves down the assembly line at the Nissan Motor Co. manufacturing facility in Tennessee. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg / Getty Images)
“It’s a lot of money, but it’s a lot less than the exposure we had a year ago when it was implemented,” Meunier said.
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He added that the company has worked to reduce that burden while increasing domestic production.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum commends President Donald Trump’s economic agenda on ‘The Evening Edit.’
“At the very beginning, we had an exposure of $4 billion. We took it down to $1.5 billion in 25, and we’re going to get it down to zero. That’s our mission to build as many cars in the U.S. as we can,” Meunier said.
IndiGo, India’s largest airline by fleet size, has named the head of the International Air Transport Association as its new chief executive, as it emerges from a turbulent period of flight disruptions that shaved billions off its market value.
The board of IndiGo, which trades as InterGlobe Aviation 539448 6.01%increase; green up pointing triangle, said William Walsh is set to come on board as CEO by Aug. 3 after his tenure as director-general of the aviation industry body comes to an end.
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Andrew Hecht is a 35-year Wall Street veteran covering commodities and precious metals.
He runs the investing group The Hecht Commodity Report, one of the most comprehensive commodities services available. It covers the market movements of 20 different commodities and provides bullish, bearish and neutral calls; directional trading recommendations, and actionable ideas for traders. Learn more.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
The author always has positions in commodities markets in futures, options, ETF/ETN products, and commodity equities. These long and short positions tend to change on an intraday basis.
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