Wgn Layoffs: wgn layoffs cut nine on-air staff, names revealed
wgn layoffs left nine on-air personnel cut Monday, including long-tenured reporters, anchors and a meteorologist. Other accounts described the action as the sudden layoffs of eight newsroom staffers and a contract meteorologist whose contract was not renewed this week.
Wgn Layoffs and on-air names
The list of on-air employees let go includes entertainment critic and reporter Dean Richards and sports anchor Chris Boden. Also shown the door were news anchors Ray Cortopassi, Sean Lewis and Judy Wang; reporters Julian Crews and Bronagh Tumulty; meteorologist Mike Janssen; and political analyst Paul Lisnek. One account described the change as a cut of nine on-air personnel on Monday; another described it as eight newsroom staffers plus a meteorologist whose contract was not renewed.
Who lost their jobs
Details on each person’s tenure and background were provided: Richards joined the station in 1991 as a staff announcer and became a regular contributor in 1998 and is described as a 34-year entertainment reporter; Crews has covered the city and state since 1996; Boden has covered sports for more than 30 years at a half-dozen Chicago TV and radio stations; Wang began at the defunct CLTV in 1995 before joining the station in 2009. Sean Lewis and Paul Lisnek both began at the station in 2008. The layoffs included journalists who had worked at the station for decades.
Anchor schedule has been shuffled
The cuts forced immediate changes to the station’s anchor lineup. Patrick Elwood is scheduled to anchor solo at noon; Lourdes Duarte will anchor solo at 4 p. m.; Ben Bradley will join Duarte at 5 p. m.; and Micah Materre will join Bradley at 6 p. m. Materre will also anchor solo from 9 to 10: 30 p. m. The popular morning-news crew is expected to remain intact. One dramatic moment noted was that Ray Cortopassi was laid off in the middle of his shift, leaving Micah Materre to work solo on the anchor desk Monday night.
Merger and debt pressures mounting
The cuts follow earlier behind-the-scenes reductions that included copywriters, and they come as the station’s parent company pursues a high-dollar acquisition. The parent announced in August it would acquire Tegna for $6. 2 billion, a deal described as creating a broadcast behemoth that would cover about 80% of U. S. TV households and that would require the Federal Communications Commission to lift its 39% ownership cap. Observers tied the staffing moves to the anticipated strain of excessive debt the parent would incur from borrowing to buy Tegna; the parent already has been carrying debt from a $4. 1 billion purchase of Tribune Media in 2019.
Reactions from journalists and leaders
Veteran Chicago broadcast journalist Carol Marin, now a professor at DePaul University, called the layoffs “It’s a massacre, ” and added: “Money is behind it. Money, and the merger with Nexstar and Tegna. These cuts are not about talent. The people they have let go are among their most talented. ” Timothy Franklin, chair of the local news department at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and a former Tribune editor, said the move is a cost-cutting measure tied to longer-term reorganization: “It presages a reorganization that could take place after these two companies combine. ” Franklin also described the action as a “significant cut in local journalists” and linked it to secular declines in local television news viewership. He noted the layoffs came less than a week after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said the administration of President Donald Trump was supportive of the proposed merger; President Donald Trump wrote “GET THAT DEAL DONE!” on his social media platform earlier this month, referring to the merger. If the merger closes, it would make the parent company the biggest regional television operator in the country.
A spokesperson for the parent company said: “Nexstar does not comment on personnel issues, but the company is taking steps necessary to compete effectively in this period of unprecedented change. ”
Observers also noted that some of the talents let go were nationally known from the station’s days as a superstation, when programming beamed cable and satellite across the country. One veteran TV reporter described never having seen this many cuts at once from a Chicago station. The station remains profitable by some measures: ratings were described as strong in the morning, dominant against Fox 32 at 9 p. m., and competitive at 10 p. m., and its morning-news show has been emulated by other stations in the country.
John Schroyer, identified in reporting on the story as a senior reporter covering the cannabis industry, was noted as having joined the publication in 2022 after eight years at a trade outlet covering marijuana business; before that he covered state and federal politics for several Colorado publications.
Monday’s personnel reductions follow earlier cuts behind the scenes and leave uncertainty about further layoffs. More layoffs remain possible, and the full effect on the newsroom and on local coverage is unclear in the provided context.
Closing: The station’s newsroom has been reshaped by these moves, with nine on-air roles affected, immediate schedule shifts and commentary from journalists and academic observers tying the reductions to merger-related cost pressures and existing debt burdens.
