WPIX has been without a news director since October. But the station isn’t exactly driving into the darkness alone. Veteran Channel 11 manager John Houseman was named interim news director when Bill Carey stepped down after three years.

Parent company Tribune exited bankruptcy recently with Peter Liquori as the new CEO.

Also new is Larry Wert, Tribune’s head of local broadcasting for the company’s 23 stations. Sister site TVSpy reports Wert has made hiring a PIX news director his main objective.

• Related: TVSpy, Larry Wert: Hiring a News Director at WPIX is Top Priority

FishbowlNY attempted to reach a WPIX spokesperson for comment.

We told you about WABC having another successful ratings period.

That’s not the case on East 42nd Street.

WPIX was handed a gift last summer when WNYW made abrupt changes. With Greg Kelly off the mornings, WPIX had a chance to make headway against its rival.

However, Channel 5 hit the “re-do” button last month putting Kelly back on Good Day New York. Not only did the show put a dent in any Channel 11 traction, it clipped NBC’s Today show for the February sweeps.

• Related: TVSpy, Good Day for WNYW: Morning Newscast Beats Today

So with that backdrop, we explore WPIX’s efforts in the period.

Read more

It’s hardly a surprise to think the stalemate with Cablevision, now more than six weeks old, would cause a loss of viewers for WPIX. How could it not? The station has been blacked out to approximately 3 million Cablevision homes since the retransmission fight started August 17.

One Web site says that translates into a major drop in ratings. MediaPost writes that in a five-week period from August 20 to September 23, Tribune’s flagship saw a 42 percent decline in the 10 p.m. newscast from a year earlier.  The numbers also reveal that viewers left, and not of their known accord, in the pivotal, adult 25 to 54 demographic. PIX saw a whopping 33 percent drop to .6.

A recent Thursday night Giants game on the NFL Network, and over the air on Channel 11, would have appeared to give WPIX the upper hand. But, Cablevision made the NFL Network available to its customers. Adding insult to injury, as we previously reported, the game was shown on Channel 11.

MediaPost says WPIX is losing a lot more than viewers. It is missing out of the seasonal political ad revenue. It points out that WPIX has not received a dollar in political spending this season as listed on the FCC’s Web site.

Lionel has strong opinions. His ability to craft a cogent thought and offer salient solutions to a problem took him from lawyer to broadcaster.

Lionel, who’s real name is Michael Lebron, is seen daily on WPIX, hosting from 4 to 6 a.m. and a commentary in the 10 p.m. newscast.

Seizing on the chance to give America more Lionel, Tribune is creating a courtroom vehicle for him in the already flooded genre.

Broadcasting and Cable reports the plans are in the “very early” stages, which a Tribune spokesperson confirmed to FishbowlNY. Lionel, 54, joined WPIX in 2010. He has been on the national scene before, helming his syndicated show on the WOR Radio Network, and originating from WOR 710.

In 2007, Lionel hosted a daily show on the ultra Liberal, Air America Radio.

There is a precedence for Lionel banging a TV gavel (if that’s part of the show). In the late 1990s, the wordsmith anchored CourtTV’s Snap Judgment.

Here’s a look at what FishbowlNY stories made the most buzz this week.

1. Here is Why It’s Difficult to Defend Tina Brown and Newsweek, September 17
2. USA Today Says Its Logo is ‘Cool,‘ September 14
3. The New USA Today is Here, September 14
4. Quartz to Launch Sept. 24, September 19
5. Cover Battle: GQ or Complex, September 22
6. Cablevision Customers Not Blacked Out From Giants Thursday Nighter, September 19

Keep up-to-date with the latest FishbowlNY news. Click here to sign-up for the FishbowlNY daily newsletter, bringing you our articles each afternoon directly to your inbox.

Photo credit: apple.copydesk.org

Chairman Sam Zell is finally walking away from the professional and financial firestorm known as Tribune.  Since buying the company in 2007, Zell has seen Tribune undergo everything from bankruptcy filings to a sexually charged email written by a “frat boy” executive.  In an interview with CNBC last night, Zell announced that he will be stepping away from Tribune and “doesn’t envision having any role going forward.”

