Why local news stations are rethinking content hubs

It’s clear that hubbing has grown well beyond the traditional idea of a master control center. Scripps, for example, has built a remote “producer hub” that supports local stations when staffing is thin or stretched.  

These producers focus on lower-priority day parts, which frees local teams to concentrate on high-impact newscasts and more meaningful community reporting. The model helps fill gaps, but it’s also become a mentoring resource, where experienced hub producers guide newer teams on editorial decisions and deeper storytelling. 

Success with content hubs starts long before launching. Whether you’re centralizing news production or master control, preparation needs to include a clear understanding of current workflows, pain points, and goals. Leadership must invest the time and the right people to build something that solves today’s inefficiencies and also sets the foundations for future adaptations. 

At Sinclair, hubbing has shifted from a regional model to one based on network expertise. Instead of grouping stations by geography, Sinclair has created media operations centers aligned by affiliate, with staff dedicated to understanding the nuances of networks like Fox or CW. That makes training faster, incident response more precise, and ultimately leads to more efficient content distribution. 

As for REMI models in news, the panel agreed there’s interest but acknowledged the U.S. market presents challenges. Unlike Canada or Europe, U.S. broadcasters face a massive number of hyperlocal markets and overlapping time slots, making it difficult to consolidate control rooms without sacrificing flexibility or localism. 

Technology isn’t the hardest part. Changing people’s minds and processes is. Multiple panelists acknowledged they underestimated how long it would take for station staff to adapt to new systems, especially when moving from physical to cloud-based workflows.  

Training needs to go beyond basic onboarding; it must cover real-world use cases like live sports, breaking news, and affiliate-specific edge cases, which don’t happen on a schedule. 

There’s also a cultural shift involved. Newsrooms still tend to think “broadcast first,” especially when it comes to planning and scripting. But leaders are pushing hard to change that mindset to “content first,” encouraging teams to prioritize platforms based on urgency and audience need, not just show rundowns. 

Consistent communication — especially across distributed teams — was another key theme. The group stressed the importance of clear protocols for both day-to-day coordination and emergency workflows.  

Some station groups use messaging tools like Slack or Teams, while others rely on integrations within their newsroom systems, but the takeaway was the same: everyone needs to know how to reach each other, where to find information, and what’s expected, particularly when working remotely or across multiple time zones. 

For both playout and disaster recovery (DR), broadcasters are increasingly leaning on hybrid and cloud-first models. Crispin shared examples of station groups that have built private or public cloud-based systems capable of full-scale playout — not just for DR, but for daily operations and even facility moves. 

Sinclair has implemented a layered DR strategy that includes cloud redundancy, local DR boxes at each station (capable of 24–48 hours of content playback), and a satellite uplink failover from headquarters. This approach has already proven its worth. For example, when a tornado took out one of their facilities, content continuity was preserved via cloud and satellite feeds. 

But even with this level of centralization and automation, the panelists were unanimous: broadcasters can’t lose sight of the need to stay rooted in their communities. While infrastructure can scale, storytelling still needs a local presence, and investment in field reporting remains non-negotiable. 

One of the clearest opportunities from content hubbing is in versioning and repurposing — creating content once, then adapting it for broadcast, digital, OTT, and social platforms.  

Both Scripps and Sinclair are focusing heavily on this approach, producing stories that can be modified and localized for different audiences and delivery models. It’s a strategic way to extend newsroom capacity without spreading teams too thin. 

AI is beginning to play a role here, particularly in scripting and formatting. Several panelists noted that AI can help automate repetitive tasks like resizing content or generating first-draft versions of copy, especially for republishing to different platforms. However, there was a strong agreement that human oversight is essential. AI is seen as an assistive tool, not a replacement for editorial judgment or context. 

The goal isn’t to reduce headcount. It’s to reduce friction. By removing bottlenecks in the production chain, teams can spend more time creating and less time reformatting. 

Perhaps the most important takeaway was that while hubbing is unlocking new efficiencies and flexibility, it’s not a silver bullet. Station groups still need to invest in local journalism. No amount of cloud infrastructure or AI scripting can replace the trust built by having real reporters in the field. 

In fact, both Scripps and Sinclair have made deliberate efforts to increase local reporting staff, something that is enabled by their content hubbing strategies. Centralization is a tool, not a philosophy. The ultimate goal is to use technology to scale smarter and take advantage of non-regional expertise to serve local communities better. 

The conversation made one thing clear: hubbing is no longer just a technical architecture. It’s a strategic approach to building more resilient, responsive, and scalable news operations, as long as it doesn’t forget where the audience lives.