Posted Without Comment

Here is the year-end email from Scripps CEO Adam Samson to the staff.

There is so much in this email I want to comment on, but I’ll just let you read it and come up with your thoughts.

Colleagues:

As 2024 comes to a close, I want to start by thanking you for your continued commitment to the company and the important role we play in the lives of the millions of Americans we serve every day. In the midst of a challenging election season, a soft national advertising market and a chaotic media industry, you continue to rise to the challenge and deliver for our audiences, advertisers, communities and one another. We have much to be proud of, and I am grateful for each of you.

During a contentious presidential election year, you gave voters the news they needed to make informed decisions and provided candidates and campaigns with trustworthy local and national programming platforms to reach voters with their messaging. Scripps achieved another record year of political advertising revenue thanks to all our sales teams and political sales office, delivering a nearly 30% increase over our 2020 political advertising revenue.

Our Scripps Networks team wrapped up the national advertising upfront season by surpassing both last year’s performance and that of our peers. Their success was driven by our live sports programming, particularly our women’s sports strategy.

This year, Scripps Sports continued to grow through our national and local partnerships. The first season of the National Women’s Soccer League on ION reached 20.5 million unique viewers during 132 hours of programming. The WNBA on ION drew 23 million viewers across 68 hours of programming. We also added a third NHL partnership: the Florida Panthers. The company’s success is truly the result of hundreds of employees across Scripps Networks, local media and the corporate office who execute this strategy.

 We had another successful year broadcasting the Scripps National Spelling Bee on our national networks. Plans are already underway for next year’s 100th anniversary, when we’ll celebrate the nation’s largest and longest-running educational program.

 At the Scripps Howard Fund, this year’s “If You Give a Child a Book …” campaign also achieved record-breaking results, raising $1.5 million to support childhood literacy, which will provide over 260,000 new books to children at low-income schools across the United States.

 Scripps News and our local stations, in partnership with the Fund, helped raise $274,600 for people affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Our stations and support teams across the company stepped up to keep people informed and safe through multiple severe weather events this year, including hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires.

 Our local and national journalism continues to be recognized for its excellence with multiple prestigious awards, including Peabody, Sigma Delta Chi, National Press Foundation, Deadline Club, New York Press Club, NPPA, IRE and national and local Murrows and Emmys. In 2025, we will continue to refine and expand upon our journalism excellence with a focus on the role we play creating the connections Americans need and desire. 

Despite the painful cutbacks at Scripps News last month, the team continues to produce the same standard of outstanding and important journalism in partnership with our local stations and on streaming platforms.

Throughout the year in company-wide messages and town halls, I hope you’ve seen that we’ve been candid and forthright about how we’re executing the company’s strategy to improve financial performance, pay down debt and respond to the changes in the media landscape. Importantly, as a result of your commitment, we’re making progress.

Change and evolution have been constants in our company history. As we head into 2025, we will continue to focus on achieving our strategic plan as a vehicle for delivering on our mission. Thank you for your ongoing commitment, partnership and hard work.

I wish you and those you love a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year.

 Adam Symson (he/him)
President and CEO