García elected to APME leadership

Joseph Garcia, community conversation editor for The Arizona Republic, last week was elected vice chairman of APME's Journalism Today committees. That means he is on track to preside over the group in 2012.

Joe, 47, was first elected to the board in 2005, when he was editor of The Daily Times in Farmington, N.M. Before that, he worked 18 years at the Tucson Citizen. He began his career at The Associated Press in Denver.

Telemundo announces new morning show

Almost 4 weeks after Telemundo cancelled "Cada Día," the network announced it is launching a new morning show in August.

"Levántate" will be a 2-hour show produced live from Telemundo's WKAQ studios in Puerto Rico. According to a Telemundo press release, the producers of the Billboard Latin Music Awards will be in charge of the show, under the direction of Tony Mojena.

Highly focused on entertainment, the new morning show will incorporate original stories from Mexico, Los Angeles, New York and Miami. Telemundo will announce the name of the hosts at a later date.

In a memo sent out on Tuesday, CEO Don Browne told employees: "We are currently in conversations and working on putting together a great ensemble in front of the camera." Local and network news cut-ins will also be included.

Alvarez-Dunn fired from Primera Hora

Claudio Alvarez-Dunn, the managing editor of Puerto Rico's Primera Hora , was fired last week, after more than 10 years with the newspaper. He was part of the founding group of Primera Hora, launched in 1997. Before that, he worked 10 years at El Nuevo Día (owned by the same company) in San Juan as a foreign news editor, business copy editor, news desk editor and reporter.

Claudio is a native of Argentina and has lived in Puerto Rico since 1980.

Avellán lands at MyTV-20

Jorge Avellán joins WMYD-20, a Granite Networks MyNetwork TV affiliate, as a reporter. This is Jorge's crossover job into English-language news.

Jorge was one of the casualties when Equity Media shut down their Detroit Univision News operation. Born in Nicaragua, he was raised in San Francisco. He started out as a photographer and reporter for the KEYL1-TV, the Univision affiliate in Amarillo, Texas in 2004 and a year later moved to Detroit for a job as a reporter at Univision station WUDT-TV 23.

Univisión scores $80 million ad deal

CEO Joe Uva's one-stop shopping strategy seems to have paid off. Univisión has reached what is being considered the largest one-time, cross-platform upfront deal between a Hispanic media agency and a Hispanic TV network in history.

According to Mediaweek, Zubi Advertising of Miami and Univisión have completed a media $80 million advertising deal, which includes advertising on all three Univisión TV networks--Univisión, TeleFutura and Galavisión--all of its O&O TV, radio stations and online properties.

The TV deals include 30 second commercials and product integrations.

García-Marquez joins Chargers broadcast team

Adrián García-Marquez, a former sports anchor at Telemundo-52 in Los Angeles will be joining the San Diego Chargers broadcast team.

“This is really exciting for me,” Adrián tells me. “I grew up a Charger fan! Since 1984 I was that kid that every year said"this year they're going to the Superbowl! But they ended up in last place most years. Now the funny thing is, they truly do look like a Superbowl contender!”

Adrián will continue to work for Fox Sports en Español.

The Flagship for the Chargers Spanish radio network is 1470 Radio Hispana in San Diego and it includes 1330 ESPN Deportes Radio in Los Angeles.

Martinez resigns from WESH

Raoul Martínez, anchor-reporter at WESH-2 in Orlando is leaving the station after six and a half years. He is moving back to California. He doesn’t yet have a job lined up, although he did tell the Orlando Sentinel on Friday: "I'm excited about a new opportunity that's developing."

His last day on the air at the Orlando NBC affiliate was Sunday night. Before joining WESH-2 News, Raoul spent two years as anchor and reporter for KESQ in Palm Springs, California.

Valverde, Lopez and Garcia L.A. Press Club award winners

The 50th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards took place over the weekend and several Latino journalists picked up top honors.

KMEX reporter and former anchor Antonio Valverde, won television journalist of the year, while Steve Lopez, of the L.A. Times was named columnist of the year. He also received the President's award.

Adolfo Guzmán-Lopez was part of a KPCC radio team that won top honors for investigative series. He also won for best entertainment reporting.

KNBC anchor and investigative reporter Ana Garcia won the Quinn Award for lifetime achievement. For a full list of the winners, log on to http://www.lapressclub.org/.

