ONE & DONE

New boss axes NY1 vets in youth movement

It seems NY1’s new owners, Spectrum, are opting for a far narrower spectrum of talent.

An unexpected round of layoffs swept through the beloved local news channel’s newsroom Thursday — resulting in the axing of 17 longtime staffers, including anchor John Schiumo, film critic Neil Rosen and parenting correspondent Shelley Goldberg.

The plan, according to sources, is to replace expensive and established talent with younger, cheaper people.

Others at that station believed to have been pink-slipped include Valarie D’Elia, Tara Lynn Wagner, Adam Balkin and his wife, Susan Jhun.

Among those who remain are morning anchor Pat Kiernan, political analyst Errol Louis, anchors Roma Torre, Kristen Shaughnessy and traffic reporter Jamie Stelter.

“Most of the people in charge now do not have news backgrounds,” said a longtime NY1 staffer. “But they believe the key to success is focusing on high profile talent, that’s why you see these commercials now with Pat riding the subway.”

The cuts were handed down by brass at Spectrum, the cable giant that swallowed NY1’s parent company, Time Warner Cable, in a $65 billion merger last year. Under the new regime, the goal for NY1 will be to generate ratings and money.

New shows are in development and plans are underway to design new graphics and sets, sources said.

There’s also word the station may be focusing on long-form programming and will make concerted effort to provide more live telecasts. Most of NY1 content has always been prerecorded.

“This was always such a great place to work,” a staffer who requested anonymity said. “Now so many people dread coming in to work every morning.”

Since Spectrum took over last May, executives have conducted extensive research and focus groups and concluded that most everything about the station is “too old fashioned,” sources said.

Several months ago, at the only allhands meeting since Spectrum took over, Michael Bair, the new executive in charge of all 17 of the company’s local news stations, was asked what he liked about the station. He suggested that only the channel’s political and community coverage moved his dial.

“It was so disheartening,” a staffer said, while another disputed the account.

NY1 has been a staple of New York TV since its launch in 1992. Working on a tight budget, reporters frequently did their own camera work and production on stories compared to rivals who need larger crews on location. While it was never a money-maker, NY1 was valuable to its owners as an exclusive perk for Time Warner subscribers and more recently, a way to keep consumers from fleeing to rival Fios.

A Spectrum spokeswoman downplayed the changes Thursday.

“We are focusing our efforts in areas where we see the highest viewership and value for our customers. We have used a series of factors to evaluate what is most important and are therefore shoring up local news with more money, more content and investigative original programming, all of which is replacing programming in segments like cooking, movies and travel — areas which are now deeply saturated by digital content and apps.”