October 26, 2009

By By Leila Cobo, Miami

The Telemundo Station Group has laid off some 40 full-time positions in response to a "tough economic environment." In a statement, the station group said the reductions were not related to employee performance. The cuts affect less than 3% of Telemundo's staff of approximately 1,500 employees and follow a slow-down in local advertisement at the station level. Cuts were done by individual television stations and do not affect senior management.

The cuts mildly affect programming at some of Telemundo's 16 television stations nationwide, most significantly in Los Angeles' channel 52, where the morning news was taken off the air. The station's morning news talent will remain employed with Telemundo. Neither bilingual network mun2 nor the Telemundo Network (including Telemundo.com) or Telemundo International are affected.

At the network level, Telemundo has performed well this year, with many of its shows garnering record ratings and with upfront sales flat compared to last year's.

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