Gemma Garcia named head of Telemundo news division - Los Angeles Times
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Gemma Garcia named head of Telemundo’s news division

Gemma Garcia returns to Telemundo as the new head of news
Gemma Garcia’s return to Telemundo as the new head of news comes during a period of transition for Spanish-language TV news in the U.S.
(Telemundo)
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Veteran executive Gamma Garcia is rejoining Spanish-language network Telemundo to head its news division.

The NBCUniversal-owned network announced Monday that Garcia will be executive vice president of news, overseeing all of Noticias Telemundo’s programming and editorial product. She will also lead the network’s coverage of the 2024 presidential election.

“I am thrilled to return to Noticias Telemundo at this critical time for our community to reaffirm our commitment to rigorous and balanced news coverage across all platforms under our motto — las cosas como son, or telling it like it is,†Garcia said in a statement.

Garcia is replacing Patsy Loris, who left the network in January. Loris joined Telemundo from Univision in 2022.

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Garcia is returning to Telemundo after a stint at Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), Spain’s largest public media company. She was the head of RTVE Play, a direct-to-consumer streaming service.

During Garcia’s previous tenure at Telemundo, which ran from 2016 to 2022, she oversaw the news division’s expansion into digital platforms. She was also in charge of operations and production for Telemundo’s broadcast news programs.

The first joint effort between the two NBCUniversal units gears up to cover Latino stories related to the election and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Garcia developed the Noticias Telemundo franchise “Planeta Terra,†a Spanish-language TV reporting unit dedicated to environmental issues. She also launched a partnership with Axios on a bilingual newsletter devoted to Latino issues.

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Her return to Telemundo comes during a period of transition for Spanish-language TV news in the U.S.

Univision, Telemundo’s top competitor, merged in 2021 with Mexico-based Grupo Televisa’s media, content and production assets.

The merged company’s executives have a comfortable relationship with former President Trump. Univision’s news division conducted a sit-down interview with Trump in November in which the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination made a number of false statements and faced little pushback, raising concerns among the network’s journalists.

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Longtime Univision anchor León Krauze resigned from the network shortly afterward but never publicly stated a reason.

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