Telemundo to consolidate some local news

TELEMUNDO TO CONSOLIDATE SOME LOCAL NEWS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Meg James]
Local newscasts on some of the Telemundo Spanish-language television stations will soon be a lot less local. As part of a companywide, $750-million restructuring by parent NBC Universal, Telemundo TV stations in markets including San Jose, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas and Houston will no longer produce their own newscasts. Instead, beginning early next year, local news for seven Telemundo stations will originate near Fort Worth. There, anchors and editors will produce three live regionalized newscasts using feeds from reporters and camera operators in the field. Telemundo's restructuring will eliminate about 110 jobs, primarily at the local stations. However, NBC executives said the company planned to hire 30 people to work at the Fort Worth production facility. That means the net job loss will be about 90 positions — or about 5% — of Telemundo's total workforce. The reductions reflect a trend by media companies to cut newsroom jobs in an effort to boost corporate profit and satisfy shareholders. In recent years, revenue at traditional media outlets has declined as more advertisers have embraced the Internet to reach younger viewers. But centralizing the news operation has drawn a rebuke of NBC Universal from the National Assn. of Hispanic Journalists, which is considering challenging upcoming Telemundo station license renewals.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-telemundo13nov13,1,12...
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