Scripps launches transformation plan expected to yield $125-150 million in annualized EBITDA improvement by 2028
CINCINNATI, Feb. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The E.W. Scripps Company has launched an enterprise-wide transformation plan designed to improve operating performance and unlock new value, targeting annualized enterprise EBITDA growth of $125 million-$150 million by 2028. The company will deliver this improved EBITDA run-rate through cost savings and revenue growth initiatives that will leverage technology including AI and automation and increase revenue yield on its existing businesses.
Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson reaffirmed Scripps' commitment to its local and national news, sports and entertainment programming, which Americans depend on to connect them to their communities, to their favorite teams, to their passions and to each other. The transformation will reorient the enterprise around the company's new vision: "We Create Connection."
"Scripps is nearly 150 years old, and we have thrived for so long because doing well by doing good is in our DNA," said Symson. "We are taking E.W. Scripps' founding mission and values for the enterprise, overlaying today's company vision to create connection, and doing so with operating principles and a cost structure we would have if we were to be founded today."
The company, which reports its fourth-quarter and year-end 2025 earnings after market close on Feb. 25, today also reaffirmed the guidance it issued with its earnings results on Nov. 6. Looking ahead, Scripps is expecting 2026 financial performance to be bolstered by a robust mid-term election spending year, the Winter Olympics on its 11 NBC stations and the televised World Cup competitions in North America as well as its Scripps Sports partnerships, its networks distribution on connected TV and the results of accretive divestiture & acquisition activity.
Symson said the transformation plan is a proactive move to best-position the company to compete in the changing media industry.
"Today's media landscape isn't short on information or advertising, but what Americans tell us they are suffering from is a scarcity of real connection," Symson said. "We uniquely serve this need for connection by bringing Americans together through our news, entertainment and sports programming, and we will continue to do so with the fast and agile infrastructure and technology that our economic environment demands of us."
This week in Cincinnati, the company gathered a team of 200 leaders charged with carrying out the transformation in service to revenue and EBITDA growth as well as expansion into new and profitable marketplaces. The company will share more details of its transformation plan on its Feb. 26 earnings call, including the timing cadence of savings being realized and the costs to achieve the savings. Investors will receive regular updates on company progress thereafter.
Investor contact: Carolyn Micheli, The E.W. Scripps Company, (513) 977-3732, carolyn.micheli@scripps.com
Media contact: Becca McCarter, The E.W. Scripps Company, (513) 410-2425, rebecca.mccarter@scripps.com
Forward-looking statements
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About Scripps
The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ:SSP) is a diversified media company focused on creating connection. As one of the nation's largest local TV broadcasters, Scripps serves communities with quality, objective local journalism and operates a portfolio of more than 60 stations in 40+ markets. Scripps reaches households across the U.S. with national news outlet Scripps News and popular entertainment brands ION, ION Plus, ION Mystery, Bounce, Grit and Laff. Scripps is the nation's largest holder of broadcast spectrum. Scripps Sports serves professional and college sports leagues, conferences and teams with local market depth and national broadcast reach of up to 100% of TV households. Founded in 1878, Scripps is the steward of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and its longtime motto is: "Give light and the people will find their own way."
