Spanish-language giant TelevisaUnivision will part ways with its veteran ad-sales chief, Donna Speciale, even as the company is in the midst of negotiating with advertisers for millions of dollars as part of the industry’s annual “upfront” market when U.S. media companies hope to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory ahead of their next cycle of programming.
Just weeks ago, Speciale was at the head of that effort, making a bid to woo sponsors at a lower Manhattan party space while playing up new concepts such as a new series of short-form streaming “microdramas” and a new music concert slated to originate from three different cities.
Speciale, a Madison Avenue mainstay who has served in senior roles for French advertising conglomerate Publicis Groupe and the former WarnerMedia, is expected to stay with TelevisaUnivision during a transition period. She will be succeeded by by Tim Natividad, an executive who has logged stints at Roku and Amazon before taking up a role at TikTok overseeing some sales efforts in the U.S.
The maneuver is the latest under TelevisaUnivision CEO Daniel Alegre, who took over the company’s reins in the fall of last year amid some concerns that debt wasn’t being reduced quickly enough amid a tough operating environment for media operators. Alegre is a veteran of Google and Activision, and, since his arrival, has worked to tear down divisions between the company’s U.S. and Mexico operations, brought together under founding leader Wade Davis. Davis led the buyout of a debt-laden Univision from Haim Saban and investors in late 2020, then steered it into a merger with its most crucial partner and program suppliers, Mexico-based Grupo Televisa in 2022.
It is unusual for a media company to split with its ad-sales chief at this time of year, when sales contracts are in flux. Speciale was involved with many top media buying agencies about supporting not only the Univision TV network in the U.S., but the company’s local stations as well. NBCUniversal, for example, ousted its former sales chief, Linda Yaccarino, in 2023 when it became known she was in negotiations to become CEO of the social-media company then known as Twitter — just days before NBCU was to have made a critical upfront presentation to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall.
In a memo, Alegre cast the move as one that had been in the works for some time. “Over the past several months, Donna and I have been in thoughtful conversation about the future of our business. Together, we agreed that this would be the right time for the next step in the evolution of our ad sales leadership,” he said. “Given the importance of our digital future, I am excited to welcome Tim and the unique experience he will bring. Tim has a very deep background in leading large and dynamic ad sales teams, and I know you are going to love the enthusiasm and energy he will bring to the company.”
During her time at TelevisaUnivision, Speciale has worked to convince U.S. marketers of the value of the nation’s growing ranks of Spanish speakers, pushing categories that typically didn’t buy the space — such as financial-services and pharmaceuticals — to invest. She has also advocated for uses of measurement data that spotlight the broader power of audiences for Univision and other parts of the company’s portfolio. “While all of these other media companies, all of these businesses are trying to be everything to everyone, we are everything to one critical, influential consumer, Hispanics, and that is our superpower,” she told Variety earlier this year.
Speciale has hard-won experience from both sides of the negotiating table. While working for Publicis, she represented the interests of top advertisers like Procter & Gamble, Walmart and Coca-Cola. At Warner, she and her team were critical in lining up support for programming that ranged from CNN documentaries to “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee.” She left Warner in 2019 as one of a number of senior executives who exited after AT&T bought the company.