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Truly the Golden State for Hispanic Advertisers

California is far and away the biggest Hispanic market in the U.S. Among California residents, approximately 35.2% of the population is Hispanic, comprising almost 13,000,000 Latinos.

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California is far and away the biggest Hispanic market in the U.S. Among California residents, approximately 35.2% of the population is Hispanic, comprising almost 13,000,000 Latinos. Of this group, Mexicans represent about 75% of the total Hispanics in the state (census data), making them a highly sought-after market segment. A large segment of the total Hispanic population lives in the Southern California area. Los Angeles alone is home to almost 8.5 million Latinos.

California’s digital and print media market has an interesting dynamic to it in that it must serve large amounts of first generation, un-acculturated, Spanish-dominant Latinos, as well as highly acculturated bilingual, English dominant Latinos. The state’s newspaper market also covers an immense geographical territory, Ventura County’s El Clasificado (255,000, weekly, Spanish) has taken an all-inclusive approach to the challenge. Originally a classified print publication, it has expanded into a multi-faceted media company. It publishes two print editions El Clasificado and Al Borde.

El Clasificado is distributed throughout L.A., Orange and Inland Empire counties. It is distributed mainly through bulk drop, and is also homedelivered.

The Spanish-language publication is just 5% editorial and the rest is comprised of display and classified advertising (The breakdown is 52% classified, 43% content is display, 5% editorial). The paper’s average reader is 37 years old, married with about 3 kids. The small amount of editorial is usually family oriented, addressing such issues as how to pay for college.

Advertisers include Wells Fargo, Blue cross of CA, Sprint Nextel, Walt Disney. In all El Clasificado has about 3,000 clients per week. Al Borde, a bi-weekly publication directed at younger Latinos seeking edgier content is published by El Clasificado. “It’s essentially a Latino version of the Village Voice,” says new media development manager Melvin Ortiz. “Al Borde targets 18-34 bilingual trendsetter Hispanics.” Al Borde’s readers are also highly educated; 72% are either college graduates or currently enrolled in college.” Advertisers include Absolut, Monster (energy drink), Cingular, Pepsi, House of Blues.

San Francisco-based El Mensajero (150,000, weekly, Spanish) was acquired by Impremedia in late 2005 to complement its Southern California property La Opinión. Monica Lozano, Senior Vice President of ImpreMedia and Publisher and CEO of La Opinión noted that “the ability for newspaper advertisers to directly reach Hispanics in both Northern and Southern California through one Spanish language buy is an opportunity whose time is long overdue.”

La Opinión (125,000, daily, Spanish) is also an Impremedia property serving the greater Los Angeles area. About 40% of its advertising is national, and covers all major categories, including telecom, financial, automotive and home improvement. The paper features weekly supplements on sports, entertainment, and lifestyle. In March of 2006, the paper began publishing its lifestyle supplement – “Vida Mejor” – in English as well as Spanish: “What we realized is that a lot of Latinos want to read our content, but are simply unable to because they don’t read Spanish. So in order to reach out to those people we decided to publish this section in English as well,” says Pedro Rojas, editor in chief of La Opinión.

La Opinión also publishes La Opinión Contigo (255,000, Sundays, Spanish), a free weekly product that is fully bilingual, has a circulation of 250,000 and is home-delivered. The publication has five zoned editions covering East LA, Montebello, Huntington Park, San Fernando, and Santa Ana. Contigo is similar in scope to the “Vida Mejor” section of La Opinión, and is described as a “shelflife product that consists of original content relating to family life, home improvement, and computer issues.”

Asked whether La Opinión is moving toward being a bilingual paper Rojas responded, “I don’t think we will see a fully bilingual La Opinión in the near future, but we need to keep an eye on it and how our readers want to receive our content.”

Another entity in the Los Angeles print landscape is Eastern Group Publications, which publishes 10 zoned papers with a weekly circulation of just over 100,000 and a combined reach of 500,000. The papers are CVC audited, fully bilingual and are distributed doorto- door. The papers have a local community news focus and offer a combined buy spanning all ten markets.

