More Telemundo layoffs, restructuring

Just minutes ago, Telemundo announced cost-cutting measures that will affect the network's stations in Houston, Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix and San Jose. All those stations had previously had their newscasts axed, with a hubbed newscast fed from the Telemundo Production Center (TPC) in Dallas.

It looks like Telemundo will also use the TPC model for the marketing and traffic departments, hubbed from Dallas. HR and Finance will also undergo restructuring.

I'm told employees in those departments will be laid off and will have to reapply for jobs that will start opening tomorrow.

Telemundo has also leased its San Antonio and Fresno stations to ZGS.

Univision revenue falls; off air @ DISH?

Univision's revenue fell almost 8% in the last quarter of 2008, to $502.1 million - a loss of more than $201 million from the previous year. According to The Hollywood Reporter, although Univision is holding up better than other networks, it continues to be hard hit by the downturn in advertising.

In a conference call yesterday, Andrew Hobson, the company's CFO, recognized the first quarter of 2009 "has been tough, and we expect the year to be tough."

Meanwhile, Univision, Telefutura and Galavision also face getting pulled off the DISH lineup this week. It has not yet reached a new carriage agreement. The current one expires tomorrow.

Former WSJ editor joins Heritage Foundation

Michael M. Gonzalez, who worked at the Wall Street Journal for 11 years, was named VP of communications at the Heritage Foundation, a public policy research institute.

A veteran foreign correspondent, Michael covered the stock market before editing the WSJ's opinion pages in Europe and Asia. He started his journalism career with the Agence France-Presse wire service from 1987 to 1993. He left the WSJ in 2005 to take a speechwriting job at the Securities and Exchange Commission. A year later, he went on to become a communications adviser and speechwriter on European and Eurasian issues at the State Department. In 2008, Michael became director of corporate affairs at First Solar, an Arizona manufacturer of solar-power modules..

Michael was born in Cuba and moved to the U.S. when he was 14. He has a B.A. in communications from Emerson College and a master's in business administration from Columbia Business School.

Sun-Times files for bankruptcy

Another newspaper company files for bankruptcy. Sun-Times Media, which owns The Chicago Sun-Times, announced today it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and hired an investment bank to explore possible asset sales.

The NYT reports the company said it will continue operating its 59 newspapers and various Web sites as it goes through the bankruptcy process. The Sun-Times lists assets of $479 million and debts of $801 million.

The Sun-Times joins Chicago publishing rival Tribune in seeking bankruptcy protection.

Alarcón receives posthumous honor

Spanish Broadcasting System Pablo Raúl Alarcón will be posthumously honored with Billboard's 2009 Hall of Fame Award, in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to the development of radio and Latin music in the United States.

Raúl Alarcón, Jr. will accept the award at the Billboard Latin Music Conference, which will take place April 20-23 at the Eden Roc Resort in Miami Beach, Florida.

Raúl Sr. died in June of last year. He began his radio broadcasting career in the early 1950’s when he established his first radio station in Cuba. When he arrived in the U.S., he became an on-air radio personality for a New York radio station. He eventually bought SBS’s first radio station and founded the company in 1983.

Trouble at the Googleplex

Another round of layoffs at Google - the third this year. This time, about 200 employees from its sales and marketing organization.

Miguel Helft from the NYT reports the layoffs, announced in a blog post, are supposed to "reduce overlap between different groups and speed up decision making."

The cuts suggest the global recession is affecting some parts of Google’s business more severely than the company anticipated back in January, when Google laid off 100 recruiters. At the time, Eric Schmidt, the company’s CEO, said deeper cuts were "unlikely," but a month later another 40 positions were eliminated when Google shut down its radio advertising efforts.

At least not all is lost for the laid-off workers. They will be given time to apply for other jobs within the company.

NYT and WP announce cuts

Two of the nation's biggest publications, the New York Times and the Washington Post announced job cuts due to the advertising slump.

The Times is eliminating 100 positions and cutting non-union salaries companywide by as much as 5% for the rest of the year. The Washington Post is looking for employees to take voluntary buyouts, although layoffs could also be a reality in the near future.

