It had not happened in a while, but a general market newspaper recently bought a Hispanic newspaper.
The Hutchinson News ( 32,000 daily/35,000 Sunday), a paid, general circulation daily newspaper serving Hutchinson (KS), Reno County and a 39-county area, recently acquired Wichita-based Tiempos. Tiempos is a Spanish-language biweekly, with a free distribution of 10,000.
Sedgwick County, Wichita, has a Hispanic population of about 44,000 or 10.2 %; most of its residents are of Mexican origin. Reno County (Hutchinson) has a Hispanic population of about 4,000 or 6 percent. Hutchinson is approximately 300 miles North East of Kansas City.
“Acquiring Tiempos was an opportunity that developed from a relationship with the founders while printing it for over a year,” Hutchinson News publisher John Montgomery tells Portada. Tiempos’ previous owners, Ortiz Media, will continue to provide the news content, sell advertising and produce the paper.
Montgomery adds, “The previous owners wanted to expand it but needed more resources to do so, and we saw an opportunity for the publication. It is a high-quality product, with lots of color, good local editorial content and strong advertising support. It is the leading Spanish-language newspaper in Wichita, and we thought it could do well outside of Wichita as well." Tiempos' Advertising revenue is primarily local and regional.
Expansion Plans
Montgomery notes that, “We will start by making it available at free-standing locations in our home market of Hutchinson, which is about 50 miles from Wichita. Long term we hope to expand into other communities with Spanish-speaking populations. We also could consider going to weekly production.”
Wichita is always a market opportunity for us with ad sales into The Hutchinson News and for niche products.
Newspaper in second and third tier markets, such as these Kansas markets, can be very profitable, even in these challenging times for print media advertising.
The Hutchinson News is owned by Harris Enterprises, a privately held mostly newspaper company based in Hutchinson. The News publishes a local Real Estate magazine and a health and fitness magazine. Its main Website is HutchNews.com.
Related Article: Media buying preferences: Does minority ownership matter?
Newspaper giants set off the race to reach Hispanics