A national broadcasting company's restructuring plan is bringing significant changes to two longtime Colorado Springs television stations, resulting in job losses and a merger of their combined operations.
E.W. Scripps Co. is cutting close to 300 employees nationally as part of a broad restructuring effort, and Colorado Springs accounts for 15 of those lost positions. Altogether, the company is eliminating roughly 268 jobs — around 12% of its total staff — while also planning to launch an artificial-intelligence-powered, around-the-clock streaming service, according to Deadline. The Denver market was also affected, with cuts reaching Denver7, the station that broadcasts under the call letters KMGH.
The 15 departures in Colorado Springs are spread across KKTV and KOAA, both among the city's most established broadcast stations. Beyond the direct layoffs, Scripps also cut 432 additional positions and closed out 126 unfilled openings at the national level; locally, those let go included reporters, producers, and photographers. Several of those affected announced their departures publicly and indicated they are actively seeking new employment.
Scripps gained control of KKTV in April through a station-swap arrangement with Gray Television, giving the company ownership of both Colorado Springs stations and establishing what amounts to a local duopoly, since it already held KOAA. Although Scripps said it is still working through the operational specifics of bringing the two newsrooms together, the company has confirmed that both outlets will be housed at KKTV's existing facility.
A company spokesperson described the moment as one of "significant changes" in how people consume television news and said Scripps aims to protect "strong local journalism for the long term." The spokesperson added that combining the two outlets creates a chance to build "one strong local news operation serving southern Colorado," with the merged organization remaining "focused on the issues and communities important to the people of southern Colorado."
According to the spokesperson, bringing the two newsrooms under one roof is meant to cut down on redundant daily coverage and redirect that capacity toward original and enterprise reporting across the region. Scripps framed the co-location as a way to "deepen our public service to Colorado Springs."
Research published by the Chicago Booth Review suggests that duopolies do not automatically harm local news — in certain cases they have even bolstered it — and that ownership identity tends to shape outcomes in a given media market more than the duopoly arrangement itself does. The study found that Sinclair Broadcast Group generally pulled back on local coverage in markets it controlled, while Nexstar Media Group broadened it, and Gray Television changed relatively little. Scripps was not among the companies examined in that research, however.
How the merged newsroom will be staffed and scheduled once full integration is complete remains unclear as Scripps continues working through those details.