WPIX morning executive producer Zev Shalev is facing harsh criticism from his underlings and higher ups after a memo to the staff.

Shalev sent an email to the staff that basically said that if they didn't start submitting story ideas, they could kiss their next raise bye bye.

Needless to say, making threats to the staff did not go over well.

Here is the email Shalev wrote:

Last year, I asked for sweeps submissions and got a total of 4! As I mentioned, content submissions and pitches will be a big part of performance management this year (so it will impact your salary increases).Can I please have fully-formed week-long pitches or special events from EVERYONE who works on the content for the show (writers/producers/reporters/anchors) by the end of Friday. Please submit at least 3. They need to be high quality, well thought out sweeps and stunts. Absolutely no exceptions. It will be too late when we are assessing your performance in the near future.

It seems that Shalev caught enough flack from his bosses after the email went out, that he followed up the next day, taking back what he said the day before.

Yesterday, I sent out an email asking for February sweep ideas. Thank you very much for your great submissions. There are some exciting ideas there. It has come to my attention that the performance management process and pay increases are not relevant to everyone on this list. While pitching is an important part of the editorial team’s day to day responsibilities, the performance management process isn’t relevant to everyone, so I apologize if it was taken the wrong way by anyone who is part of a collective bargaining agreement and/or has individual contracts.

Opps!

WPIX station spokesperson Jessica Bellucci tells Tuned In, “An email was sent to the news staff regarding the station’s performance management process; however this process is not applicable to all who were on the email distribution list. When this was discovered, an apology was immediately issued.”

News Director Mark Effron has remanned mum on the email debacle and many insiders think this is just another nail in the coffin of Effron.

Stay tuned...