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More than a Third of Hispanic Media is Bilingual or English

According to research by Portada (see box alongside) more than a third of all Hispanic media targets Hispanics bilingually or in English.

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According to research by Portada (see box alongside) more than a third of all Hispanic media targets Hispanics bilingually or in English.

The majority of Hispanic Media has traditionally been in Spanish. All the major TV networks (Univision, Telemundo) and radio companies broadcast their content in Spanish. There currently exist 14 daily newspapers targeting Hispanics (U.S. and Puerto Rico) and all of them are written in Spanish. It has only been during the last decade that Hispanic media has branched out to communicate to Hispanics Bilingualy or in English.

Television and radio command a very large share of the Hispanic media market (approximately 80% of the $3.5 billion advertising market is annually spent in Television and Radio).

ELHOOD GETS READY FOR MAJOR CONTENT ROLL-OUT

After months of behind-the-scenes machinations, the music centered Hispanic social networking site Elhood is ready to bring the fruits of its labor to the public.

“We signed a deal that makes us the official community of Warner Brothers music a couple of weeks ago. We have access to their entire catalog and are in the process of uploading it to our site,” says CEO Demian Bellumio. He adds that by the end of June, Elhood will have the complete catalogs of all the major record labels available to its users.

One of the site features that Elhood boasts is the user’s ability to fashion custom playlists of their favorite artists on their profile pages. Among the musicians who are featured on the site are Alejandro Sanz and the highlypopular Miami-based group Maná.

“What’s unique about our approach with the labels, is we don’t just license the content, we become their partners. It’s a very integrated approach,” says Bellumio. “We can put very cool solutions together with advertisers. The advertiser can be a sponsor of Maná within Elhood. Version 2 that is coming out with Elhood in June takes the entire online music experience to the next level, not just in the Latin realm, but in the whole online music sphere.”

Bellumio says that Elhood will also be partnering with other sites to power their music playing capabilities. The company has also launched a multi-faceted ad campaign, put together by Miami-based ad agency La Comunidad. The campaign involves print, video, and online, with viral elements at its core.

HIYA! MAIL ORDER NINJA COMIC GOES HISPANIC

Universal Press Syndicate is expanding its Hispanic comic content offerings with a Spanish-language version of the popular general market cartoon Mail Order Ninja.

Currently, one of its most popular Hispanic comics is Condorito, which is syndicated here in the U.S. in Dallas’ Al Dia, and Atlanta’s Mundo Hispanico. “In all, Condorito has about 51 clients,” says UPS sales administrator Carolina Aristimuño.

Another popular comic is Baldo, which also runs in Dallas’ Al Dia and in Fort Worth’s La Estrella. Baldo has about 40 clients.

UPS’ latest comic acquisition is Monica y sus Amigos, from the creator of Ronaldinho Gaucho, the comic about the famed Brazilian Soccer player.

Monica y sus Amigos will begin syndication this May.

HOW MUCH OFFLINE CONTENT DO HISPANIC PUBLISHERS PUT ONLINE?

I’d say that almost 100% of all print content ends up in our online editions. Our weeklies update on a weekly basis and our dailies update nightly online,” says Mary Zerafa, general manager of digital innovation for Impremedia (publisher of El Diario/La Prensa, La Raza (Chicago), La Opinion (Los Angeles), La Prensa (Orlando) and El Mensajero (San Francisco).

Andres Cavelier, multimedia manager of Miami’s El Nuevo Herald says that almost all of El Nuevo Herald’s print content is made available online.

“There are a few things here and there that don’t make it because of copyright, where we have the right to publish something in our print edition but not digitally; usually, though, most everything that is printed ends up online.”

NOT EVERYTHING ONLINE MAKES IT INTO PRINT…

However, the same is not the case that everything published online makes it into print. For example, breaking news that occurs after the print edition has gone to press will usually go straight online. “With breaking news, oftentimes what we’ll do is translate the story that The Miami Herald has posted on its site, leveraging our resources from that publication. If the story widens and warrants more coverage, one of our reporters will do a new story on it for inclusion in both print and online,” says Cavelier.

…AND THERE IS SPECIFIC CONTENT FOR THE WEBSITE.