Reporter quits job to join McCain campaign

Mario Diaz, a reporter at WTSP-10 in Tampa is leaving journalism to become a “political operative” for John McCain’s presidential campaign. He resigned from the station last Tuesday. He had been working at WTSP since 2002. Before that, he worked at KTNV in Las Vegas as a weekend sports anchor.

Mario, an L.A. native, will be moving to Tallahassee to become Southeast regional communications director for McCain’s campaign. "It's an opportunity I couldn't pass up," he told the Tampa Tribune. "This is where my heart really lies now. To me, it's an honor to be part of a historic moment in politics. And it will be the ride of a lifetime."

Mario hopes to continue freelancing for HBO and ESPN as the ringside announcer for the Spanish simulcasts of professional boxing matches.

Alycia Lane Suing KYW

Alycia Lane is suing KYW-TV in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, alleging the station and its management “maliciously damaged her reputation and contributed to a number of her embarrassing off-camera episodes,” according to an AP story.

KYW isn’t commenting on the suit.

Alycia was fired in January, a month after being arrested in New York City for allegedly assaulting a police officer, but the felonay charges were later dropped.

In the lawsuit, Alycia blames KYW for the outcome of an embarrassing Dr. Phil episode in 2004, eventually causing her to be “branded in the press as someone who sought to make herself the news, rather than to merely report the news.''

Islas named Marketing Director at TuTv

Verónica Islas is the new Director of Marketing of TuTv. She will be based in Los Angeles and report to Ariela Nerubay, VP of sales and marketing.

Verónica previously worked at Charter Communications at Lifetime Television.

TuTv, a joint venture of Grupo Televisa and Univision Communications, is a distributor of Spanish-language channels, such as De Pelicula, Telehit, Ritmoson Latino, and Bandamax.

Televisa-Univision civil trial update

Televisa’s breach of contract civil trial against Univision was postponed… again. Originally set to start April 29^th and then pushed back to July 1^st, it is now scheduled to begin October 14^th.

In his latest ruling, U.S District Court Judge Philip Gutiérrez reaffirmed there will only be 25 hours of trial time allotted to each side. The legal dispute stems from the 1992 agreement that gives Univisión exclusive rights to air Televisa programming in the U.S. until 2017.

Rodríguez moves to Phoenix

Janet Rodríguez leaves D.C. to head west. A Telemundo reporter for the ZGS affiliate, Janet will now be a reporter for the Telemundo O&O in Phoenix.

The Cuban native got her start in 2001 in a children's radio show for Radio Disney. She produced and hosted the show for 2 years before moving to Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of American University.

Her last day at the ZGS station is June 20th. She begins her new role in Phoenix July 7th.

Janet attended American University on a Gates Millennium Scholarship, where she obtained a Bachelors Degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Latin American Studies.

Piña among McClatchy casualties

Gary Piña, a news editor/page designer at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is among the hundreds of McClatchy employees laid off today. He has been with the Star-Telegram for over 20 years.

Gary is currently nearing the end of his second term on the NAHJ board. At the moment, he is the At-large-officer. He was a key player in the success of the 2005 NAHJ convention. He had recently expressed interest in running for president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Network of Hispanic Communicators.

Job cuts at McClatchy to save $70 million

McClatchy today announced they will be trimming their workforce by 10 percent, through "voluntary and involuntary separations" and attrition, in order to save $70 million dollars. That translates to about 1,400 full-time equivalent employees. In a press release, the company states today's moves are part of a plan to reduce overall expenses by $95 to $100 million over the next four quarters.

Among the affected publications: The Sacramento Bee will lose 86 jobs, 46 will be layoffs. According to an internal memo, the Charlotte Observer is eliminating 123 positions, the Miami Herald is axing 250 jobs, the Fort Worth Star Telegram is losing 130 and the Kansas City Star is reducing its staff by 120.

McClatchy reported a 14.2% drop in total revenues during the first five months of the year, although online advertising grew 11.9%.

Tu ciudad magazine shuts down

It was a nice glossy magazine, with huge expectations.... that apparently didn't make the cut. The Emmis-owned publication was described by the company as the "definitive guide to Latino L.A.... created for those Angelenos who cherish Latino culture, and for those who want to. From our food, to our music, to our views about the issues confronting the city, Tu Ciudad covers it all..."

