Newsy to become Scripps News
Rebrand comes only a year after re-launching news channel
Continuing a trend of station groups expanding their news footprint, Scripps announced Thursday the rebranding of their 24/7 news channel Newsy to Scripps News effective January 1. The name change comes as the company is merging its national news resources into a single national news division and approximately one year after its re-launch to attract cord cutters.
“In the creation of Scripps News, we are leveraging the company’s collective resources and building upon the equity of the Scripps name and stellar reputation for journalism,” Scripps CEO and President Adam Symson said. “The American people need greater access to free, quality local and national journalism produced by a company committed to fact-based news and information. Since the company’s inception more than 140 years ago, we have served audiences with the highest ethics and standards of independent journalism. The rebrand, merger of resources and reorganization reflects our company’s longstanding commitment and belief that journalism is central to our mission.”
Kate O’Brian is in charge of the operation as executive vice president of Scripps News and will report to Symson.
No changes notable to the viewer (other than the name) is expected. The streaming channel remains as a free 24/7 news channel, available on numerous platforms including Samsung Plus TV, Freevee, Roku Channel, Amazon Fire TV, LG’s CH, and over-the-air broadcast TV in markets as a diginet where Scripps owns a station (In Chicago, Newsy/Scripps News airs on Ion affiliate WCPX-Ch. 38.7. Both Ion and WCPX are owned by Scripps, who bought both in 2020.) Scripps has a bureau in Chicago and in other cities such as New York and Los Angeles.. The operation is headquartered in Atlanta, a market where Scripps does not own a station.
Scripps already has a Twitter account with the Scripps National News name.
In recent years, a few station groups have dived into the news business. In addition to Scripps, Nexstar launched NewsNation over the old WGN America, while Sinclair and Gray produced programming for their own station groups with varying levels of success (one show, Gray’s syndicated Full Court Press was canceled after Greta Von Stueren left for Newsmax.) Scripps is one of the more senior groups, being involved in television since its inception, founding WEWS Cleveland, WCPO Cincinnati, and WMC Memphis (now owned by Gray.)
The move comes as linear broadcasters are feeding the demand for news, though there’s questions whether or not the demand is really there. CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox all have streaming news channels (the latter of course, is separate from Fox News) in addition to business news streamers Bloomberg and Cheddar News.