Final daily print edition of CSM published today

As of today, the Christian Science Monitor becomes a daily online publication. It will, however, begin a weekly edition in two weeks.

In a letter to readers, the paper's editor, John Yemma, says the Monitor is a "dynamic online newspaper" available around the world, with more than two million online readers a month - 40 times the number of people subscribed to the print daily.

Why the weekly? "Print still works at that frequency. Print is for sitting back, taking a break from the Web, thinking more deeply about ideas and issues."

The Monitor is also developing a daily news briefing that will highlight top stories available via e-mail.

Nichols joins ESPN Deportes Radio

Rolando Nichols, a former Univision anchor and currently president of CENTRO TV and Radio, a media production house and a broadcast training facility in L.A., adds sports radio duties to his schedule.

Rolando joins the Spanish broadcast on-air talent team of the Los Angeles Angels and 1330AM ESPN Deportes Radio.

Rolando started his career in radio broadcasting AAA baseball for the Houston Astros and NCAA football games for the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Martinez hired at KTLA

Emmy-Award winning anchor/reporter Jason Martinez has left KFSN in Fresno to join KTLA in Los Angeles as a reporter. He's switching from a morning to a night shift as he moves to L.A.

Jason worked at the ABC affiliate since 2004, previously working at WTVG in Toledo for 3 years. He's originally from the L.A. area.

Hoy goes weekly

The Tribune-owned Hoy daily is downsizing... to a once a week publication.

Laobserved.com published a memo from L.A. Times marketing chief John O'Loughlin saying the Spanish-language paper will debut "with a crisp, new design and content plan. As part of this change, Vivelohoy.com will join Hoy and reverse-publish content as branded entertainment pages in each week’s edition, as well as introduce new video content to the site in the process."

AJC cuts 30% of its news staff

The Atlanta Journal Constitution announced this morning that it will be cutting 30% of its staff - 90 people from the newsroom and another 100 employees from the distribution/circulation area of the paper. 48 part-time news staffers were let go yesterday. The downsizing brings news staff to about 230 full-time positions.

As part of the cost-cutting measures, AJC will eliminate distribution to 7 counties, reducing its circulation area, effective April 26..

This is the third and largest round of job cuts. In 2006 AJC news staff was about 500. The publisher says the paper's goal is to regain profitability in 2010.

Quintanilla enters communications world

Ray Quintanilla, who was laid off from the Chicago Tribune last August, is now communications director for the SEIU Illinois Council.

Ray, who covered the Iraq war for the Tribune, spent 14 years of his journalism career at the paper. He tells me: "that part of my life is over. I am completely at peace with it."

Ray says he has met many newspaper reporters who are still having a difficult time coping with leaving the industry and are still looking for their "dream" newspaper job. He tries to give them a somber perspective to the current reality of the business by sharing the story of a soldier he interviewed in 2003, later killed in combat.

"When I asked him what he was going to do when he got home, he said something like this: "I'm going to surround myself with friends and family more often; and stop being so hard on myself. I'll see where that takes me."

Talk show for Lopez

Comedian George Lopez will be joining the late-night talk crowd. TBS is planning on launching a show in November, airing Monday-Thursday at 11 pm.

The show will have a half hour advantage over Conan O'Brien and David Letterman, who hit the airwaves at 11:30 pm.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, George will also be executive producer.

Almaguer named NBC correspondent

Miguel Almaguer is leaving WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. to join NBC News as a Burbank-based correspondent, effective April 2.

According to NBC, Miguel will contribute to all NBC News properties, including "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," "Today" and MSNBC.

Before his gig in D.C., Miguel was a reporter for KCRA in Sacramento. His first TV job was with KSBW-TV in Salinas.

The TV biz runs in the family. Miguel is the nephew of KRON-4 weekend anchor Ysabel Duron.

Campos moved to mornings

A round of layoffs at Austin's KVUE has prompted a reorganization of talent.

Olga Campos, who has been a 5 pm weekday anchor for more than a decade, has been pulled of the afternoon shift to start working mornings starting tomorrow.

Olga will be co-anchoring the "Daybreak" and "Midday" newscasts.

