Our guest on Episode 12 of Compounders was Adam Symson, the CEO of E.W. Scripps*. Scripps is a $1.48 billion market cap company that owns and operates local and national television stations. The company was founded in 1878 and over the years has operated within a number of different media businesses. The company spun off its cable TV business, Scripps Networks Interactive, in 2008 and then exited the newspaper business in 2015. These transactions served to focus the company more on its local TV business.
However, since becoming CEO in 2017, Adam has led an aggressive acquisition campaign that has created a large and differentiated National Media segment whose stations mainly operate over-the-air. The Scripps management team anticipated that cable TV subscribers would continue to cut the cord and through these acquisitions has positioned the company to benefit as more people choose to watch TV via an antenna.
Given all of the M&A activity and the dynamic nature of the pay-TV environment, I was excited to talk to Adam about:
- The existential threats of cord-cutting and the trend toward digital advertising;
- The value of having a background in investigative journalism;
- The rationale for the pace of acquisitions that have occurred during his tenure;
- Funding a large acquisition with the help of Berkshire Hathaway; and
- How Scripps develops win-win relationships with its various stakeholders
*One disclosure to note: Cove Street owns E.W Scripps shares.
Please enjoy the interview at the following sites:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adapting-to-an-ever-changing-media-landscape-with/id1579124518?i=1000539031042
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejgr2a3CQXw
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/44rhNj9KNBtMb0xOHw7FU3
Podbean: https://compounders.podbean.com/e/adapting-to-an-ever-changing-media-landscape-with-adam-symson-ceo-of-the-ew-scripps-company-nasdaq-ssp/
Also, if you have any comments, feedback, or guest recommendations, please contact us at podcast@covestreetcapital.com. You can also follow the podcast on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/CompoundersPod.
If you missed our last episode with Heritage-Crystal Clean CEO Brian Recatto, you can view it here.