"Tu ciudad," published 10 times a year, is run by publisher Jaime Gamboa. Its editor-in-chief is Oscar Garza and the editorial director is Angelo Figureoa.

A source tells me the magazine is calling it quits today, sending employees in search of new jobs. There is talk, however, that an online version of the mag will continue. Stay tuned...

Raúl Alarcón Sr. dies

Raúl Alarcón Sr., founder of the Spanish Broadcasting System, died Wednesday in Miami. He was 82.

A Cuban exile, he started what would become a media empire when he opened the first Spanish-language radio station in New York: WEVD, La Grande. In 1983, he purchased WSKQ to form SBS.

Today, SBS operates 21 radio stations, owns Mega TV in Miami, music website LaMusica.com and recently started Megafilms, a film production unit.

His son, Raúl Alarcón, Jr. is the SBS's current Chairman and CEO. Raul Alarcon Jr. - is SBS's current Chairman and CEO.

Funeral services will be private; a memorial Mass in Alarcon's honor will be announced at a later date.

Medina to join KCTV

Christina Medina takes a big leap - 100 markets - landing as a reporter at CBS affiliate KCTV-5 in Kansas City, Missouri. She leaves KAMR - the NBC affiliate in Amarillo, Texas, where she was morning anchor/reporter.

Christina previously worked at KGNS in Laredo, Tx. as morning anchor and reporter.

Spanish-language broadcasters team up against PPMs

The Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), Entravision Communications Corporation (EVC), Univision Communications Inc. and Border Media Partners, have joined forces to create the Spanish Radio Association (SRA). The coalition's objective is to voice concerns about Arbitron's proposed rollout of what they consider is a flawed Portable People Meter (PPM) system that can have a potentially harmful impact in the industry when it comes to measuring Spanish-language media.

According to a press release issued by SBS, the group met with Arbitron on June 6, and will continue to do so on a regular basis, to advocate for a proper evaluation of the Hispanic audience measurement capabilities and effectiveness of Arbitron's PPM before a full-scale implementation. Among the issues raised at the meeting: panel sample size, accurately identifying and tracking panelists' country of origin, fair measurement when it comes to high-density Hispanic areas and sharing of more detailed sample information including meter placement according to zip codes.

Al Día in Texas to triple circulation

In an effort to better reach their target audience, Al Día will triple distribution of the Spanish-language paper on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

"It's a great thing," affirms Alfredo Carbajal-Madrid, the paper's managing editor. " The Hispanic population in North Texas continues to grow. We're responding to the appetite of this population for local news. At the same time, this is a perfect vehicle for advertisers to get to consumers."

The distribution increase from 40,000 to aproximately 120,000 will start in late July, at which time the company will also begin free home-delivery on those two days in selected coverage areas.

Alfredo says as Al Día continues to focus on delivering more local content, they are emphasizing a Web-first push, where the news staff will be posting breaking news immediately on their Website, with expanded coverage in the next day's print edition.

Ortega leaves paper for political P.R.

Reporter Fred Ortega is switching gears. He leaves the Pasadena Star-News, where he has worked for the past two years to become community affairs deputy for Board of Equalization Chairwoman Judy Chu. Fred previously worked as a city hall reporter at the Glendale News-Press.

Why the move? Fred tells me: "The instability in the newspaper business right now was a real factor, even though I felt relatively safe in my position. But with rumors of more layoffs looming, and a family to support (my wife and I have a daughter, with a second one on the way), the security and benefits of a state job combined with the opportunity to work with a politician whom I respect and with whom I agree with philosophically, was too good to pass up."

Fred didn't take a break between jobs. His last day with the Star-News was yesterday and he starts his new gig today.

Mendez hired at KOMO

Melody Mendez jumps 70 markets to join KOMO-4 in Seattle as a reporter. She leaves WICD-15,the ABC affiliate in Champaign, IL, where she was a weekend anchor/reporter since 2006.

Before that, she spent a few months as 5 pm anchor at WBBJ-TV in Jackson, Tennessee.

Univisión's DTV effort hits the streets

Univisión is sending out the "Escuadrón Digital." In the next phase of its DTV education campaign, the network will be combining on-air with "street teams" that will go out to the community to explain what the DTV transition means and demonstrate how to set up the DTV-to-analog converter boxes.

