Daniel Alvarez, VP, Product and Design, NBCU Owned Television Stations, has been named one of Local Media Association’s News Innovators of the Year for his leading work in creating digital/mobile products that deliver and serve bilingual audiences.
Lora Dennis, senior vice president, digital media for NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, wrote in her nomination letter for Alvarez, “In his role with the NBC and Telemundo Owned Stations division, Alvarez leads a team of product managers and designers that create digital products for English- and Spanish-speaking audiences, the only group in local broadcasting that is developing digital products to serve bilingual audiences.”
“Alvarez is just the type of big thinker this industry needs,” said Nancy Lane, CEO, Local Media Association. “Alvarez’s leadership with products created for bilingual audiences is one of a kind in local broadcasting. LMA is so proud to honor him for what his team calls a ‘culture of collaboration, creativity and healthy risk-taking.’”
By instilling a culture of collaboration, creativity and healthy risk-taking, Alvarez and the division’s team have pioneered new vertical storytelling products that help NBC/Telemundo stations attract and build new audiences in non-linear platforms.
In addition, Alvarez leads the division’s partnership with Google for a groundbreaking audio product that leverages NBC/Telemundo stations’ content on Google’s emerging platforms.
After creating more efficient and cost-effective planning processes for the design and build out of the stations’ digital products, Alvarez led the redesign of NBC and Telemundo stations’ desktop and mobile platforms that launched in December 2019. The new design was intended to “future proof” the company’s products, and allows stations to drive more audience consumption of valuable video content, as well as helping improve recirculation. More than a month after the launch took place, all high-level metrics continued their growth trajectory without a hitch, which is indicative of the amazing research, due diligence and vision performed by the team under Alvarez’ guidance.
Alvarez led the team to launch the experimental website LX.com, which focuses on emerging types of storytelling with the premise that every story is local, which will expand this year to include a complete library of content and more experimentation in support of the soon-to-be-launched channel.
Before joining NBCUniversal, Alvarez worked at HuffPost as head of product and design. He has also held product and engineering roles at AOL, Nextel International, Motorola and Verizon International.
Alvarez is also a product management Instructor at General Assembly, a member of the advisory board for the Design Thinking Program at Rutgers and a global mentor for WeWork Labs. In 2019 he was recognized with NYC’s TV Week 40 under 40 award.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from Universidad Simon Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela.
“I am thrilled to receive this honor. This award is a testament to the amazing work of our product, design, engineering and editorial teams who strive to create the best news products for our local audiences in both English and Spanish languages. Now more than ever, our communities need exceptional local news coverage with top-notch digital experiences. We’ll continue to push the boundaries and to keep providing our audiences the best news content, in any language.” said Alvarez.
The Local Media News Innovator of the Year award recognizes a digital media executive who is pioneering new concepts, experimenting in new and creative ways and delivering impactful results.