Mendez named VP of News at Telemundo 47 in NY

Telemundo 47 New York / WNJU announced that Karen Mendez has been named Vice President of News. In this role, she will be responsible for the overall performance of the Telemundo 47 news department and any other local productions across multiple media platforms. Mendez will assume her role in mid-July 2015.

“Karen is an excellent newsroom leader who has helped various news teams deliver best-in-class news that Spanish-speaking communities care about, all-the-while instilling a culture of accountability and exceptional newsroom performance,” said Cristina Schwarz, President and General Manager, Telemundo 47. “Karen’s vast experience in working with Northeast audiences, coupled with her familiarity with Telemundo stations, makes her a perfect fit to lead the Telemundo 47 news team.”

Mendez joins Telemundo 47 from Telemundo 39 Dallas-Fort Worth / KXTX, where she worked as Vice President of News since June 2014. While at Telemundo 39, Mendez helped to oversee the launch of a new half-hour local newscast at 4:30 PM, which also debuted across 13 Telemundo-owned stations in November 2014. Additionally, Mendez helped KXTX implement several other newsroom enhancements, thanks to an investment made by NBCUniversal, that included the launch of a new consumer investigative unit (Telemundo Responde); roll out of new on-screen graphics, visual designs and a revamped website; and launch the station’s dedicated weather app, “El Tiempo Telemundo 39.” The app allows users to track storms and receive weather alerts and provides users with interactive GPS-enabled weather maps, 10-day, daily and hourly weather forecasts as well as Spanish-language video weather reports. Mendez also helped Telemundo 39 distinguish itself as the only Spanish-language station in the market that delivers local breaking weather information to its viewers seven days a week and by Spanish-speaking Meteorologists. At the close of the May 2015 sweep period, Telemundo 39 outranked all of its English-language competitors (among Adults 18 to 34) with its 10 PM local newscast, Noticiero Telemundo 39.

Before joining Telemundo 39, Mendez served as the News Director for Univision Washington / WFDC and Univision Orlando / WVEN. Mendez launched her broadcasting career at Univision 41 New York / WXTV in 2000, where she worked as a general producer.