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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.

In a letter to employees dated Aug. 17, French said his family's company had spent a year trying to iron out a contract renewal, without success. French is the face of RNN and Fios1 as host of the nightly public affairs program "Richard French Live" that is carried across all three Fios1 properties.

"Barring a change in direction from Verizon, RNN News will cease providing news programming for Verizon’s Fios1 News network at 12:01 a.m. on November 16, 2019," French wrote to employees announcing the news. "This means your employment will permanently end on November 15, 2019."

As a New York business with more than 50 employees, RNN is required to issue a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice 90 days before it plans a major workforce change or layoff. Verizon's decision to no longer have RNN journalists on its Fios1 News channel forced French to adhere to the state's timeline.

"The story here is 150 people who are losing their jobs through no fault of their own," French said. "And what that means to the hyper-local news landscape."

French's letter said "RNN remains open to discussion with Verizon and will continue to make the case that original local news is critical to the communities we service. Like you, we believe a vibrant and competitive press is essential to our society and our democracy."

French praised his workers for innovating as they produced "high quality local news in multiple markets in a cost-effective way."

But these are brutal times in newsrooms nationwide, he noted.

"Even our main cable competitor, News 12, is a shadow of what it once was because of the draconian layoffs Altice implemented when it took over," he wrote. "Our resulting exit from the market is a disturbing turning point in the news industry as there will only be one option available for consumers of hyper-local television news in the regions we serve."

Asked if Verizon was getting out of the hyper-local news business altogether, McNary said: "We still carry all the local broadcast networks, so customers will continue to have access to local news."

He did not respond when asked what Fios subscribers will see when they turn to channel 1 or 501 on Nov. 16. But French said he knows what subscribers will not see.

"Coverage of critical community needs, breaking news, to be there for major weather events, town halls on pressing issues and the ilk. The vanishing presence to cover local news with multiple voices should concern everyone."

French seemed incredulous that his award-winning team's contribution to the local media landscape would be discontinued with no reason given beyond Verizon saying it was "going in a different direction."

"We have been told repeatedly that these local channels were amongst the most-watched news channels on Fios TV," French wrote in his letter to his employees.

"If democracy dies in darkness," he said, quoting the motto of The Washington Post, "then the decision to end our contract is creating a black out."

Email: pkramer@lohud.com