Layoffs at a national media company are hitting television stations in Colorado Springs.

The E.W. Scripps Co. is laying off nearly 300 employees as part of a national restructuring and 15 of those positions are in Colorado Springs. Layoffs also hit Denver7, known by its call letters KMGH.

The 15 positions are at two of Colorado Springs’ oldest television stations, KKTV and KOAA. Scripps is laying off 268 people, about 12% of its overall workforce, as part of a national restructuring that will also see the company start a 24-hour streaming platform enabled by artificial intelligence, according to Deadline.  

KKTV was transferred to Scripps in April as part of a station swap agreement with Gray Television. The swap creates a Scripps duopoly in Colorado Springs, as Scripps already owned KOAA, one of The Gazette’s news partners.

A spokesperson with Scripps said local television is facing “significant changes” in how audiences consume news, highlighting the 24/7 streaming news service. The company’s goal is to preserve “strong local journalism for the long term.”

“In Colorado Springs, the integration of KKTV and KOAA gives us an opportunity to build one strong local news operation serving southern Colorado,” said the spokesperson. “The combined newsroom will remain focused on the issues and communities important to the people of southern Colorado.”

In addition to the 268 layoffs at the national level, the company eliminated 432 positions and 126 open jobs, according to Deadline. Of those 268, 15 were local to Colorado Springs and included reporters, producers and photographers such as Aspen Andrews and Ryan Mutch.

Both took to social media to share the news.

“I am truly devastated to learn that I will no longer be working alongside the people that became my friends and family over the past two years,” said Andrews on LinkedIn. “With that being said, I am looking forward to my next chapter here in Colorado Springs!”

Mutch tried to find the positive sides to the unexpected news.

“While transitions like this are never easy, I choose to look at this as just a blip on the radar as I open the door to my next chapter,” he said via LinkedIn. “I’ve spent the majority of my career covering southern Colorado, and it has been a privilege to tell the stories of this community alongside an extraordinarily talented team of journalists.”

Both are looking for work, they said.

Though it is still “working through operational details” while integrating the two newsrooms, Scripps confirmed both will operate out of KKTV’s building. The move is intended to support closer coordination as the company “works to deepen our public service to Colorado Springs.”

“By bringing the two newsrooms together, we can reduce duplication in daily coverage and focus more reporting capacity on original reporting, enterprise journalism and coverage across the communities we serve,” Scripps’ spokesperson said.

Whether the duopoly will have a negative impact on the city is unknown. One study by the Chicago Booth Review, a publication of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, found that in some instances, duopolies have strengthened local news coverage.

What matters, according to the March 2025 report, is who owns the combined news stations. The study found that it affects the media market more than the duopoly itself. According to the study, Sinclair Broadcast Group generally reduced local coverage while Nexstar Media Group expanded it. Gray Television “made minimal changes.”

The E.W. Scripps Co. was not included in the study, however. 

“Viewers didn’t respond to any changes by switching stations, the research finds, and there was no significant change in viewers’ knowledge of local politics,” the report said. Existing duopoly rules “are important for preserving competition and offering alternatives should one owner decide to make dramatic changes to local newscasts.”