Ana Patricia Candiani, main anchor at Telemundo’s KVEA-52 in Los Angeles since early 2011, and Martín Plascencia, a reporter at the station for over 20 years, have been laid off.
At least two other people at KVEA – a writer and an assignment desk editor – were given pink slips. Those cuts took place on Monday.
Sources are reporting at least three people have lost their jobs at KTLM in McAllen and another five at Telemundo 51 in Miami.
A spokesperson for the NBCUniversal-owned TV Stations division would not say how many people lost their jobs or address specific layoffs, but issued the following statement:
“The NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations division has reduced its workforce to best position the division to meet Company objectives in a changing economic environment. As a result, valued colleagues at NBC and Telemundo owned stations will be leaving our Company. We made these very difficult decisions with the long-term interest of our Company in mind. We sincerely thank our colleagues for their service to their stations, our division and NBCUniversal. Our local HR teams will be fully supporting our colleagues during this transition.”
According to a source, the “workforce reductions” will affect employees cross various markets and functions, but smaller stations did not experience as much of an impact due to their already lean operations.
Other Telemundo stations are being notified today of cuts.
The layoffs aren’t just hitting the Telemundo stations. They are company-wide and stem from revenue losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Wall Street Journal today reported NBCUniversal saw a 25% reduction in revenue during the second quarter, due to some of the company’s halted and/or limited business operations, such as theme park closures, postponement of movie releases and a drop in advertising.
The layoffs are supposed to impact less than 10% of NBCUniversal’s 35,000 employees. About 4,300 employees work at 30 NBC/Telemundo owned stations.