The 13 people who comprised the Salinas newsroom of television station KION were laid off on Tuesday morning, Sept. 23.
A representative from parent company News-Press & Gazette Company informed the team in person that the newsroom was dissolving and San Francisco-based CBS station KPIX would be taking over.
The change takes effect today, Sept. 23, when KPIX will be responsible for the 5pm broadcast.
"It's going to change the landscape of news coverage in this area," says former KION Managing Editor Jeanette Bent. "It's a disservice to this community and we're all heartbroken."
KION's website lists a now-defunct 13-person news team, including two producers, one digital producer and three multimedia journalists, commonly seen in the field with microphones in hand to document local news. It also counted two meteorologists, including Lee Solomon formerly of KSBW.
It also included five anchors, among them Spanish speaker Sandy Santos, the Telemundo anchor and producer.
"At the end of the day, it was just me producing the show and anchoring," says Santos, who was on staff for three-a-half years. (They are also losing the Spanish-language channel.)
CBS Bay Area/KPIX announced what it described as a "partnership" in a press release Tuesday afternoon. "Viewers in Santa Cruz, Salinas, Monterey, and Carmel will now see local reporting and weather coverage delivered by CBS Bay Area," they wrote. (The press release did not indicate that the Salinas newsroom of KION was disbanded.)
The press release states that "CBS Bay Area will add more resources to covering the Santa Cruz–Monterey–Salinas region," but does not elaborate on who or how. It is not clear whether the Salinas office of KION will continue to operate, but other employees outside of the newsroom (such as advertising sales) were not laid off on Tuesday.
“Our partnership with KPIX ensures that viewers across the Monterey, Salinas and Santa Cruz region continue to receive the high-quality local journalism they deserve,” Rall Bradley, executive vice president of broadcast at News-Press & Gazette Company, said in a statement.
As of 3pm Tuesday, neither representatives of KPIX nor News-Press, based in Missouri, had responded to the Weekly's questions. An agent who sent the joint press release responded to questions by re-sending the original press release.
Bent says News-Press & Gazette Company invited the team members to apply for other positions in the company, but it's too soon to know what those open positions might be and where they are located, and whether any former KION staff will be hired. (News-Press still owns Channel 46, and has licensed KPIX's content.)
Santos, for one, says that after nearly 26 years in the region, she says she's invested in staying local but she is not sure where she will go.
"There are a bunch of really talented folks in here who are going to go out and do amazing things," Bent adds.