Last Friday, the Magazine Publisher’s Association hosted the Hispanic Magazine Summit in New York City. The event was attended by representatives from various agencies, including the Vidal Partnership, Mindshare North America, and others.
Some of the magazines that were in attendance were People en Espanol, Selecciones and Latina.
Much of the conference naturally focused on how magazines can capture more advertiser revenue. Jack Myers, founder and CEO of Myers Publishing noted, “What Hispanic magazines need to do is leverage their greatest asset – the strength of their brands – across other platforms such as online.” In so doing, he said magazines could compete with other online properties who, by nature of their medium, are more agile and current.
Managing partner of the Vidal Partnership Oswald Mendez said that it is this agility that makes the online space more appealing to his clients. “With online, you have continuously refreshed content, on demand, and an element of interactivity that is absent in print.”
Indeed, for much of the conference it seemed that panel moderators, such as People en Espanol’s Jacqueline Hernandez-Fallous were desperate for signs of optimism. Jack Myers pointed out that one advantage that print enjoys over broadcast and online is greater engagement. “This is particularly the case with cable. A recent study shows that about 1/3 of Hispanic households with cable have DVR devices. This means that 1/3 of Hispanics are skipping the commercials to watch their shows. This is a great selling point to chip away at advertisers TV investment, because magazine readers are more engaged with the content and are more receptive tot eh advertising they encounter there.”
