Rumbo-San Antonio was launched last July 26th. The Spanish-language newspaper had an initial circulation of 35,000 copies and a retail price of US $0.25. Rumbo is published by Meximerica Media, majority owned by Spain's Recoletos (see “First Major International Investment in Hispanic Print,” page 1, Portada® No.9, May/June 2004).
Rumbo-San Antonio is distributed at 1,500 points-of-sale throughout the city, including supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants and coin boxes. Rumbo's Texas launch is supported by an aggressive $2.7 million marketing campaign to attract readers. The five-month campaign includes TV, radio, billboards, and one-on-one and household sampling. Rumbo-Houston was launched on August 30th. By year's end, Meximerica plans to have 100,000 copies of Rumbo on newsstands five days a week, with separate editions printed in San Antonio, Houston, the Rio Grande Valley and Austin.
“This is the first step in our long-term strategy to distribute a national newspaper exclusively targeting the Spanish-speaking American population,” said Edward Schumacher-Matos, CEO and editorial director of Meximerica Media. Rumbo has a modular make-up feature, which means that advertising space is available in increments of a page, rather than the more common column-inch. According to Robert Rios, managing director at Rumbo-San Antonio, modular make-up is intended to simplify the ad buying process, allowing the advertiser to choose from nine different ad sizes, ranging from a full page to one-eighth of a page.
…and Signs a Deal With Dow Jones.
MeximericaMedia, publisher of Rumbo, and Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, announced an agreement to publish a weekly section about personal finance, technology, careers and small business in Rumbo beginning August 2nd. The section will be produced by The Wall Street Journal. Meximerica Media will pay Dow Jones a content fee for the exclusive market rights to publish a minimum four-page tabloid section containing Spanish-language editorial content and national advertising. The two companies will split ad revenues, although the exact formula was not disclosed.
Dow Jones already provides a weekly section to Spanish-language newspapers in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. Dow Jones has been publishing a daily Spanish-language section, The Wall Street Journal Americas, in Latin American partner newspapers for the past 10 years. Edward Schumacher-Matos, now CEO and editorial director of Meximerica Media, helped launch The Wall Street Journal Americas in 1994 while working for Dow Jones as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal Americas.
