Benjamín Zamora has signed off from KBLR Telemundo Las Vegas.
He anchored his last newscast on Super Bowl Sunday, bidding farewell to his audience at the end of the show.
Zamora, who had been the 5:30, 6 and 11 pm weekday co-anchor since December 2020, did weekend duty as part of the station’s Big Game coverage.
The Emmy-award-winning journalist is striking out on his own, focusing on building his own social media venture. He says he left Telemundo on good terms.
“I am very grateful to Telemundo for all the opportunities they have given me over almost six years in Chicago and Las Vegas,” he tells Media Moves. “I made the decision to prioritize my social media project due to its success.”
Zamora launched his TikTok channel in May 2020, during the pandemic, and it took off. It currently has more than 5.2 million followers. His social media platforms have an average monthly reach of 183 million impressions on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. For reference, as he points out, news networks have less followers than he does.
As of February 13, NBC News has 4.7M, CBS News 3.7M, Noticias Telemundo 4.4 M, and Univision Noticias 1.3 M. Only ABC News has slightly more followers – 5.3 M.
“We are living in a new era where journalism and communication has to evolve to reach the new generations,” he says.
And he’s betting he can capitalize on that evolution by reaching to those newer generations where they are. He traveled to El Salvador for the country’s elections in early February. His coverage generated more than 12 million views on TikTok.
“I believe that we must seek new spaces to continue informing people who spend much more time on social networks than watching television.”
Zamora will continue to be based in Las Vegas.