Michelle Morgante, the Assistant Bureau Chief of the Associated Press in Miami, answered the following questions:
Q: Do you think that Hispanic parents' informational needs differ from Anglo-Saxon parents?
A: “Part of the answer to the first two questions depends on what income segment the publication is targeting. If it's middle upper-class, then the publications won't differ much from what you see in say Parents magazine: helpful advice on behavior, health, recipes, and lots of reviews on products such as toys, books and safety devices.”
Q: What if the parents are newly-arrived immigrants?
A: “If the target market is newly arrived immigrants or lower-income, then the topics would be more basic… How to get medical care, how to find a doctor, how to negotiate the school system, illness-prevention – but less on product reviews.”
Q: Do you think there is a demand for bilingual Hispanic parenting publications?
A: “I believe the trend in Hispanic pubs is away from bilingual and more of one language or the other. For example, Latina magazine is an English publication that has reduced the amount of copy being translated into Spanish; The Union-Tribune's weekly Enlace has veered toward nearly all Spanish content. And many of the staffers I talk to from Spanish-language pubs feel that mixing the languages muddles the publication's purpose.”
