E.W. Scripps sent layoff notices to 268 people at the start of August, part of what the company calls the next phase of a transformation plan. The plan involves centralising newsroom functions, launching round-the-clock local streaming channels and using more automation as audiences keep drifting away from broadcast television. Read that sentence twice. Centralising, streaming, automating. Those three words describe every local broadcast restructure of the past decade, and they arrive in that order for a reason.