Move to Miami Is Matter of Time, Univision Says

The most widely watched Spanish-language news program in America was batting three for three during a recent newscast.

Univision had dispatched correspondents to cover the three major stories of the day: The Persian Gulf crisis, the University of Florida serial killings and the Illinois tornadoes. And in each case, the news crews had obtained video interviews with victims, soldiers and families of a dead soldier-- in Spanish.

They had found a Latino angle in all three situations, and the rival Spanish-language newscast did not match the stories.

“And if we had had three more hours, we would have done an even better job,” Guillermo Martinez, Univision’s vice president and director of news, said when one of his anchors popped into his office to ask what he thought of the show.

The time zone issue, Martinez said, is the primary reason behind Univision’s impending move from its Laguna Niguel headquarters to Miami.

They not only have to look for the Latino angle in world and national stories that they cover but must do it with a fraction of the resources of the big three networks--ABC, NBC and CBS. And Univision employees are three hours behind those networks when they get up every morning.

And in television, every minute counts.

“If the sun rose from the West, this would be an ideal place to have a newscast,” Martinez said.

For three years, Univision has been running operations for its nightly 6:30 p.m. newscast out of facilities in a modern warehouse district off La Paz Road in Laguna Niguel.

They are far from any large concentrations of Latinos, and a 90-minute drive from Los Angeles, where most Southland Spanish-language TV stations are based. Ironically, the headquarters for the network watched by more Spanish speakers anywhere--their viewers include 6 million U.S. Latinos, many of them newly arrived immigrants--is located within view of the western regional offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The story that circulated within Univision is that former executive Emilio Azcarraga--Univision was then owned by a Mexican communications conglomerate--passed up a location in Los Angeles because he liked the Ritz Carlton Hotel and wanted to be close by.

Now owned largely by Hallmark Cards, the network has a news staff of 84, including correspondents based in Mexico City, San Francisco, Washington, San Antonio and, of course, Los Angeles. In January, most of those working out of the Laguna Niguel office, including anchors Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos, are heading east to Miami.

The news is broadcast not only to stations in several U.S. metropolitan areas with large Latino populations--Los Angeles-Orange County, Miami, New York and San Antonio, for example--but also to 12 Latin American countries and Puerto Rico.

The Wall Street Journal, in a front-page article in December, called Univision “a giant when it comes to covering Latin America” compared to the other American networks.

Each day’s broadcast includes slickly produced reports from various locations, concentrating on Latin America for its huge Spanish-speaking audience.

The impending move, however, refuels criticism that Univision was “Cubanizing” the news. Since 1981, when the newscast first began and its owners debated where to locate its headquarters, Latinos on the West Coast charged that taking it to Florida would give control of the news to Cubans and Cuban-Americans of Miami whom they said would slant the news to reflect anti-Castro and otherwise politically conservative views.

Martinez maintains that in spite of those fears, that has not happened since he joined the operation in March, 1988.

“Anybody who watches us knows we haven’t Cubanized the news,” said Martinez, himself a Cuban-American. “The national news is not going to change because we’re on the East Coast or the West Coast.”

He pointed out that the newscast runs about three or four stories a week about Los Angeles, while it only shows one or two about Miami.

“The philosophy is, every time I see a Miami story, I don’t judge that Miami story based on whether viewers in Miami want to see it,” said Martinez, a longtime editor at The Miami Herald before he joined Univision. “I ask, would a Mexican-American in Los Angeles be interested in this story?”

Last week, the network ran a five-part series called “Inside Cuba” that looked at the island’s economy, military and future in light of the thawing of the Cold War. It was so balanced, Martinez said, that he has heard no criticism from either Cubans in Miami who might think the piece is biased in favor of Castro or from others saying it is anti-Castro.

Local Latino leaders say they don’t understand why the news operation has to move to Florida when most of its audience is in California, and is mostly Mexican-American.

“It’s a very strange thing in view of the population trends, with recent reports showing that California is not only the biggest state but the state with the biggest Hispanic population,” said Esther Renteria, chairperson of the Los Angeles-based National Hispanic Media Coalition. “If you’re going to serve your constituency, you need to be where they are.”

She agreed that the news program had presented a balanced view of Latinos nationwide but said this was only because “it’s based here, and I don’t see how you can be based in Miami, 3,000 miles away from most of your viewership. It’s a very strange move.”

Said Raul Ruiz, Chicano studies professor at Cal State Northridge: “For them to get out of Southern California to go to Miami is a real slap in the face to their greatest supporters, the Mexican-American community.”

Ruiz and Renteria said they will consider writing letters or registering their dissatisfaction in some other way.

Deborah Durham, Washington bureau chief for Univision, said most of the news staff and executives are aware of those concerns and work to dispel them. The move, she said, is really because of the time difference.

“Presumably by having the news operations in Miami, we will all be able to begin the day at the same time,” she said. “We’ll be able to communicate on stories better--on the content of stories early--as compared to the way we do it now.

“I know they love it out there and it’s absolutely beautiful and I envy them, sitting here in the stifling Washington summer,” she said. “But it’s mostly a time situation.”

But she said publicity about Mexican-Americans in California being concerned about the orientation of the newscast has made its way even to her office, and “I think there’s a conscious effort by everyone on the news staff to not let that happen.”