Boston-based Phoenix Media has purchased the four year-old El Planeta for an undisclosed sum. Phoenix media currently publishes the alternative weekly The Boston Phoenix, and has been a minority in El Planeta almost since the Hispanic paper’s inception.
“Our intent is to grow it, both on sales side—using the power of the entire Phoenix communications group—and grow it on editorial side by making maximum use of those resources and through content sharing,” Bradley Mindich, President of Phoenix Media tells Portada.
Mindich says that Phoenix Media has a strong base of national advertisers that it hopes to introduce to El Planeta. “We’ll be looking to leverage this base to bring about additional buys. Also there are huge numbers of Hispanic agencies that we will be pursuing aggressively.” In order to execute these aims, the company will enlist its 50 salespeople currently working for Phoenix Media to concentrate on selling into El Planeta.
“Everything is sold in a converged way here at Phoenix media,” Mindich tells Portada, adding that the company tries to involve its advertisers in as many of its five platforms— Print, Radio, Online, Mobile and Events—as makes sense. Mindich says he sees promise in many ad categories, including alcohol companies, wanting to reach out to Hispanics through El Planeta.
“In terms of content, a lot of the arts and entertainment material produced by FNX (Phoenix’s radio station) is very applicable, as is our movie and restaurant coverage. On the other side of things, I think that some of the community issues covered by El Planeta such as immigration policy could be part of the stuff we cover on the English side,” Mindich says.
Ultimately, the company hopes to increase both the circulation and footprint of El Planeta.