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Florida: A Dioverse and Expansive Marketplace

Perhaps the biggest change to have hit Florida’s Hispanic media landscape in recent years is the arrival of Hispanics from all over Latin America.

Content

 

Perhaps the biggest change to have hit Florida’s Hispanic media landscape in recent years is the arrival of Hispanics from all over Latin America. Whereas previously, the Latino population was overwhelmingly Cuban—and to some degree still is— today the landscape is much more mixed, with Venezuelans, Argentineans, Colombians and Puerto Ricans all there in force—and not just in Miami. Portada estimates the value of the Florida advertising market to lie at approximately $800 million. Radio and TV account for the bulk of this, while print amounts to a respectable $120 million, 25% of which is national advertising. 

 

> Jacksonville

Norberto Sanchez, Norsan Media principal who owns Jacksonville’s Hola Noticias and a string of radio stations in the area, puts it this way: “Northern Florida has traditionally had a strong Puerto Rican population, outnumbering other Hispanics,” he says. “Recently, however, the area has seen a real surge in Central and South Americans in the area, particularly Colombians and Venezuelans.

“The Mexican population has also been growing quickly because of construction work. In the last year and a half, the Mexican and South American populations grew from 5% to 35% of the Hispanic population here, so it’s been a dramatic shift. I’d say that at present, the area is about 1/3 Puerto Rican, 1/3 Central and South American and 1/3 Mexican,” says Sanchez. To offer advertisers full reach, Sanchez says that Norsan actively crosspromotes its vehicles both in print through Hola Noticias, and through its radio stations, which include popular regional Mexican content and Latin pop music aimed at younger audiences.

> Tampa 

Tampa is also very diverse. The city’s Hispanic community, which makes up 20% of the population, has a purchasing power of $7.2 billion. There is a large Puerto Rican contingent, as well as a good number of third and fourth generation Hispanics (mostly of Cuban and Spanish descent) who read the Tampa Tribune. Luis Baron, publisher of the weekly 7 Días and La Guía monthly magazine (circ. 12,000, Spanish), tells Portada that his publications target mostly first and second generation Spanish-dominant Latinos.

Orlando Nieves, General Manager of Hispanic initiatives for the Florida Communications Group notes, “More than 26 different nationalities are represented here.” Nieves estimates that the Tampa Hispanic print market is worth about $6 million annually. In 2006, his company launched Centro Mi Diario, a weekly targeting Tampa Hispanics. 

> Orlando 

Orlando is interesting demographically in that over half of the Latin population— 52%— hails from an assortment of Latin American countries, each group present in such small numbers as not to justify individual representation in census figures. The largest single group Puerto Rican, comprising about 32% of the area’s Hispanics, followed by Mexicans at just under 10%. Orlando’s largest Hispanic paper is El Sentinel (81,243, weekly, bilingual). The free publication is distributed through bulk delivery, racks and home delivery. Another heavyweight in Orlando is Impremedia’s La Prensa newspaper, which also publishes a Tampa edition. Yet another magazine that has decided to launch in Orlando is the Puerto Rican women’s fashion publication Imagen. The magazine has a circulation of 80,000. There has been bad news in this market: El Nuevo Día Orlando, a daily free newspaper published by Puerto Rico’s Ferre Rangel Group, suspended publication in late August. The real estate crash and the related economic slowdown have made life much more difficult for many Floridian media properties.

> Miami/Ft. Lauderdale

Miami-Dade is home to the nation's third-largest Hispanic community behind Los Angeles County and Harris County (Houston), Texas, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Alejandro Aguirre, deputy editor and publisher of Diario Las Americas says that the biggest change that has occurred in South Florida’s print market is that newspaper companies are no longer simply newspaper companies, but full-blown media companies and original content producers: “Now they are realizing that newspapers are no longer just in the newspaper business any more. That is one of our product lines, but there is much more to it than that. We’re in the midst of a strong integration not just of platforms but also of products in terms of content. We are no longer just transferring our print content to the site. Instead we are creating whole new products out of the material. We’re integrating our resources to become the dominant player in this market,” says Aguirre. “Don’t get me wrong, advertisers are still very interested in the printed product, as well as direct mail. At the end of the day, it’s about reaching the intended demos with high precision.”
El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language daily published by McClatchy, is the nations’ Hispanic newspaper with highest advertising revenues. It profits from a long history, it was launched in the mid eighties, an efficiently run organization and the very desirably South Floridian high purchasing power demographic it targets. El Nuevo Herald is putting a lot of effort in developing its website, which apart from Floridians is also visited by South Americans.

> Print in high demand 

Eager to take advantage of this advertiser interest in targeted print publications, a number of new publications have sprouted up recently. Express Media International Group, a London-based company that publishes newspapers and yellow pages targeting Latin American communities in Madrid (Spain) and London recently launched a Spanish-language free weekly newspaper called ExpressNews targeting the U.S. Hispanic market. The publication has a distribution of 40,000 (CVC audited) in the South Florida communities of Miami-Dade, West Palm Beach and Broward. “The publication has 700 distribution points and we also have homedelivery.” The newspaper is also supported on Internet,” Carla Mena General Manager of ExpressNews U.S. edition tells Portada. The publishing of newspapers for immigrant Hispanic communities has been spreading, not only in the U.S. Hispanic market, but also in Europe, particularly in Spain. Panregional advertising from advertisers in the U.S. and Europe targeting an immigrant population plays a significant role in Express News’s U.S. edition. Venezuela Al Día (25,000, Spanishlanguage), a weekly newspaper published in Miami targets the growing Venezuelan population there. Venezuelans in the U.S. have a relatively high purchasing power. Many wealthy Venezuelans arrived in the U.S. fleeing from the economic policies of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Such is the Venezuelan community’s growth that the paper is rapidly expanding into other U.S. cities as well. Publisher Manuel Corao tells Portada that it recently started publishing 2,000 issues in Houston, where Venezuelan State company PDVSA has its U.S. headquarters, and 2,000 in Chicago. In Houston, the publication is distributed in racks and Hispanicowned stores of the Katie neighborhood, which has a strong Venezuelan population. He also plans to launch a New York edition in the next few months, starting with a circulation of 2,000 that will be distributed mostly in the Bronx.