Mega TV expands as it celebrates anniversary

Mega TV has just celebrated its 3rd year on the air. The Spanish Broadcasting System's TV network based in Miami, also carried on DirecTV, is expanding in other markets with new affiliation agreements.

The new affiliated stations are WHDO Channel 38.2 in Orlando and WFHD Channel 36.2 in Tampa. There is more national expansion planned.

Televisa and Telemundo partner in new cable net

Televisa and Telemundo announced they signed a joint venture agreement to launch the Telemundo channel, set to air in Mexico and Latin America.

The move is part of the strategic alliance both companies announced in March of 2008, to distribute Telemundo's original content in Mexico through various platforms.

The Telemundo channel will feature Telemundo shows and soaps, distributed via the Televisa Networks platform through Sky and Cablevisión. Telemundo execs say the launch of the channel is scheduled for this summer.

Estrella TV launch date set

Talk about some effective heavy duty promotion. Estrella TV, which now has a July 1 launch date, has landed some primo coverage in the past month and a half.

First, they announced expansion plans. Then, the company's EVP, Lenard Liberman, scored a Q&A on Multichannel News. And just a few weeks later, another profile on TVNewsday. But wait, there's more! Today they landed a spot on Media Life magazine, in which the reporter assures readers Estrella TV is the new "force" in town, becoming a major challenger to Univision and Telemundo in the midst of the economic downturn. And how will they possibly do this?

"It will presumably offer rock-bottom prices to media buyers looking for deals, making it an attractive third option after Univision and Telemundo."

Layoffs reach Dávalos

The cleanup at Telemundo's O&O in Los Angeles continues. 

Sources tell me Carolina Dávalos, weathercaster at KVEA-52, was also laid off in the most recent wave of cuts.

News photog premieres movie

Edgar Ybarra, a news photographer for KOLD News 13 in Tucson, gets his first film break. "La Ultima Playa," a Spanish-language drama he wrote and produced on a $500 budget, premieres tonight at the 6th annual Nuestras Raíces festival.

Edgar filmed the movie in bits and pieces from October 2006 to September 2007, working on it during his days off and after work. Here's a link to the movie's trailer.

Cárdenas out of Telemundo

Sports anchor Mauricio Cárdenas was also given a pink slip late yesterday. Mauricio, who joined KVEA-52 as a sports reporter/weekend anchor in 1994, was promoted to main sports anchor in 2002, when Mario Solis left the station (he is NBC-4's weekend sports anchor).

KVEA layoff update

More names are emerging from yesterday's clean up. In addition to the 3 producers, reporter Juan Carlos Gonzalez and editors Noe Carrillo and Armando Cossyleon lost their jobs.

Staffers say the rumor is there will be more layoffs.

San Diego paper is sold

The San Diego Union-Tribune has been sold to Beverly Hills private equity firm Platinum Equity for an undisclosed price. The Copley Press Inc., the paper's parent company, had been looking for a buyer since July 2008.

According to a story in the U-T, the deal is expected to be completed during the second quarter. Apparently there were several interested parties in the paper, including Tribune, MediaNews and Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Cos.

At one point, the Copley media empire included four dozen daily and weekly newspapers in California and Illinois. The company sold, closed or merged papers over the years. In 2007 Copley sold its 9 nine remaining Midwest papers to GateHouse Media for $380 million, leaving the Union-Tribune as the company's only daily paper.

Management change at El Nuevo Herald

Humberto Castelló, the executive editor of El Nuevo Herald in Miami, has resigned and managing editor Tony Espetia (pictured on the right), is retiring. The moves were first reported by Hispanic Market Weekly.

Humberto had been in charge of the Spanish-language daily since the end of 2001. He worked at el Nuevo since 1997.

Manny García, the Miami Herald's senior editor for news, has been named El Nuevo Herald's new executive editor. Manny has been at the Herald since 1990. He has been a primary writer and reporter on two Pulitzer Prize winning projects for the paper.

A Herald article names Aminda Marqués Gonzalez as Manny's replacement. It also points out the changes come as McClatchy, the paper's parent company announced 19% cuts in its workforce.