Anthony Trejo, editor and internet producer for popular Texas daily Al Dia (44,000, daily, Spanish) says that the split is about 50/50 regarding how much of their online content is produced specifically for the website and how much is adapted from their print publication. “We include almost everything that is published in our print publication on our website. However, we also produce a lot of content specifically for the website, like the audio/video content.

CONTENT PREFERENCES OF HISPANIC TEENS

While Hispanic teens’ affinity toward cutting edge technological features might be a bit played up by those who stand to profit from it, it is certainly not all hype. A fast-emerging platform on which to reach them is mobile. A recent study showed that 63% of Latinos own a media-capable cell phone compared to 46% of non- Latinos and are 23% more likely to use their cell phones to watch video content according to MTV NetworksSlivered Screen research.

Responding to such compelling data, MTV Tr3s launched a multicarrier, bilingual mobile channel for Hispanic youth in March. The channel’s core components will be music downloads, ringtones and video content from some of the hottest names in Latin music, including Nelly Furtado, Luis Fonsi, and Paulina Rubio.

TELEMUNDO REPURPOSES BROADCAST CONTENT ONLINE

Seeking to capitalize on the popularity of its telenovelas – or mini soap operas – Telemundo is repurposing broadcast content on its website in a variety of ways.

One thing that it is doing is creating discussion forums around the telenovelas, so that viewers can exchange feedback and commentary about the show with one another. This move has been particularly well-received among web visitors. The station launched a group dedicated to its “Zorro” show in January, and the forum logged 46 entries in that same month. That number ballooned to 351 in February.

Telemundo is also introducing other interactive ways for viewers to become more engaged with the shows online.

The company is inviting people to send in home-videos interpreting some aspect of the Zorro– whether dramatically, or through song and dance, or some other interpretive act, and then posting that user-generated content on its website. According to Borja Perez, vice president of market development for Telemundo’s digital media, the company has had an easy time selling video advertisement spots to advertisers.

“With the maturation of broadband, this has become a more viable option, and in addition, many of the advertisers already have the content from their TV spots,” notes Perez.

CONTENT PREFERENCES: ARE HISPANICS MORE INTERESTED IN THE NATURAL WORLD/ ANIMAL LIFE?

The recently published Monroe Mendelsohn Research PRESS 2006 Survey provides an interesting side-byside comparison of Hispanics’ content preferences and Non-Hispanics’ content preferences.

Among print publications, Better Homes and Gardens, Reader’s Digest, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly and Cosmopolitan are more popular among Hispanics than among non- Hispanics.

Among websites, both groups share the most frequented, Weather.com. The second most-visited websites among Hispanics are CNN.com and ESPN.com. and are tied in terms of traffic generated. ESPN’s website is equally popular among Hispanics and non-Hispanics, while CNN’s website is more popular among non-Hispanics.

When it comes to cable TV, Fox News and CNN are more popular among Hispanics than non-Hispanics, while the Weather Channel and ESPN are more popular among non- Hispanics.

While most of the other favorite channels seem to be shared by both groups in varying order, it is notable that Animal Planet achieved a middle ranking among Hispanics, but did not even rank among non-Hispanics.

Across all three platforms, both Hispanics and non-Hispanics share the most-frequented properties, indicating more similarity in primary interests among the groups than difference.

Given the higher Hispanic ranking of National Geographic and the appearance of Animal Planet in the Hispanic rankings (vs. the absence of A.P. in the Non-Hispanic rankings) we can conclude that Hispanics harbor a more deep-seated interest in the natural world/animal life than non-Hispanics.

QUEPASA PREPARES FOR NEXT STAGE IN WEB BROADCASTING

QuePasa ran a beta test with IboxTV out of Miami to present 24- hour streaming video on its homepage.

“The arrangement with IboxTV was a cordial test, implementing their system on our homepage to accurately monitor their traffic. That test period has now ended," says CEO Robert Stearns.

QuePasa is looking to enter internet TV and web broadcasting, and will be rolling out a major fortification of its video capabilities in early summer, according to Stearns.

Mr. Stearns points out that the long-awaited arrival of internet TV is at hand because of advances in the technology involved. Whereas before, online broadcasting was very costly due to the high amount of bandwidth needed to send out the signal to tens of thousands of users, the new technology allows the broadcaster to send out one signal that users can tap into, using less bandwidth, and therefore costing much less money to execute.

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