It’s official. Bill Carey‘s tenure is over as news director at Tribune flagship WPIX. Carey had a three-year “term” running the station’s news department. We’re told Carey cleared out his office during the weekend and is headed to an Internet startup.

FishbowlNY has obtained a terse email that WPIX VP/GM Eric Meyrowitz sent to staffers this morning.

While we conduct our search for Bill Carey’s replacement, John Houseman will be interim News Director. During this time, please see John or me with any questions.

There has been speculation that Tribune honchos, based in Chicago, will ultimately take over the station.

WPIX and Carey were dealt a bad hand in recent months. The fight to grab all-important ratings from WNYW/Channel 5 suffered a setback, thanks in no small part to the Cablevision/Tribune retransmission fees issue. WPIX has been non-existent on the Bethpage, N.Y.-owned cable company since mid-August. Approximately 3 million Channel 11 viewers have been in the dark.