Media Moves

Media Moves is in mourning

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:13:00 +0000

For the past almost 2 years, I've brought you news of comings and goings of other journalists, media personalities and what's going on in the business. Today, I'm taking the liberty of dedicating this space to report a painful move in my personal life.

It is with deep sorrow that I write of my father's passing, after an agonizing 8 month battle with cancer. Julio A. Villafañe died a little more than an hour after the end of father's day.

He was a brilliant man, who had an amazing international career as a chief civil engineer, heading multi-national projects. He once even worked for NASA and retired from his job as a U.S. foreign service officer, having worked in Africa, the Middle East and Central and South America.

Dad even had a tie to the media. He had a great voice and in the 1950's moved to Los Angeles to try to become a Spanish-language radio newsman. That didn't work out, but it just showed he was a little ahead of his time.

In his memory and during this period of grieving, I will not be doing any other posts this week.

Ortiz joins Currents

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:52:00 +0000

Nathalia Ortiz has joined the team of "Currents," the new NET NY television show as a reporter and fill-in anchor.

Nathalia moved to NYC in late 2008 to work as a freelance reporter at News 12. Before that she was a reporter at the Univision station in Miami and previously worked as a segment producer for the network.

Mo' money for Perez Hilton

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:31:00 +0000

It looks like celebrity blogger Perez Hilton will be launching a new, "more advertiser-friendly" site in the next few months.

The buzz has spread online. According to Mediapost, at a OMMA Publishing conference this week, Henry Copeland, founder and CEO of BlogAds.com, which handles the operations and ad sales for the popular PerezHilton.com site, spilled the beans. He said the new venture would have longer-form content and "appeal more to mainstream advertisers who might not be as comfortable with the sensational, salacious coverage that characterizes PerezHilton.com." However, the product would continue to appeal to the same core audience of his current site.

But wait... there's more. The scandalous blogger has 6-figure deals in the works to do sponsored Twittering for 3 advertisers.

Bilingual news network to launch in Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:50:00 +0000

A Fox affiliate in Beaumont, Texas is betting on Spanish-language viewers when it goes on the air in the next 4 to 6 weeks.

With no local Spanish-language newscast, the station's business manager for low-power KEBQ TV 9 and MY-TV 22 sees an opportunity and will be offering a bilingual option in news.

According to the Beaumont Enterprise, channels 9 and 22, which were affiliated with the now bankrupt Urban Television Network, will continue to broadcast analog instead of digital signals for the next two years, although there are plans to make the switch to digital in about a year.

The station's hiring! Plans are to hire 10 to 15 people for management, sales and production jobs.

Haubegger adds presidential committee role

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:33:00 +0000

President Obama has appointed Latina magazine founder and former publisher Christy Haubegger to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.

Christy, who is now an executive at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), is one of 28 people appointed. A White House press release points out the members of the commission are responsible for recommending "exceptional men and women to the President for selection as White House Fellows."

Former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw is among the members of the just appointed commission.

Maxime lands NYC gig

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:20:00 +0000

Francesca Maxime has moved to NYC to become co-host of "Currents," a brand new television show for NET NY run by the Diocese of Brooklyn, airing on Time Warner.

You can catch her in action on live streaming video Mon-Fri at 7:30 and 11:30 pm. The show is available the following day on YouTube.

Francesca was most recently 10 pm anchor at WEAR-TV ABC 3 in Pensacola, Florida. She is a Harvard grad.

Quiroga named WZDC station manager

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:04:00 +0000

ZGS has named Nicole Quiroga the new station manager of its Telemundo affiliate in Washington, D.C.

Nicole has worked for ZGS for over 11 years. She was most recently serving as the General Sales Manager of WZDC.

Mora-Tagle returns to Telemundo

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:22:00 +0000

Rogelio Mora-Tagle is back at Telemundo. Starting today, he will be a freelance correspondent out of the network's Telemundo bureau in Mexico City.

He will be working for Al Rojo Vivo, but will also report for Noticiero Telemundo.

After Rogelio left Telemundo in July of last year, he went on to anchor news segments for terra.com's internet TV channel.

AP to deliver non-profit investigations

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:52:00 +0000

Shrinking newspapers have also shrunk their investigative journalism. Non-profits have started doing their own in-depth investigative reporting. So now... the Associated Press will deliver their work across the country.

The AP announced over the weekend that it will distribute the work of 4 journalism non-profits. Work from the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and ProPublica will be available to the AP's 1,500 member newspapers for free publication.

The deal is a 6 month experiment that could include other investigative non-profits in the future.

Televisa, Univision rest internet case

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:44:00 +0000

Attorneys for Televisa and Univision on Friday rested their cases in the lawsuit which will determine who has the right to air Televisa's shows on the U.S. internet market.

The judge ordered both sides back to court for closing arguments on July 8. It's possible he could issue a tentative ruling at that time.

DTV switch deadline arrives

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:43:00 +0000

So... tomorrow is d-day for TV. Despite a government 4 month extension of the original DTV switch date, it's expected millions of viewers will still be left in the dark. The switch from analog to digital TV signals was supposed to be February 17th, but after many complaints of unpreparedness for the event, it was postponed to June 12.

