150 Pink Slips Going Out

This is not good news….

Verizon Fios will shutter its hyper-local Fios1 News channel this fall, ending its 10-year contract with Rye Brook's RNN and resulting in pink slips for nearly 150 employees across the Hudson Valley, Long Island and New Jersey.

The move will cut in half the options for hyper-local cable news in the metro NYC area, leaving only Altice's News12, come Nov. 16.

Verizon spokesman Tony McNary confirmed the move in an email.

"Later this year, Verizon will no longer be offering Fios1 News," McNary wrote. "We have partnered with RNN for over 10 years to deliver award-winning hyper-local news coverage on Fios1. We wish RNN and their employees well during this transition."

Richard French III, RNN's president of news, said Friday that the telecom giant had made it official within the last week, opting out of renewing the contract that had RNN journalists creating nightly Fios1 newscasts and feature reports from Poughkeepsie to Port Chester, from Nyack to the North Shore and into northern New Jersey.

H/T Lohud.com

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