Pros
Great place to begin a tv news career, you come out with lots of experience handling breaking news situations, live hits, and writing scripts on basically any topic.
Cons
The schedule is insane. It's not unusual for freelancers to be scheduled from 3:30-11:30pm and the be expected to be back at work for the 12-8 shift the next day The schedule also comes out pretty late in the week, so it's impossible to make long-term plans. It's not unusual for freelancers to work 1 day one week and then 6 days in a row the next. Also, freelancers can work only 1000 hours, which can really fly by. Plus, there's generally low turnover and tons of freelancers are vying for the open positions, so moving up is difficult. (Plus, they only really give feedback to freelancers they really like and want to hire, its not unusual for NY1 to treat the other freelancers as disposable.)