E.W. Scripps is moving its Newsy news operation to Atlanta and will make it an over-the-air broadcast channel starting October 1.
The company, which had been based in Columbia, Missouri, expects broadcasts to reach 80 percent of U.S. households via local TV stations it already owns.
Scripps is building out a national news operation for Newsy. There are currently 58 media job openings for Newsy out of Atlanta alone listed on the Indeed website. Newsy plans to have at least a dozen bureaus nationwide and use Scripps’ existing D.C. operations.
Newsy will be based out of the same Buckhead offices where Court TV is located.
While CNN, MSNBC and Fox News are on subscriber-based platforms, Newsy will be available to anyone for free with a broadcast antenna. It’s already available on a variety of streaming platforms such as Roku, Chromecast, AppleTV, Pluto and Tubi.
Its aim is not to angle toward any particular ideological direction. Its tagline: “Be informed. Not influenced.” The website describes its intent: “With persistent curiosity and no agenda, we strive to fuel meaningful conversations by highlighting multiple sides of every story.”
Scripps already owns Atlanta-based Katz Broadcasting, which runs a number of over-the-air channels such as Bounce TV, Court TV, Grit and Laff.
Newsy debuted in 2008 and was purchased by Scripps for $35 million as part of a strategy to build a national brand. Its original mission was producing and curating video news reports for different online platforms such as HuffPost, Microsoft and Mashable.
Scripps also owns 61 local television stations in 41 markets.
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