According to Nielsen numbers, close to 3 million households are still not ready for the digital switch. In a statement, the FCC acknowledges there will be disruptions, but that the agency will do everything possible to help make a smooth transition. So far, the FCC and NTIA have distributed 59 million $40 coupons for TV converter boxes. However, only about 31 million coupons were redeemed. Those coupons will continue to be available for consumers who apply until July 31st.

Televisa vs. Univision, part II

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:43:00 +0000

Televisa and Univision head to court again tomorrow. This time, to set the record straight as to who has the internet rights to Televisa programming in the U.S.

Both companies settled another suit out of court back in January. In that one, Televisa was threatening to break their 25-year programming deal, claiming breach of contract and owed royalties. Thankfully for Univision, a deal was reached and they'll keep on airing Televisa's popular telenovelas until 2017.

There's a lot at stake with the internet rights. In a statement released last week, Univision argued that "Televisa does not have the right to compete with Univision by broadcasting over the Internet in the United States programs it has licensed to Univision."

But Televisa's stand is that the 1992 agreement exempts internet and that it was limited to TV broadcasting.

Iniga gets gig in Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:01:00 +0000

David Iniga moves to Tyler, Texas to become a reporter/producer for KYTX-TV, an Azteca America affiliate.

David was most recently line producer and field producer for the KWHY-22 and Telemundo 52 duopoly in Los Angeles. He was also a reporter/producer for KWHY's Lakers show during the 2007-08 NBA season.

Burt Shapiro is his agent.

Judge dismisses Chavez's lawsuit

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:00:00 +0000

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a civil-rights lawsuit filed by Oakland Tribune photographer Ray Chavez, who accused officers of illegally barring him from taking pictures at a freeway crash scene.

In the lawsuit filed in August of last year, Ray contends police officers interfered with his right as a member of the press to cover news. Instead, he was "arrested and handcuffed without justification solely due to the exercise of First Amendment rights."

In dismissing the suit, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco said the media has no First Amendment right to be at an accident or crime scene if the general public is excluded.

According to the S.F. Chronicle, Ray's attorney plans to file suit in state court, noting that Breyer did not address the issue of whether police might have violated a state law that allows the media access to "a menace to the public health or safety," including accidents and disasters.

Stations in L.A., Tampa to share news crews

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:50:00 +0000

Three TV stations in Tampa announced effective today they will be sharing video resources. Fox's WTVT-13, Scripps' WFTS-28 (ABC) and Gannett's WTSP-10 (CBS) have chipped in to create a local news service that will share video crews at news events.

Los Angeles will soon follow suit, with KTTV-11 (Fox), KNBC-4 and KTLA-5 (Tribune's CW) doing a similar arrangement.

According to TVNewsday, the stations argue that by creating the shared service, the stations will reduce costs and will be able to "strengthen their focus on specialized enterprise reporting."

An independent managing editor will decide which stories will be covered on a daily basis, will send out the crews and arrange delivery of the footage, to be used on multiple platforms (broadcast, online and mobile).

Just last month, four Chicago stations announced they would be sharing news crews. The ABC station opted out of the arrangement. Looks like they're keeping the same philosophy in L.A., the nation's number 2 DMA.

L.A. Mayor's new romance with TV reporter

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:27:00 +0000

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's love life is once again the focus of L.A. news. On Monday, NBC reported he is dating KTLA weekend anchor/reporter Lu Parker. Immediately, TV, print and online reports remembered his previous affair with former Telemundo anchor/reporter Mirthala Salinas and how the relationship affected her job.

The L.A. Times reports KTLA management is defending Lu's journalism ethics - saying that now that they know about the romance, she would no longer be covering city politics. However, her situation is really no different than Mirthala's 2 years ago. On Sunday, the KTLA anchor was seen hanging out with the mayor and later that evening, she read an on-air story about the possibility of Villaraigosa running for governor in 2010.

Without a doubt, there's a question of ethics here. Two years ago, Mirthala lost her job for dating the mayor, not telling her bosses and then reporting and reading stories about him on the air. Is KTLA just going to leave it at that with their anchor?

Teuteló promoted at Univision

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Enrique Teuteló has been promoted to Univision Network anchor for "Última Hora" and "Fin de Semana." He replaces Sergio Urquidi, who was laid off earlier this year.

Until recently, Enrique was the 11 pm anchor at WLTV-23, the Univision O&O in Miami. He was previously a network correspondent based in Houston and a reporter for Noticias 45 Univision.

Guerrero now on E!

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Kristina Guerrero joins E! News as a correspondent. She leaves her correspondent gig at the newsmagazine "Inside Edition," after a little more than a year.

She previously worked as a co-host of "Great Day S.A." in San Antonio, as a correspondent for "Access Hollywood," and a co-host on "The Rub," on the SiTV network.

CNN documentary on Latinos in America

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:51:00 +0000

Last year, CNN produced the documentary series "Black in America." The news network now plans to produce a two-part documentary of Latinos in the U.S.

