Wednesday, June 18, 2008

BREAKING NEWS: TV Staff Bloodbath In Cincinnati

Cincinnati CBS affiliate WKRC/12 is now firmly in the hands of Newport Television, the operating arm of Providence Equity Partners - the company which bought the former Clear Channel Television outlet a while back.

It looks like a large number of staffers are no longer in Newport's hands.

Cincinnati Enquirer radio/TV guru John Kiesewetter reports on his blog today that a number of WKRC staffers are out of work, the result of massive cost-cutting across the Newport chain.

Kiese's latest report says as many as 18 WKRC employees - 11 on the news side, 7 in engineering - could be on the cut list.

Newport just took over the 56 TV stations formerly in the Clear Channel fold, and a Newport spokesperson tells the Enquirer that the 158 cuts comprised about 7.5% of the company's national workforce.

Of course, Clear Channel itself has seen job cuts and budget tightening, as it heads for the completion of its own sale to a pair of private equity firms...give or take a few bumps along the way...

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