Castañer – VP of News @ Telemundo.

Telemundo announced that veteran news producer, Berta Castañer, has been named Vice President of News for the Telemundo Station Group. The announcement was made by Ibra Morales, President, Telemundo Station Group.

In her new role, Castañer is charged with providing leadership to the Telemundo Stations News Directors on product development, talent recruitment and news promotion. She will be based in New York and report directly to Morales.

“Berta will be a tremendous addition to our team,” said Morales. “She is a seasoned news producer with solid experience in local news production in both the Hispanic and general markets and her expertise and vast knowledge will help us reiterate our commitment to serving our local communities through our news operations.”

Prior to her new post, Castañer served as Senior Executive Producer of Hard News and Specials for Telemundo Network, where she was responsible for the day-to-day operations and logistics of the network’s daily newscast, “Noticiero Telemundo,” as well as all breaking news and special programming for Telemundo.

Castañer began her distinguished career as a production assistant at Spanish International Network’s (SIN), WXTV (currently Univision), in New York in 1978 and later transferred to WABC-TV’s news department where she became the producer of “Tiempo,” the station’s prominent public affairs show that dealt about New York’s Hispanic community. In 1985, she left New York to join the growing Telemundo Network in the capacity of producer at WKAQ Channel 2, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was later named news director in 1988 and under her supervision “Telenoticias” became the number one newscast in Puerto Rico. In 1991 Castañer became the Vice President of News and Public Affairs for Telemundo Puerto Rico.

In 1995 Castañer moved to Chicago to become the news director at WGBO TV 66, Univision’s affiliate. In 1997 she re-joined the Telemundo family as Executive Producer of Telemundo’s most influential newscast, “Noticiero Telemundo.” Since her appointment, Castañer has directed the coverage of Mexico’s 2000 election as well as Telemundo’s around the clock coverage of the tragic events of September 11th, the Iraq war, and the 2004 USA presidential election.