Soledad O'Brien will host "Latino in America," set to air in October... for Hispanic Heritage month. According to a story in Multichannel News, the documentary "will focus on the growing U.S. Hispanic population and the pertinent isues that face the community." The first part will look into the lives of people nation-wide whose last name is "Garcia" and the second part will focus on how 4 different communities are dealing with the challenges of immigration, discrimination, disparities and cultural identity. The documentary will also feature Latino celebrities.

Let's hope this documentary does a better job at painting an accurate and substantive picture of Latinos in America than NBC's superficial attempts in early March of this year, with its "We the People" series.

Sotomayor's nomination headlines major papers

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:51:00 +0000

President Obama's nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court is the headline for most of the country's top papers today - from the NYT to the Washington Post, to the LAT to the Chicago Tribune.

Oddly enough, she was noticeably absent from some Spanish-language news sites, such as Telemundo's Web site in New York, where the judge hails from, which at 4:10 pm EST still had no news of her nomination. The president's Supreme Court pick was on the univision.com site, as well as on L.A.'s La Opinion and NY's Diario La Prensa sites.

Judge Sotomayor is the first Hispanic woman nominated to the country's highest court.

Noticias 23 launches in Salt Lake City

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Salt Lake City is getting a new newscast - in Spanish. Noticias 23 will begin airing a half-hour newscast at 5 and 9 pm starting June 2nd.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the station produced 12 to 15 minute news capsules until about 4 months ago. That stopped in order to concentrate on getting a half-hour show up and running.

Irene Caso and Rene Torcatty will anchor the news. Michelle Ortega will do weather and the station's local sales manager, Nelson Morán, will also go on-camera to do sports. You can check out the news team in an online promo, here.

Channel 23 is owned by Bustos Media. The station signal will be seen only via regular over-the-air antenna and Comcast cable.

Hernandez leaves Seattle Times

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:29:00 +0000

Robert Hernandez is leaving his job as Director of Development for the seattletimes.com to become a USC professor.

"Yes, we're moving back to California and back to L.A. where I am originally from," Robert tells me. "The opportunity at USC is, quite frankly, incredible."

Robert will be an Assistant Professor at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, where he will be "researching and developing the use of new media in the newsroom as well as in the classroom."

Robert has been at The Seattle Times/seattletimes.com for more than 6 years. He says leaving was a hard decision to make. "This place is so wonderful and I am very sad to be going. One of my prized possessions is a Seattle Times newspaper rack in my living room. Yes, I am a news geek with a loving, supporting, tolerant wife."

Why leave then? "One of the factors that made me jump at this opportunity were the words I heard from USC Annenberg's Dean Wilson: 'If not Annenberg, then who? If not now, then when.'"

Robert's last day at The Times is Friday, June 19. His first official day at USC is August 3rd.

Estrella TV signs deal with Belo

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Estrella TV's expansion plans are moving forward. The Spanish-language net, due to launch in the third quarter of this year, announced yesterday it signed an affiliation agreement with Belo.

According to Mediaweek, the deal gives Estrella network clearance in 4 more markets, on Belo digital multicast channels in San Antonio, Austin, Tucson and Portland, giving the network access to 60% of Hispanic TV households.

Judge rules on Tucson Citizen

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:58:00 +0000

A federal judge today rejected a suit filed by Arizona's attorney general to stop the closure of the Tucson Citizen.

The AG argued shutting down the paper violated the Newspaper Preservation Act and would eliminate competition and foster a monopoly between Gannett Co., owner of the Tucson Citizen and Lee Enterprises, which publishes the Arizona Daily Star. Both companies had a joint operating agreement to run both papers.

E&P reports the judge ruled the companies did not violate any antitrust laws.

NAHJ names 2009 Hall of Fame inductees

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Villafañe) — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:40:00 +0000

Ysabel Durón, Geraldo Rivera and Juan Gonzales will be inducted into NAHJ's Hall of Fame.

Ysabel is currently the weekend morning news anchor at KRON-4 in San Francisco. She has worked at the station since 1990, first starting as a reporter and moving to the anchor position in 1992. She is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years in television broadcasting. She is also a cancer survivor and the founder of Latinas Contra Cancer, a non-profit that provides cancer education and support services for cancer patients. She organized the first national Latino Cancer Summit, that took place at the end of July of 2008.

Geraldo is the host of Fox's newsmagazine "Gerald-at-large." He was the first Latino correspondent to work for a national news network. He worked for ABC's "Good Morning America." His rise to fame started with his talk show "Geraldo." H was also a senior correspondent for "20/20." He joined Fox News Network towards the end of 2001 as a war correspondent, before getting his own show.

Juan Gonzales is the founder of El Tecolote, a bilingual, non-commercial newspaper in San Francisco's Mission District. He started the newspaper in August of 1970, as a class project to channel Latino students into journalism careers. Juan continues to edit the paper, in addition to chairing the Department of Journalism at the City College of San Francisco. He also chairs the Voices for Justice project, which commemorates the bicentennial of Latino newspapers in the U.S.

The ceremony will take place on Friday, June 26 in Puerto Rico, where NAHJ is holding its 27th annual convention.