KING Seattle decline IMHO.

Small history lesson. IMHO. The beginning of trouble at KING started with the buyouts in April 2016 when the great, longtime leaders of the station decided to take the money and escape Tegna when they could. One talent called it a terrible company, even though being run by a previous KING GM and ND. Bounds, Brill, Byron, Renner and other top players took the buyouts.. Jean Enersen had already been pushed out prior. The sale of the Dexter property ran parallel to the buyouts as Tegna wanted to cash in on the location and move to a Sodo rental with the Tegna-ordered, faddish, trendy high-ceiling newsroom for everyone and one tiny studio. Then, the initial talent replacements didn't work at all, and I don't believe they've ever fully recovered. Another GM was running the show back then and running interference for Tegna brass.
The King ND and I both left (our calls) before the buyouts, seeing the trouble ahead.

In Response to a comment by Unknown

King has churned thru news directors since early 2017; a promoted overwhelmed Assistant ND who left for DC, succeeded by a newspaper investigative ace who had never managed a TV newsroom but was already there and a handy replacement, then to an SFO #2 or #3 newsie outsider who didn't last, a Louisville Tegna ND who got installed and then promoted out to a BS VP job, and now recently to another great KING investigator, who has no major market newsroom management experience. Big market newsrooms are no picnic. She's a great person and journalist but was caught in the continuing Tegna-Nexstar mess. Everyone was waiting for the shoe to drop.

Meanwhile, during all of this, the hiring of reporters continued to deteriorate with a bunch of mixed choices, some of whom left after short stints. Amazon grabbed some people, too. I think that the ownership mess has accelerated life decisions over work decisions there for many over the past few years, including now. So much was in doubt over ownership that loyalty, a K5 organic tenet, was disabled. People wanted to primarily take care of their life happiness, not stress over a fading news linear platform that requires triple the work at times. Winning awards means little anymore when they are given away like chiclets with baker's dozens of categories.

The KING brand is called iconic by many of the new arrivals, but there is tarnish and I must attribute it to inconsistent management, corporate interference by a new CEO with no real TV knowledge waiting for the sale and his parachute, and some weak field reporter hires along the way. Their best reporters are Bureau Chiefs. The big buyouts killed many key sources and institutional memory. That's one reason why Daniels is beating KING at City Hall and cops, along with Harris at KOMO.

All of this is how I view it after 11 years of seeing KING at work from the cable floor above. I have been gone for 10 years, yes, but I study the local biz, possess a good memory, and have insights, eyes, ears and inside sources. Fox is out programming KING and KOMO is out reporting it. I would love to hear a different story from someone closer to it. I could be wrong.

A final post-script. In 2016 at a major Tegna meeting in DC, NWCN and I was personally promised NWCN would go to HD to keep up with the Joneses. I was lied to by the CEO and subsequently by other officials in Tegna and KING (two local bosses) about NWCN getting a new shared studio with KING in 2016. After I left in Sept 2015 to teach, the studio idea was killed, NWCN was not even given its own switcher and the newscasts were put together on a timeline editor in chunks from a corner news desk in the new environ. Just a mess top to bottom and I don't see much improvement either with Tegna or Nexstar. Both owners suck, IMHO.

Have a good holiday weekend.  You heard it here first.