WKRN: Cuts Reflect "Changing Media Environment"

Young Broadcasting’s layoffs made the front page of today’s Tennessean. The paper reports that WKRN Nashville is doing away with its weekend morning newscasts in an effort to reduce costs. President/G.M. Gwen Kinsey said there was a "minimum audience" there.

"Not only have we laid off a couple of people, but we also reassigned some people and asked them to do different jobs," Kinsey told the Tennessean

As we reported yesterday, Young HQ reportedly mandated each of its stations cut towards a $20 million systemwide cost reduction. 

Young CEO Vincent Young has not returned calls. 

Young’s financial issues are centered around the money pit that is KRON. "They went over a bridge too far in going after KRON," is how one industry insider described the broadcaster’s ill-fated acquisition of the San Francisco station.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.