Dan Mannarino will move to weekend anchor for the Tribune owned New York CW affiliate WPIX.

A spokesperson for WPIX confirmed he will anchor alongside Kaity Tong starting this Saturday, adding for now, the move is for the Summer.

Mannarino tweeted out an article from “Tuned In” announcing the move as well as posting it to his facebook page. After getting congratulations from meteorologist Craig Allen, Mannarino tweeted back, “@CraigAllenWx very excited. Thank you, Craig! Can’t wait to Join you and @KaityTong”

Mannarino currently reports for the WPIX morning news. He joined the station in September 2011. Before coming to WPIX, he worked at NY1 News and Verizon FiOs 1.

With WPIX news director Bill Carey‘s recent departure, our sister blog, FishbowlNY, took the opportunity to look at the state of the station before the next news director has a chance to put their stamp on it.

FishbowlNY spoke with Queensborough Community College professor Eileen White who said she thinks the next news director should be given a blank slate to work with.  “For that new person, that’s going to be the carrot,” White said. “You can do what you want, take a failing thing and turn it around.”

One of her suggestions concerns the news at 10 p.m.  “Especially if you don’t have a sports department, come on, cut it down to an half-hour,” White told FishbowlNY. “And then people can get to bed… because I think Fox strings you along, way too long. I think a half-hour is perfect.”

Read more

Former WPIX news director Karen Scott, who was fired in 2009 at the age of 60, lost her age discrimination lawsuit against the Tribune-owned station as a Manhattan federal jury ruled against her on Wednesday.

WPIX has contended that Scott was fired because of declining ratings.

In 2010, Scott filed a $4.5 million lawsuit against WPIX, claiming that the station fired or reduced the roles of older staffers, including reporter Marvin Scott and anchor Kaity Tong.

Tong, 65, who currently works as a weekend anchor at the station, took the stand in the case, telling the jury that she was “blindsided” when WPIX “dramatically” cut her salary in 2009. Read more

Anchor Jim Watkins has been fired from New York’s WPIX.

According to FishbowlNY, Watkins, who had been with the station since 1998, was abruptly let go on Tuesday by news director Bill Carey and has been barred from the station’s offices.

Watkins had a long run as weekday evening co-anchor, alongside Kaity Tong, but moved to weekends last year when Jodi Applegate joined the station.

>Update: Okay, not so fast.  Carey is now saying that Watkins “remains employed by WPIX.”  Watkins has been unavailable for comment.  Read more at FishbowlNY