Humberto and Tony stressed their departures are voluntary. However, Humberto told his staff he resigned because he was unwilling to make the mandated cuts ``whether they are justified or not.''

Layoffs at KVEA-52

I'm hearing that Telemundo's station in L.A. is undergoing some layoffs today - producers and on-air talent.

Among the first casualties are producers Gabriel Gonzalez, Maria Hurtado and Yolanda Garcia. As soon as I get confirmation on other names, I'll be posting them.

Seatle P-I: the final edition

146 years later, the Seattle Post Intelligencer says good-bye. Today is the paper's final print edition.

The staff got the news yesterday morning and, in spite of the gloom of the moment, teamed up to put out the final edition. The last cover reads "You've meant the world to us."

Starting tomorrow, it will be a web only publication. Meanwhile, if you feel like getting a little depressed, check out their photo gallery of the last day.

A story on seattlepi.com indicates the "online switch marks the start of a new era." That new start includes a Website with an editorial staff of 20, down from more than 150. Another 20 people will be hired to sell advertising.

There won't be specific reporters, editors or producers -- all staff will write, edit, take photos, shoot video and produce multimedia. The site will also rely on stories from guest contributors and feature content from various Hearst-owned magazines.

It's expected the operation will lose money at first, but Hearst Newspapers President Steven Swartz says his goal is to make it profitable. Many will be watching closely to see if this could be the business model to follow.

A new beginning for ex Rocky staffers?

If they can get 50,000 pledged subscriptions of $4.99 a month by April 23, a group of news folks from the now defunct Rocky Mountain News will be cleared to launch an online news publication.

According to the AP, ex-Rocky staffers have backing from 3 Denver entrepreneurs. InDenverTimes.com would go live on May 4 if they meet the subscription goal. 30 former Rocky writers, editors and a cartoonist would be the publication's staff. Steve Foster, former assistant sports editor for interactive, would be managing editor.

The site would offer some news for free, but subscribers who commit to paying the $4.99 a month for a year would get extra features. With no printing and distribution costs, putting out the online publication will be much cheaper, although no projected budgets have been outlined yet.

Could this model succeed? Apparently the team had 110 subscribers within the first hour that In Denver Times started taking orders, most of them for a full year. Organizers say 50,000 pledges should be enough to sustain the publication for a year. That would be just slightly under $3 million dollars. Let's hope they reach their goal!

Seattle P-I shuts down print edition

The angst is over for Seattle Post Intelligencer employees as they finally learned the fate of their paper today. Tuesday will be the final print edition. It will continue on as a web only publication.

As the publisher stated: "Tonight we'll be putting the paper to bed for the last time... but the bloodline will live on." You can see his comments as he addressed news staff this morning on the P-I Website, as well as a detailed story.

Only a professional news staff of about 20 or 25 will stay on for the online venture. The majority of the paper's 167 employees will lose their jobs.

The P-I lost $14 million last year. On January 9, Hearst put the paper up for sale, but no buyers materialized. The company has also said they would put another one of their papers, the S.F. Chronicle up for sale or even shut it down, if cost-cutting measures implemented recently don't drastically reduce their operating costs.

Pérez-Feria lands in ad agency

Richard Pérez-Feria, a former People en Español managing editor, has been named Sr VP, editorial and entertainment at Miami-based agency República.

After his departure from People en Español in 2006, he became editorial director at brash.com. Prior to working at People, Richard was editor-in chief of 7x7, a San Francisco fashion and celebrity magazine. He started his journalism career at Esquire.

República was founded in 2006 by Jorge A. Plasencia, an executive at Univision Radio.

Among the MH layoffs...

The layoffs hit the Miami Herald pretty hard. The names of those who lost their jobs are starting to surface. Among them: reporter Jose Pagliery, photo director Luis Rios and photographer Lilly Echeverria. Business reporter Bea Garcia and foreign desk web editor Juan Tamayo were downsized to part-time work. A local blog has a more complete list of the layoff casualties.

Rivera moves to WPBF

Alexis Rivera is leaving the cold weather of New York. She's heading back to her home state of Florida. Alexis joins WPBF in West Palm Beach as a news reporter.

