Sinclair Broadcast Group, big in rural TV, plans to lay off hundreds of employees, citing economic impact of pandemic

"Citing the coronavirus pandemic, the Sinclair Broadcast Group said on Wednesday that it will reduce its workforce by approximately 5 percent, amounting to hundreds of layoffs across the company," Oliver Darcy reports for CNN Business. "Sinclair, which operates 186 television stations across 87 markets in the United States, reported in February a 7% drop in total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020, compared to the fourth quarter of 2019."

The coronavirus pandemic is to blame for the layoffs, a Sinclair spokesperson said in a statement: "From local businesses and advertisers to distributors and partners, no component of our business's ecosystem has been fully shielded from the impact of the global pandemic."

The spokesperson told CNN that the company employs 9,211 people; Darcy reports that a 5% reduction from that means about 460 people will be laid off. Sinclair tends to own stations in small markets with large rural audiences. Read more here.