More than a dozen people have learned they will be laid off from KRIS 6 News, the Coastal Bend’s NBC affiliate, as the station’s parent company, the E.W. Scripps Company shifts toward an AI-powered newsroom model in an effort to cut costs, according to multiple sources.
MySA has learned that the layoffs will affect both on-air talent, studio crew and other newsroom staffers. The layoffs will go into effect in two weeks, on August 18, a source familiar with the situation told MySA.
MySA made multiple attempts to independently confirm the reported layoffs and the number of employees affected, reaching out to KRIS 6 station management and Scripps. Neither had responded by publication time. However, a source familiar with the situation said the layoffs include multiple anchors, producers, technical directors, photographers and a receptionist.
The layoffs come after a wave of departures at the Coastal Bend station over the last few months, including the abrupt departure of the station’s former news director, Jim Bob Breazeale, in April.
Breazeale was the first to publicly mention the layoffs, calling them “gut-wrenching” in a Facebook post.
“There are a lot of really good people at KRIS 6 News who lost their jobs today. There are also a lot of good people who remain — some of whom were tasked with letting all those good people go. And they will be tasked with leading those who remain into a new, somewhat scary reality,” Breazeale said.
“As someone who has been on both sides of that table, I can assure you that today is gut-wrenching for everyone in that building,” he said.
The layoffs in Corpus Christi are part of a larger effort to transform operations at the Scripps company, according to Variety. In February, the magazine reported that Scripps was embarking on an “enterprise-wide transformation plan” that would heavily rely on AI to automate many newsroom functions as part of an effort to halt a revenue freefall. Last fall, Scripps reported that TV revenues had dropped by 27%, according to Variety.