Alexis has been an anchor/reporter at cable news channel News 12 in the Bronx for the past two years. She's a UPenn grad with a Masters in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Miami.

Miami Herald eliminates 175 jobs

After McClatchy's announcement that it was cutting 1,600 jobs company wide, it was a matter of time until we started finding out what the job loss distribution would be like.

The Miami Herald is cutting 19% of its workforce - a total reduction of 205, according to a story in the paper. 175 people will lose their jobs, another 30 vacant positions will be eliminated. The employees that remain will see their salaries reduced by 5% and will have a one week unpaid furlough.

The paper will also reduce the width of its news pages by one inch. The International Edition will cease publication.

Final week for Seattle paper employees?

Hearst still doesn't know what it will do with the Seattle Post Intelligencer, but it has told employees of that paper that next week may be their last on the job.

Hearst's deadline to sell the paper was Monday. With no buyers in sight, the company notified its roughly 170 employees that the paper could shut down any time. According to Reuters, Hearst is still looking for a buyer, but if it doesn't materialize, the paper could shut down... or go digital.

A Post Intelligencer story cites the paper's publisher saying Hearst will announce its decision on which way to go next week.

Belo cuts 150

In its latest attempt to cut costs, Belo Corp announced it will be eliminating 150 jobs, suspend its 401k matching contributions for all employees, and reduce by 5% the salaries of employees who are part of the management compensation programs.

The company expects to finalize the staff reductions by April 1.

S.F. Chronicle guild offers to buy paper

California Media Workers Guild, the union that represents employees at the San Francisco Chronicle wants to buy the paper if Hearst puts it up for sale.

The SF Weekly reports the Guild made the request last week along with a written set of suggestions for keeping the paper alive. The Guild wants to form a "public-labor partnership" to continue operating the paper after Hearst announced in February that it would sell or shut down the Chronicle if it couldn't achieve massive cost reductions in coming weeks.

Sources have told the SFW that the company may lay off up to half of the Chron's 275-person newsroom. But insiders tell me the news staff is bare-bones as it is and it would be next to impossible to put out the paper with such little staff.

The thought of the paper closing is inconceivable for Delfin Vigil, a Chronicle reporter, who paid for a full page ad in the S.F. Examiner. Vigil, who compares the sinking of the Chronicle to that of the Titanic, asks Hearst to hand over the name and allow employees to own and run the paper.

It's not the first time employee ownership has come up in the past couple of years. When Knight-Ridder went up for sale, the Newspaper Guild and San Jose Mercury News employees tried unsuccessfully to acquire the paper.

McClatchy cuts 1,600 jobs

In what's being called a "cost-cuting spree," McClatchy Co. announced on Monday that it is eliminating another 1,600 jobs. The company has cut down nearly one third of its work force in less than a year.

According to the AP, the layoffs will start before April. The latest round of cuts will save McClatchy at least $300 million annually, exceeding their previously set target of $110 million.

Since June, McClatchy has eliminated 4,150 jobs - more than 30% of the work force throughout its 30 dailies. The company is also reducing salaries, including that of its CEO Gary Pruitt. He's getting a 15% pay cut. Pruitt got a $1.1 million salary in 2007. His 2008 pay is not yet known. Sacramento Bee labor leaders were hoping Pruitt's pay cut would be larger, capping his salary at $500,000 this year.

The Sacramento Bee is losing 128 jobs. In order to save some jobs, workers from several McClatchy papers have agreed to pay cuts and unpaid furloughs of one week.

McClatchy had a drop of $343 million in revenues last year.

WNJU update

WNJU-47 spokeswoman Anna Carbonell confirmed 8 news positions were eliminated, "but no anchors or reporters were affected." Another 7 station jobs were also cut.

According to Anna, "due to the economic environment and its continued downtrend, we were forced to reevaluate all our operations across the board and make some tough calls." They included the layoffs as well as the cancelation of the weekday morning and noon newscasts and the 6 pm edition of our weekend news. The 11 pm weekend newscast has been reformatted "to review the top stories of that week."

Telemundo NY cancels newscasts, lays off staff

Sources tell me management has announced that the morning, noon and weekend newscasts at WNJU-47 will be canceled starting tomorrow.

