Local broadcast news has issues, too: Sinclair closes five of its newsrooms; all the markets have other TV stations

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Sinclair Broadcast Group is closing five of its local newsrooms. The company will "cease all local news broadcasts after layoffs eliminated most or all of their respective news teams in two weeks," reports Michael Stahl of TV NewsCheck. "The affected stations are WNWO, Toledo, Ohio; KTVL, Medford, Ore.; KPTM, Omaha, Neb.; WGFL, Gainesville, Fla.; and KPTH, Sioux City, Iowa. . . . . Instead of regularly scheduled local news, starting May 15, the stations will air The National Desk, programming that, according to a Sinclair statement, 'provides real-time national and regional news from Sinclair's television stations across the U.S.'. . . . Recent layoffs in Sinclair newsrooms have not been limited to these five stations ending all-local news broadcasts."

The markets with these closures have other TV stations, but as one former employee noted to Stahl, "It's a huge blow to a very vulnerable group of people. . . . Some of the most impoverished citizens in the country. . . . Free local news is paramount for many of our elderly and poor to stay aware, safe and educated. Information is power, and we just turned the lights off for many."

Sinclair, which has a large rural audience, did not announce the number of employees laid off. "Some of them may be reassigned to other positions within the company," Stahl explains. "According to a local digital publication in Oregon, Medford Alert, Sinclair is expected to reveal more details about the layoffs prior to the news broadcast changeover." One former news team member told him, "I'm still in shock and just really sad. . . .We were all in a room together when a person from Sinclair announced news was not meeting ratings expectations and, therefore, not appealing to high-dollar sponsorships."

The closings appear to be fallout from Sinclair's overall financial struggles. "Diamond Sports Group, a regional sports broadcast company owned by Sinclair, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy," Stahl reports. "According to a CBS News report from March 15, Diamond 'is negotiating a new agreement that will eliminate most of its roughly $8.67 billion debt.' . . . CBS blamed much of Diamond's financial woes on the Covid-19 pandemic, which shut down professional sports for a time in 2020. . . . . Local news is also paying the price." One axed employee told Stahl, "Very valid issues and complaints have been brought up against major corporations for doing the things that they're doing right now within the news business. . . . To know that there is a big story out there right now. . . . and not be able to [report it] is a challenge because the public deserves to know. I have my hands tied. It's painful."