On Monday the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation gave Univisión a Service to America award for its DTV-education campaign.

Univisión was the first Spanish-language network to launch DTV education efforts for Hispanic viewers in October of last year.

ProPublica goes live

ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest, was founded late last year and just minutes ago has finally gone live.

Led by Paul Steiger, the former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and funded by the Sandler Foundation, which has committed $10 million a year to the project, the objective of the non-profit journalism group is to fill in the gap of many struggling papers which no longer are investing in long-term investigative projects that will uncover any wrongdoing in government, business and organizations.

Once the investigations are completed, ProPublica will pitch each project to a newspaper or magazine for free.

ProPublica is headquartered in Manhattan. Their Website indicates they are looking to continue hiring. Just last week, they hired 7 investigative reporters from the L.A. Times, The Dallas Morning News and ABC News.

Equity cancels Spanish-language news in 6 markets

Six of Equity Media's Univision affiliates will no longer air newscasts in six markets. Blaming a slump in the economy and revenue shortfalls, the company on Friday shut down its centralized Spanish-language newscast. The affected stations were in Oklahoma City, Naples-Ft. Myers, Fla.; Detroit; Amarillo, Tx.; Salt Lake City and Fort Smith-Fayetteville, Ark.

According to TVNewsday, the two daily newscasts were anchored at Equity Media's production and distribution hub in Little Rock, but included stories two reporters stationed in each of the six markets.

Back in early April, Equity announced it faced financial troubles, reporting a net loss of $ 40. 7 million in 2007. That triggered a sharp drop in its stock price. In order to liquidate some of its debt, the company sold 5 of its stations for $8 million dollars.

Moreno named Sr VP at Fox Networks Group

Erik Moreno today was named Sr VP, corporate development of Fox Networks Group. TVNewsday reports he will help identify new business and strategic opportunities within the company as well as work on acquisitions and other related opportunities that could include other News Corp. units.

Erik will be based in LosAngeles. He was previously eBay's director of corporate development.

KVEA's morning show changes

Starting today, "Buenos Días," Telemundo's morning show in Los Angeles, expands to 3 hours from 5 am to 8 am.

Ernesto Mourelo, KVEA-52's assistant news director broke the news on a late afternoon memo to employees on Friday: "I'm also pleased to announce that effective Monday, June 16th, Jose Armando Ronstadt will become part of the Buenos Dias team, joining Azalea Iñiguez and Ericka Pino on the anchor desk."

José Ronstadt, who has been anchoring KWHY-22's 7 pm newscast, is no stranger to morning shows. In the mid-90's, he hosted channel 52's morning news and entertainment program "Hola Los Angeles." And for those who remember, he also co-hosted the short-lived "Hola América," on Univision network in the early 90's. No word yet on whether or not he'll be replaced, or if his co-anchor, Palmira Pérez will go solo at 7 pm.

"Quick read" papers for Merc?

Mercury News editor Dave Butler sent employees a memo updating them about the paper's budget situation. Management is "crunching numbers" to avoid newsroom staff reductions, although he "can make no promises." (They've already gone through three rounds of layoffs and buyouts in less than 2 years.)

He's asking "all reporters and editors to demonstrate their outstanding writing and reporting skills by cramming the same information – or what's essential for the story -- in less space," in order to cut newshole as they face a 15%-plus increase in the price of newsprint for the next year.

So... the Merc, as well as other Media News Group papers are "exploring" a way to "produce "Quick Read" Monday and Tuesday newspapers," wrote Butler in the memo. "As you all know, we've been moving down this path for some months and would likely continue to do so, particularly tightening up Monday."

They're not the only ones going down this path. Tribune is considering shrinking the number of pages in its publications as well.

Meredith eliminates 120 jobs

Magazine publisher Meredith Corp. laid off 60 staffers and eliminated another 60 jobs currently unfilled positions, including around 20 from its 1,400-person broadcasting division.

According to Folio, a Meredith spokesperson said the layoffs are “very selective,” and included staffers in editorial, sales, production, digital imaging and other areas.

Meredith attributes the cuts to soft retail sales. Meanwhile, the publisher announced it acquired Big Communications, a Michigan-based pharmaceutical and biotech marketing firm, with the hopes of increasing non-advertising sources of revenue.

