This appeared in my social media feed today:

WDRB News and WAVE News are excited to join their digital products, combining two powerful newsrooms into one news website, app and streaming platform. Our two newsrooms have come together to provide the best news, weather and sports content to Kentucky and southern Indiana viewers.

“By bringing these two legacy newsrooms together, we are creating a single, comprehensive destination for viewers,” WDRB+WAVE General Manager Jay Hiett said. “It will combine our award-winning journalists, state-of-the-art weather technology and deep sports coverage to ensure you stay informed, prepared and connected like never before.”

Come off of it, Jay. This isn’t about viewer service. It’s about cutting staff. You’ll take the WDRB and the WAVE teams, then say, “Well, John is already covering this topic, so we don’t need to pay Jane to do the same thing. Jane is fired.”

The correct move would be to put John or Jane on a beat that needs more coverage in Louisville, but Jay isn’t going to do that, because he’s going to get orders from his Gray Media bosses in Atlanta to cut his budget.

This is a bad decision and another move by corporate media overlords who don’t live in the community to make more money for their executives and provide less service to their viewers.