Telemundo Ramps Up News In 14 Markets

Fourteen of the 17 Telemundo stations will broadcast additional half-hour newscasts this evening, the latest initiative in the NBC Universal-owned group’s effort to enhance its news offerings.

“We feel our audience is underserved with news, and we want to be the leaders bringing that to them,” says Manuel Martinez, president of the Spanish-language group.

The stations will air the extra newscasts at 5:30 p.m. ET/PT (4:30 p.m. CT/MT). They will lead into an existing half-hour newscast and then the national network news.

Two other stations — WNEU Boston (DMA 7) and KNSO Fresno, Calif. (DMA 54) — will likely add similar newscasts next year, Martinez says. The group’s Puerto Rico station, WKAQ, already airs an hour of local news starting at 5:30.

Martinez says the expanded news is the culmination of an investment parent NBCUniversal has made in the group over the past 18 months aimed at boosting the quality, as well as quantity, of local news.

The investment also include 35 other hours of local news in seven markets; the establishment of consumer investigative units in five markets; the opening of news bureaus in Washington, Miami and Mexico City; a dedicated online editor at every station, new news sets in seven markets; and the hiring of 160 additional staffers, mostly in news.

According to Telemundo, the consumer units, known as Telemundo Responde – have collectively produced 444 stories and recovered $478,418 for consumers since their launch earlier this year. Telemundo Responde will expand to five additional markets in 2015.

During this time, Telemundo also added four stations to its roster — WNEU; WWSI Philadelphia; KVDA San Antonio, Texas; and KTLM Harlingen, Texas.

In duopoly markets, the Telemundo stations and NBC O&Os frequently partner on news coverage, something that has grown since 2013 when the groups’ management merged under Valari Staab, president of NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations.

Martinez says he already is seeing results.

In September, KVEA Los Angeles had the No. 1 latenight newscast, beating Univision’s KMEX for the first time, Martinez says. WSCV Miami’s 11 p.m. newscast has been No. 1 for 19 months.

The group plans no other news improvements right now, but more may come after executives assess what is working, Martinez says. “We want to continue growing.

“We want to own the Telemundo markets and in order to do that we need to serve the communities.”