Juan Pedro Valentín replaces José María Izquierdo as news director at Cuatro and CNN+

The journalist Juan Pedro Valentín has replaced José  María Izquierdo as news director at Cuatro and CNN+. The changeover comes as the channel prepares to celebrate four years on air, a period which has seen Cuatro's news coverage emerge as a benchmark for quality news coverage. Valentín was till now news chief at TVE's 24-hour news channel and was previously news director at Telecinco. He arrives at Sogecable with the goal of further improving Cuatro's news coverage as well as that of transforming CNN+ into a leading news brand by taking full advantage of the opportunities opened up by terrestrial digital television.

Juan Pedro Valentín (born in Madrid, 1964) began his career as a reporter for Cadena SER's news desk after having completed the El País masters in journalism. From there he moved to Telemadrid, where he worked as a presenter and news editor. Next came a stint at Telecinco, where he was named news director in September, 2000. Valentín has also participated in radio and TV debates and was director general of the newspaper Público for a year. Since 2008 he had been director at TVE's 24-hour news channel.

José María Izquierdo (born in Madrid, 1946) has spent much of his career at El País where he is set to continue working. Izquierdo was chief reporter at Diario 16, and the agency EFE's news sub-director and reporter in Havana between 1980 and 1983.  He joined El País in 1983 where he has held a number of posts (including chief reporter for the Sunday edition and later in the area of general news). In October 1989 he joined the founding team of Canal+ as head of news. He was deputy dirctor of El País for ten years  before returning to Sogecable in October 2005 to set up Cuatro's news service. Over the same period he continued to work at the helm of CNN+.

Thanks to his long and varied career in numerous positions of responsibility, José María Izquierdo is widely recognized as one of the leading journalists of his generation.