Elizabeth Hashagen, Samantha Augeri have left News 12
Elizabeth Hashagen in 2019, when she co-anchored News 12's morning newscast. Credit: Barry Sloan
Two veteran News 12 Long Island personalities, health reporter Elizabeth Hashagen and meteorologist Samantha Augeri, have left the station, according to their social media feeds.
Hashagen posted a farewell video on Instagram, and Augeri wrote a goodbye message on Facebook on Friday. News 12 spokeswoman Erin Smyth declined to comment "on individual employee matters."
“I’ve chosen to hang up my newsroom badge and leap into life’s next big adventure,” Hashagen said in her video. Standing in the studio with the logo from her “Be Well” segments in the background, Hashagen began speaking in a chipper tone but grew visibly emotional as she looked back on her roughly 25-year career at the station.
“As a girl from Freeport who grew up watching News 12, I dreamed of becoming a journalist,” Hashagen said, her voice quavering. “And more than that, of being your morning anchor. And you made that dream come true.” Hashagen noted she will likely still appear on the station “from time to time.”
Augeri characterized her departure as a chance to spend more time with her family. “Being a meteorologist at News 12 Long Island has been my dream job for as long as I can remember,” she wrote, adding: “But it’s also always been my dream to have a family. My sweet boys are growing at rocket speed, and now it’s time for me to spend more evenings with them — family dinners, bedtime hugs, and the little moments that matter most.”
Augeri, who began at News 12 in 2010, promised to continue her career in some fashion. “This isn’t goodbye, just the start of a new chapter,” she wrote. “I can’t wait to share my love of weather and science with you in a different way.” (She left News 12 from 2015 to '19 to work at WNYW/5.)
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