According to industry insiders interviewed by Portadatm, the Spanish “gossip” magazine Hola, owned by entrepreneur Eduardo Sánchez Junco, is rumored to be preparing to launch a U.S. Hispanic edition. Hola, generally very secretive about launches and known for their ability to surprise the market, has not revealed any plans to do so.
A U.S.>Hola would be a welcome addition to existing Hispanic women's magazine titles (see “The big magazine hit for Latinas is yet to come,” page 10, Portadatm No. 3 May/June 2003). More than 70% of Hola's Spanish readers are women. Also, Hola already has name recognition among U.S. Hispanics because of its popularity in their Latin American countries of origin. The Spanish edition of Hola has a higher circulation in Mexico than in the U.S. Its total circulation of 564,000 (average July 2002-June 2003, according to OJD, a Spanish auditing organization) has fallen by about 20,000 in the last twelve months due to the increasing competition from TV “gossip” programs and a general decline in consumer magazine circulation (-5.6% in 2002). Hola's revenues are mostly circulation sales based (newsstand).Hola already publishes a British edition under the name of Hello (weekly, circ. 547,000), as well as Oh-La, a French edition (weekly, circ. 110,000).