Look Up TV Shuts Down Newsroom, Over 100 To Lose Their Jobs [EXCLUSIVE]

Look Up TV has closed down its entire newsroom and will send home hundreds of its staffers this month, June 2024, including reporters and correspondents.

Viral Tea has authoritatively learnt that the current month of June is the last one for the correspondents working at both the TV station and its sibling, Muthing TV.

A message to staff seen by this writer revealed that the two stations officially closed down on Friday, June 7, but its digital platform will be retained for the next month, during which stories will be uploaded.

"After this month, we will officially conclude our operations. Appreciation tokens will be sent to all. We will stay in touch," the message read in part.

A logo of Look Up TV. /YOUTUBE.LOOK UP TV

Highly placed sources who spoke to Viral Tea clarified that the newsroom shut down but all other departments would continue, a scenario that would compel those in charge of, for example, the digital platform, to work from home.

Furthermore, the mass layoff will stretch to its anchors and sales team, a matter that would see over 100 lose their jobs.

Viral Tea has also learnt that the decision to shutter its entire newsroom operations was informed by financial difficulties, coming two years after we reported that the station was hit by financial insolvency.

An internal memo to correspondents dated Wednesday, November 30, 2022, revealed that the station was to abandon its pay-per-story format to the correspondents from Thursday, December 1, 2022, as a consequence.

"Our wish has always been that we grow to a point where you will be paid per story, an idea and I have been pushing. Unfortunately, it is impossible to sustain this arrangement that we have been having due to financial insolvency.

"This being the case, November is the last month to pay, expect the November payment before 15/12/2022. Therefore from 1st of December kindly don't send any footage unless called to do so," read the notice in part.

The station in July 2022 had added veteran TV journalist Louis Otieno to its ranks as a senior English news anchor ahead of the intense coverage of the general elections of that year.

A deal was agreed upon approaching Otieno for him to make a comeback on television screens, made easier by his previous stint at Royal Media Services (RMS) TV station, Citizen TV.

He started anchoring prime-time news at Look Up TV from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm, which is a difference from the usual 9.00 pm to 10.00 pm timelines for prime-time news by other media houses.

Look-Up TV was known as a free-to-air television channel based in Nairobi County. It broadcasted news bulletins, current affairs programs, TV dramas, entertainment shows, talk shows, religious programs, and others and is still available via the Internet through its digital platforms.

A presenter at Look-Up TV studios. /FILE