Referring to the Tribune purchase as “the deal from hell,” Zell made it clear that he wishes to wash his hands of the whole situation:

“As soon as the bankruptcy proceedings are done, I’ll turn it over to whoever the creditors decide they want to run it.”

Between all the layoffs at Conde Nast and The New York Times, you’d think that a journalist who still has a job would hold tight for dear life. Well, as we learned last week with ex-Tribune Co. employees starting The Chicago News Cooperative and selling their content to Tribune competitor, New York Times Co., sometimes leaving a job can be good for your career.

Now James O’Shea‘s new project has attracted another Chicago Tribune writer, famed columnist David Greising, who will be leaving Sam Zell‘s publishing nightmare for more cooperative pastures.

Greising was the Tribune‘s chief business correspondent, so it’s hard not to take his departure as a microcosm of Tribune Co.’s quickly decaying structure. Greising will be joining former Tribune managing editor James Warren and former Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski.

Tribune’s Greising Joins O’Shea’s Chicago News Cooperative –Crain’s Chicago Business

Earlier: Jim O’Shea Explains The Chicago News Cooperative

Today’s New York Times news has to do with the buying of content from former Chicago Tribune employees. Considering that Sam Zell ran the Tribune and his other assets into bankruptcy, there’s a certain irony in those writers and editors (who formed a lawsuit against Zell last year) teaming up with Arthur Sulzberger and Co. to provide material for another paper.

And James E. O’Shea, a former Los Angeles Times editor and Chicago Tribune managing editor, is defecting to the new Chicago-based non-profit group, The Chicago News Cooperative, that will be providing the Times with local content for its Chicago edition — which is similar to the Bay Area edition launched last week.

Also part of the group, which is funded in part by The MacArthur Foundation (known for their NPR patronage and support of journalists) is Ann Marie Lipinski, former Tribune editor. That’s both great news for the Times, which is looking expand its local content to different areas of the nation, and a giant stick in Zell’s craw. Everyone wins?

Chicago News Venture To Sell Content To New York Times — New York Times

Watch CBS Videos Online

FishbowlDC: CQ-Roll Call cut 44 jobs today, before unveiling a big restructuring of the company.

Editor & Publisher: John Sturm, the president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America told a joint economic hearing today that the newspaper industry was not looking for a government bailout.

The Boston Phoenix: The Boston Globe‘s biggest union, the Boston Newspaper Guild, has taken measures to prevent union president Dan Totten from handling union finances. “Information has come to the attention of the Executive Committee that President Daniel Totten has engaged in conduct which appears to be violative of the constitution regarding financial matters involving Local funds,” the union said in a note to members.

New York Times: Some Tribune bondholders have been granted access to documents in order to investigate the 2007 of the company to Sam Zell.

WowoWow: “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl interviews Ted Jr., Sen. Edward Kennedy‘s son, and the editor and publisher who worked with the senator on his memoir. (See video above)

Embedded video from CNN Video

FishbowlDC: The Kennedy family has turned to Twitter and the Web to get word out about plans for Sen. Edward Kennedy‘s memorial. Check it out at @KennedyNews and TedKennedy.org.

Wall Street Journal: Tribune‘s bondholders have called Sam Zell‘s $8.2 billion takeover of the company in 2007 a “fraudalent conveyance” that plunged Tribune into bankruptcy and have asked the bankruptcy court for permission to investigate.

New York Times: William A. Emerson Jr., an editor in chief of The Saturday Evening Post, died Tuesday at age 86.

The Observer: The New Yorker has appointed a new managing editor, 26-year-old Amelia Lester, a former fact-checker for the magazine. She is replacing Kate Julian, who is moving to Washington, D.C. where her husband just got a job.

E!: Kate Gosselin will be one of the subs filling in for Elisabeth Hasselbeck on “The View” while the conservative mommy is on maternity leave. “It appears Gosselin has taken the conservative host’s riled-up advice, dished out on the show in June, to ‘get a job,’” the E! article said. “Bet Hasselbeck wasn’t expecting it to be hers.”