Karen Mendez Named WNJU VP Of News

Telemundo-owned WNJU New York on Monday appointed Karen Mendez vice president of news. In this role, she will be responsible for the overall performance of the Telemundo 47 news department and any other local productions across multiple media platforms. Mendez will assume her role in mid-July.

Mendez joins WNJU from Telemundo’s KXTX Dallas-Fort Worth, where she has been VP of news since June 2014. While there, Mendez helped to oversee the launch of a new half-hour local newscast at 4:30 p.m., which also debuted across 13 Telemundo-owned stations in November 2014.

Additionally, Mendez helped KXTX implement several other newsroom enhancements, thanks to an investment made by NBCUniversal, that included the launch of a new consumer investigative unit (Telemundo Responde); roll out of new on-screen graphics, visual designs and a revamped website; and launch the station’s dedicated weather app, El Tiempo Telemundo 39. The app allows users to track storms and receive weather alerts and provides users with interactive GPS-enabled weather maps, 10-day, daily and hourly weather forecasts as well as Spanish-language video weather reports.

Before joining KXTX, Mendez was the news director of Univision’s WFDC Washington and WVEN Orlando, Fla.

Mendez launched her broadcasting career at Univision’s WXTV New York in 2000, where she worked as a general producer. 

A recipient of an Edward R. Murrow and an Associated Press award, Mendez earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Sacred Heart in San Juan, P.R.