Morales adds radio duties

John Morales, currently chief metereologist at Telemundo 51, will expand his broadcasting horizons. Starting Monday, June 9, he will also be doing weather reports for Radio Caracol in Miami.

John will do live and taped segments for the radio station throughout the day and will also prepare special reports during the hurricane season.

Before joining Telemundo, John worked 12 years at Univision. He also owns ClimData, a private weather forecasting firm.

Silva joins morning team at WLTV-23

Pamela Silva is the new co-anchor of "Al Amanecer," Univision's morning newscast in Miami on channel 23 and Telefutura 69. She joins Eileen Cardet and Iván Donoso, who already host the 5 to 7 am news show.

Prior to her new duties, Pamela was a reporter for" Escándalo TV" and a spokesperson for WAMI Telefutura 69.

Originally from Peru, she is a graduate of FIU. She started at Univision in 2003.

Puente to host Puerto Rican day parade

Audrey Puente, WWOR-9's weather anchor will be co-hosting this Sunday's Puerto Rican day parade in NYC, along with Fox-5's Ernie Anastos. The event will be broadcast live starting at 11 am on channel 5 and switching over to channel 9 at 1 pm.

It's the first time she'll be part of the parade's broadcast team, but it won't be her first time participating in the event. Audrey used to ride in the floats with her father, legendary mambo king Tito Puente.

"It's been part of my life for a very long time," Audrey told the Daily News. "Every year it seems to get bigger and louder."

McCain's first general election radio ads are in Spanish

With the primaries behind us, the presidential candidates are now focusing on the November election. Throughout the whole process, much has been said about the importance of the Latino vote in chosing the next president of the United States.

Republican John McCain's team seems to be pretty aware of this. They have just released the first general election radio ads... and they are in Spanish!

The Washington Post's online guy, Ed O'Keefe, tipped me off to the 60-second, Spanish-language "Estamos Unidos con John McCain" spots airing in New Mexico and Nevada. If you want to listen, he's posted the ads along with an English translation.

Barajas to anchor new shows in Houston

Starting August 18, KRIV - the Fox O&O in Houston, will debut weekday newscasts at 5 and 5:30 p.m. anchored by Mike Barajas and Melinda Spaulding.

The station's general manager told TVNewsday that with this expansion KRIV will "now produce the most hours of weekday news in the market."

Mike Barajas, who has been with FOX since its inception in 1986, is the weeknight co-anchor of FOX 26 News at 9.

He will also continue his prime-time anchoring duties.

NYT online is #1

In an analysis of the Websites of the top 25 newspapers in the U.S., the New York Times made it to #1. The Los Angeles Times came in 2nd. The Washington Post is 5th.

24/7 Wall St. looked at the Websites, because as newspapers struggle to remain profitable, it's their online versions that will be key to future revenue growth and profits.

Case in point: the NYT online ad revenue rose almost 26% in April. The NYT Company's online revenue is now well over 10% of its total income, with a reported 49 million unique visitors in April logging on to its collection of Web properties.

24/7 Wall St. rated the sites “A” through “F” based on: 1) strength of content, 2) ease of use and navigation, 3) use of new web technology including comments sections, message boards, and multimedia, 4) lay-out 5) presence of a strong set of current advertisers, and 6) the size of their audiences based on measurements from the Compete Website visitor database for April.

Although they rank among the top 25 newspapers, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today were not included because they are national properties that have access to corporate budgets - something which the other Websites reviewed may not have.

Fernández promoted at WGEM

Carlos Fernández, station manager of WGEM-TV, the NBC affiliate and WGEM's AM and FM radio stations in Quincy, Ill. has been promoted to VP and General Manager, effective immediately.

Carlos, who was born in Cuba, began his broadcasting career at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kan. He worked his way up with Stauffer Communications Inc., eventually becaming general manager of the company's ABC affiliate in Columbia, Mo.

Before joining WGEM, Carlos was president and general manager of KXAN-TV, an NBC affiliate in Austin, Texas.

Sánchez joins PBS

Elizabeth Sánchez has joined the PBS children's series "A Place of Our Own," as one of its hosts.

Until recently, Elizabeth was weekend anchor and general assignment reporter for KGTV-10, the ABC station in San Diego. Before that, she was a national correspondent for CBS News based in Dallas.