At the present time, Pedro Luis García and Odalys Molina anchor the morning and noon shows.

Ramón Zayas anchors the weekend newscast solo.

I hear there will be 15-20 people laid off, although no on-air talent names have been announced. Some staff will be shuffled around. There is also some talk of a possible decertification of AFTRA.

NBC set to launch new digital channel in NYC

New York Nonstop is set to debut next Monday at 5 a.m. NBC's new digital channel, described as a "local information and lifestyle channel," is allegedly not designed to compete directly with cable news operation NY1.

The NY Daily News reports the new channel will be available to 5.7 million viewers on cable and over the air on digital channel 4.2 and will provide news updates every 15 minutes. It will only have one fixed show at 7 pm hosted by Chuck Scarborough, NBC-4's 6 and 11 pm anchor. The rest of the day is scheduled to have a mix of high-pace features and information built on a "pod format."

Daily News becomes "edition" of Inquirer

The CEO of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News says both papers will remain the same and there will be no cuts in staff, as they both merge into one publication. Huh?

According to a story in Editor and Publisher, CEO Brian Tierney announced the Daily News will now appear as an "edition" of the Inquirer, starting March 30. Tierney says the change will save money on wire service fees, since both publications can act as a single subscriber. It will also help the company in selling advertising, pitching advertisers a combined daily circulation of 440,000.

The news comes a week after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Layoffs at Univision Puerto Rico

The Univision station in Puerto Rico did its share of layoffs - about 30 news staff and admin positions.

According to El Nuevo Día, the following reporters lost their jobs: José Figueroa, Marjorie Ramírez, Zugey Lamela, Millie Gil, Rayné Hance and José Orlando Colón. Entertainment reporter Karen Cintrón and sports reporter Rommy Segarra were downsized to part-time positions. Several cameramen also got axed: Charlie Iglesias, Calixto Guzmán, Raúl Quiñones, Neftalí Rosa, Tito Andino y Pedro Rodríguez.

Weekday newscasts were also reduced from a 1-hr show to half an hour.

Top talent out at Univision

More news is trickling in about the layoff casualties and cuts at Univision. Despite the company's reluctance to give out the information, it continues to surface.

Although a Univision spokeswoman says she cannot confirm names due to company policy, a Miami blog has already identified some high-profile talent that is no longer with the network. A few Univision insiders have confirmed that Enrique Gratas, Sergio Uriquidi and Fernando Arau were among those laid off.

Enrique, the former host of Telemundo's "Ocurrió Así" for 9 years, moved to Univision in 1999 to anchor "Ultima Hora," the 11:30 pm national newscast.

Sergio has been co-anchoring Univision network's weekend newscast for more than 10 years. Before that he was an anchor at Telemundo's L.A. station, KVEA-52.

Comedian Fernando Arau lost his job as co-host of "Despierta América." Other names mentioned are reporter Jorge Viera. At the local Miami station, Bernadette Pardo, Iván Donoso and Verónica Payssé.

Primer Impacto Fin de Semana was also canceled.

Hearst to charge for online content; develops e-reader

Could this be the solution for newspapers? An e-reader to download your favorite paper... at a charge, of course? It's not so far-fetched, but the question is... will people pay?

Just days after announcing a possible sale or closure of the S.F. Chronicle, Hearst is set to start charging for its online content. In a memo picked up by the Wall Street Journal (which charges for access to its online content), Hearst newspapers president Steven Swartz tells company employees it will be up to management to figure out "how much paid content to hold back from our free sites...” although that "doesn’t mean we wall off our Web sites behind a paid barrier."

Swartz says that in order to "offer the best in breaking news, staff and reader blogs, community databases and photo galleries," Hearst will "need to expand the number of reporters, editors and photographers."

Hearst, an investor in E ink, the company that provides the technology behind Amazon.com's Kindle and other electronic readers, has apparently developed an e-reader of its own and plans to launch it later this year, according to Fortune magazine. The article points out that distributing the paper via a mobile device - which would eliminate paying for paper, printing and delivery - would save as much as 50% of the cost of putting out a periodical.