ABC 15 in Phoenix announced station-wide cuts the same day as another Arizona media outlet, the Tucson Citizen, announced it was shutting off its presses. Heat City file
Friday, it turns out, was a worse day for Arizona media than we thought. Besides the radical changes at the Tucson Citizen and mass layoffs that went with it, the entire staff at Phoenix’s ABC affiliate, KNXV-TV (Channel 15), learned their parent company will be picking their pockets to help ease steep financial losses throughout the media chain.
ABC 15 staffers will each get one week of pay taken from their paychecks between now and July 31, according to a memo obtained this weekend by Heat City. That amounts to roughly a 10 percent pay cut during that time.
Brian Lawlor
The cuts were ordered by Brian Lawlor, the head of television for the E.W. Scripps Co., which owns ABC 15. In an email to employees on Friday, Lawlor said the cuts are meant to be temporary but executives would “continue to evaluate” the situation over time.
“Scripps is in this for the long haul,” the executive assured employees. “We just need to work together to get through this incredibly challenging period.”
Earlier this month, Scripps, the Cincinnati-based media giant, posted a $221 million loss for the first quarter of 2009. The loss came despite cuts to employee pay and benefits back in February, as well as the shuttering of one of the nation’s leading newspapers, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver.
The chain also recently entered a partnership with Fox affiliates in Phoenix and two other cities to share content during local newscasts. The agreement was meant to help stations reduce costs by having to send only one crew between them to cover certain stories.
The new cuts are apparently being leveled on Scripps television outlets across the nation, too. The St. Petersburg Times in Florida reported on Friday its local Scripps-owned station was undergoing similar cuts.
To make up for the newest cuts, the company is also giving employees five extra paid days off before the end of July.