Sources tell me that Telemundo is considering bringing back local newscasts to several markets that are now being serviced by the Telemundo Production Center (TPC) in Dallas and that the changes would be coming thanks to new Telemundo Station Group President Ron Gordon. Although it’s not yet official, he recently told staff he’s proposing bringing back control of the newscasts to local markets.
Back in 2006, parent company NBC decided to cut costs by eliminating local newscasts in San Jose, Phoenix, Denver, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Las Vegas. Telemundo created the TPC as a hub to produce newscasts that air in those markets… from Dallas. People I’ve spoken to in some of those markets say the effort has been a disaster in terms of lack of local coverage, which ultimately has hurt sales.
Telemundo spokesman Alfredo Richard tells me there is nothing definite, but admitted they are “exploring” the possibility of giving more local content to the newscasts, but always with support of the TPC. He denies the current format of regionalized news hasn’t worked.
But an insider tells me that the changes could come as soon as October, with plans to train and place multi-media journalists (one man bands) in all the TPC markets. Locally anchored, low-staffed newscasts could start in January of 2010.