El Latino (80,500, weekly, Spanish) serves the San Diego market with local news and information. It is distributed through outdoor and indoor racks and home delivery. Advertisers include Albertson’s, Blockbuster, Kmart and Bally’s total fitness.

Diario San Diego (17,000, weekly, Spanish) is another local news player in the San Diego market. It has special sections on news and entertainment, sports, children’s interest, and border news. It also publishes a real estate supplement called Nuestra Casa.

Impacto USA (255,000, weekly, Spanish) is a paper with enormous reach. Delivering local and national news, it is home-delivered to 250,000 homes weekly by The California Independent Postal Service Marketing Group (CIPS), the largest alternative delivery service in the country.

Other popular Hispanic newspapers in this market covered by Portada in the past include Hoy Los Angeles, Vida en el Valle out of Sacramento and La Prensa in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Magazines: A Split Audience

Much like the state’s Hispanic newspaper market, California’s magazine market is interesting in that it also serves both acculturated and un-acculturated Latinos.

However, unlike the newspapers, these magazines also seek to cater to Hispanics nationwide, with a couple of exceptions. Additionally, whereas the newspapers tend to target mostly Spanish-dominant Latinos, the magazine market is geared more toward English-dominant, acculturated Latinos.

Oye (75,000, Bimonthly, English), stands for “Open Your Eyes,” and is a general interest, sports and entertainment magazine with a humorous slant. While the magazine is produced in California, it has a national scope. “We’ve been described as the Maxim for Latino men. But we’re not like Maxim en Español. Whereas Maxim en Español is directed toward the Latin American audience and has some incidental U.S. circulation, our content is specifically tailored to U.S. Hispanic men,” says managing editor Javier Reynaldo.

The magazine’s audience is Latino men, aged 21-30. Oye’s readers are mostly born and/or raised in the U.S. and are bilingual, although most do not read or write in Spanish.

Oye is primarily English, with some Spanish thrown in. The magazine’s advertisers include Hennessy, Absolut, Chevrolet and Jeep. Most of the ads have latino themes and models. Editorial includes interviews with Latino celebrities and irreverent features.

Targeting Affluent latinos

Tu Ciudad Los Angeles (115,000, monthly, English), published by Emmis Communications, is a bimonthly English-language publication targeted at the growing community of affluent Latinos in the area, which measures approximately threeand- a-half million. The magazine’s target readers are college-educated Latinos, ages 25-49 with a household income of $91k. Co-publisher Jaime Gamboa, formerly of Wired, describes the magazine as “a fun, energetic, and irreverent guide to the city. It is all things LA and all things Latino.”

Although Tu Ciudad —translated “Your City”— is geared toward Latinos, the publishers do see some crossover readership. “Everything in L.A. is Latino-influenced, from the food and the culture, right down to the street names,” says Gamboa. “As a result, much of the content that is of interest to our Latino audience will also be of interest to the wider LA community.”

The bulk of the magazine’s distribution is mailed (85,000) with 20,000 copies distributed to newsstands and the remaining 10,000 are listed as public distribution copies.

Culture, Art and politics

Bello Magazine (351,000, Spanish), whose motto is “Beauty. Strength.” is primarily about culture, art and politics says ad-sales director Paul Mendoza. Its main ad-category is automotive with Mercury, Honda, BMW and Lexus all advertising. The magazine is heavily distributed in southern California. The magazine goes after the upwardly mobile Latinos that Tu Ciudad targets, but does so on a national scale and with more of a focus on the arts. Last year, the magazine partnered with Time Warner Cable to promote the magazine with banner advertising on Time Warner’s website, as well as on some of TWC’s radio and television properties.

Bello currently has a distribution arrangement with HEB stores. The magazine’s ad-sales representatives are Panamerican Communications in the Southeast and HMPM on the West Coast. Bello’s open rate is $26,000 with a CPM of $74.

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