Media Buzz | News/views about local media

Sito Negron, David Crowder land at El Paso Inc.

Gustavo reported a couple of weeks ago about Newspaper Tree going on furlough.

Today brings good news for those concerned about longtime El Paso journalists Sito Negron and David Crowder: Both have been hired by El Paso Inc.

Though Crowder was heard on talk radio earlier this week saying they still hoped Newspaper Tree would return once it got "a grant," a quote from Negron in today's story seems to refer to Newspaper Tree in the past tense.

“We had some good times at Newspaper Tree, and thoroughly enjoyed the work and the support from management to do our jobs of reporting and storytelling,” Negron said. “We’re looking forward to bringing the same type of effort and reporting to El Paso Inc.”

There are rumors out there that Newspaper Tree or something similar may return under the leadership of none other than David K.

New morning anchor at KFOX

The management at KFOX-TV Channel 14 (cable Channel 8) announced the hiring of a new morning anchor to replace Israel Balderas, who left several weeks ago to return to Washington, D.C.

Stephanie Guadian,

a Las Cruces native and Mayfield High School graduate, will join Noreen Jaramillo in the morning desk starting on Monday. She comes to El Paso via Houston, where she anchored the weekend news at KTRK-TV, the ABC affiliate. She has also worked in Phoenix and San Francisco.

A graduate of Northern Arizona University, Guadian said she's happy to be back in the El Paso region.

"After years of living in great news markets, I decided to do what I love near the people I love," she said. "It's a good time to be home."

EMMY winners

Note: The last name of Rudy Reyes has been corrected.

Three local journalists won EMMYs over the weekend during at the Lone Star EMMY ceremony in Dallas. The winners are:

• Jonathan Eaves, producer at KVIA-TV. He won the award for best evening newscast in a smaller market.
• Adrienne Alvarez, reporter at KTSM-TV. She won the award for best general assignment report for her story on the freed Border Patrol agents.
• Rudy Reyes, photographer at KFOX-TV. He won the award for best historical/cultural feature for his work on lucha libre in the barrio.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Playboy visited El Paso, and the political fall out that followed.

The big shtick of the October issue of Playboy is that if you bought the magazine you could see racy pictures of cartoon mother Marge Simpson.

But in El Paso, people are actually reading the magazine for its articles. Well, at least one article.

Luis Alberto Urrea wrote a piece for Playboy titled "A Weird Calm at the Edge of the Abyss" that focused on the relative safety of El Paso compared to the murdering chaos going on in Juárez right now. The article follows the author as he is shown around the region by a slew of colorful El Pasoans.

The author even talks about hanging out with City Rep. Susie Byrd and County Commissioner Veronica Escobar. Here's a link to the article courtesy of David K.

Escobar has been getting some flack over the comments she made during a visit she, the author and Byrd made to Chico's Tacos, where Byrd alluded that the cheese used to top the famous flautas is "government cheese." According the the writer, Escobar quickly responded by saying: “It’s that good welfare flavor.”

Of course, Escobar has been badly criticized for the quote, especially by those who think she might run for county judge next year. Her comments have been fodder for local AM radio talk shows, too.

Escobar on Tuesday vehemently denied making the comments stated in the article, and said she plans to contact the author to ask for an explanation.

"Two other people were with us that night and they, too, agree that I never said such a thing," she said. "People have said that both Susie and I were trashing El Paso, but anyone who knows us knows that we love El Paso."

If Escobar's statement is true and she didn't say those things to the writer, it wouldn't be the only fact that is incorrect in the story. Urrea states in the article that El Pasoans are concerned that the 33,000 troops that are expected "soon" at Fort Bliss will not understand the vibe of the city and bring them crime. Of the 34,000 new soldiers that are coming to Fort Bliss, about 22,000 are already here. 

On a side note, I must also disclose that I am a part of this article. Urrea in one part of the article talks about how he attended a birthday party where a "young man" told him that part of the secret of El Paso is its tolerance to "otherness." He quotes this guy without giving his name. In an effort for full disclosure I must admit that that the guy he quoted is me.

It's official: KTSM takes over KDBC

Sources say KTSM officially took over KDBC today. The deal was announced to KTSM staff last week. 

Stay tuned, we'll update as we learn more.

Newspaper Tree is on indefinite furlough.

We wrote about the lack of new stories on Newspaper Tree in an earlier blog, noting that no new content had been posted on the site for about a week.

We have an update. Newspaper Tree editor Sito Negron and assistant editor David Crowder posted a letter to their readers informing them that they are on indefinite furlough. They said the economy took its toll on their publisher and that a date for their return is unknown.

To read the letter go here.

No new news on Newspaper Tree and Lisa D is out of EP Mag

If you've been keeping track of Newspaper Tree you may have noticed that no new original content has been uploaded in a long while. The last story with a Newspaper Tree byline was uploaded Oct. 9, almost a week ago. All new content has come from either press releases or opinion pieces written by outsiders.

El Paso Magazine, Newspaper Tree's sister publication, also suffered a loss in its leadership. Officials at the El Paso Opera told the El Paso Times on Thursday that they have hired Lisa Degliantoni, the magazine's editor in chief, as their spokeswoman and marketing director. A call to Degliantoni's office at the El Paso Media Group's offices revealed that her extension no longer has her outgoing message.

Both incidents come a month after Keith Mahar, the publisher of both Newspaper Tree and El Paso Magazine, announced that his company didn't have enough money to publish the glossy's August, September or October editions. He said then that the November issue may also be delayed until December.

KINT welcomes new reporter

KINT-TV Channel 26 (cable Channel 2) announced earlier this week that a new reporter has been hired to replace Karla Guevara, who left the station several months ago because of a work visa issue. The new reporter is Cristina Zapata and she is expected to start making on-air appearances next week.

Zapata is fresh off her graduation from the University of South Florida. This is her first job, although she did intern at a Univision station in Tampa, Fla. She is a native of Medellín, Colombia.

"She replaces Karla Guevara, who unfortunately left the station earlier this year. We were very sorry to see her leave," said Zoltan Csanyi-Salcedo, KINT's news director. "But Cristina brings a lot of energy and is extremely excited to be in El Paso."

In other Channel 26 news, reporter Heidi Renpenning will start her maternity leave next week. She's due at the end of the month or in early November.

Will Channel 4 and Channel 9 combine forces?

One of the biggest rumors making the rounds in El Paso media circles is that the parent company of KTSM-TV Channel 9 (cable Channel 10) will soon announce that it is buying KDBC-TV Channel 4 (cable Channel 3).

Calls to both stations from the El Paso Times have yielded no information, but reporters and photographers from both stations seem nervous about the buzz. More specifically, Channel 4 staffers are wondering what's going to happen to them if Channel 9 does buy the station.

One option could be to have both stations operate under the same company. It's not uncommon for this to happen. In Abiline, Texas, for instance the NBC and CBS stations are owned by the same company. They run independent news products, but their administration is one.

It'll be interesting to see what happens for KTSM and KDBC ... if anything happens at all, that is.