For now, the Chicago, Houston and New York versions of the paper are going to be the same as the anchor Miami edition. USA Printing is printing the publication in Chicago and Houston. Corao says that the expansion should allow Venezuela Al Día to garner interest from national advertisers. He also plans to launch a New York edition in the next few months, starting with a circulation of 2,000 that will be distributed mostly in the Bronx. For now, the Chicago, Houston and New York versions of the paper are going to be the same as the anchor Miami edition.

> Luxury Market 

One seemingly inexhaustible market in South Florida is the luxury market. As Nicolas Ibarguen, publisher of business magazine Poder Enterprise, points out, Miami is home to 11 of the top 20 ZIP codes with high-income Hispanic households in the country. It is therefore no surprise that the city is home to various publications that specifically target this affluent segment. Ocean Drive Español is a luxury lifestyle publication that is geared toward affluent Latinos living in and around Miami. The publication is distributed through hotels, salons, doctor’s offices, real estate offices and other locations where affluent Hispanics are found. Approximately 18% of the magazines monthly distribution is homedelivered. About 60% of the magazine’s readers are Female, 89% are Latino or of Hispanic origin, and the average household income is around $175,000. Publisher Tatiana Angel tells Portada, “Ocean Drive Español has been able to successfully grasp the Latin luxury lifestyle markets and its readers with a very upscale and sophisticated content and will continue to build upon and make the necessary adjustments and continue to expand its reach capabilities to keep up with the changing times.” Asked whether the publication is focusing more effort online, Angel says, “Print is still priority at Ocean Drive Español, but so is our website, among other fresh initiatives we are developing. We take the issues and the articles that matter to our readers most and package them for their enjoyment online.” 

> Broadening horizons…

Poder, the magazine targeting the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American business elite, adjusted its strategy with new content and an expanded distribution this past summer when it changed it merged with Hispanic Enterprise and changed its name to Poder Enterprise. As part of the deal, the magazine boosted its circulation from 55,000 to 125,000. Hispanic Enterprise's distribution partnership with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce continued, with Poder Enterprise being distributed in Hispanic Chambers of Commerce nationwide. The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has a small revenue share in Poder Enterprise.

In addition, the magazine recently launched a Poder Miami edition. Publisher Nicolas Ibarguen tells Portada, “The edition for Miami only circulates in Miami. We have another edition for the rest of the US and we have local editions of Poder in Mexico and Colombia bi-weekly and in Chile a monthly, but each magazine has its own independent editorial team. Beginning next year, we are launching Peru, Argentina and Venezuela.” Poder Enterprise and Poder are published by Televisa Publishing and Page One Media is the company producing the content.

> New kid on the block…

“Our goal is to convey the authenticity of being Latin American: a cosmopolitan innovator who has become a key player at generating and propagating trends in our society’s domain,” says Nicolas Ramirez, Editor-in-chief of Level Magazine (15,000, Monthly, Spanish). “We want to emphasize that attitude, that mindset, that language; and use it to inspire a community though even far from its motherland, has found a new home that can assure its lifestyle, its identity, its success.” When considered in its totality, with the diverse range of Florida Hispanics hailing from all over Latin America, and representing an infinite range of interests and backgrounds, one can easily say of Florida’s media market what one can of its Latin population. There’s a bit of everything—o mejor, hay de todo…

 

Norberto Sanchez, Norsan Media principal who owns Jacksonville’s Hola Noticias and a string of radio stations in the area, puts it this way: “Northern Florida has traditionally had a strong Puerto Rican population, outnumbering other Hispanics,” he says. “Recently, however, the area has seen a real surge in Central and South Americans in the area, particularly Colombians and Venezuelans.

“The Mexican population has also been growing quickly because of construction work. In the last year and a half, the Mexican and South American populations grew from 5% to 35% of the Hispanic population here, so it’s been a dramatic shift. I’d say that at present, the area is about 1/3 Puerto Rican, 1/3 Central and South American and 1/3 Mexican,” says Sanchez. To offer advertisers full reach, Sanchez says that Norsan actively crosspromotes its vehicles both in print through Hola Noticias, and through its radio stations, which include popular regional Mexican content and Latin pop music aimed at younger audiences.

> Tampa 

Tampa is also very diverse. The city’s Hispanic community, which makes up 20% of the population, has a purchasing power of $7.2 billion. There is a large Puerto Rican contingent, as well as a good number of third and fourth generation Hispanics (mostly of Cuban and Spanish descent) who read the Tampa Tribune. Luis Baron, publisher of the weekly 7 Días and La Guía monthly magazine (circ. 12,000, Spanish), tells Portada that his publications target mostly first and second generation Spanish-dominant Latinos.

Orlando Nieves, General Manager of Hispanic initiatives for the Florida Communications Group notes, “More than 26 different nationalities are represented here.” Nieves estimates that the Tampa Hispanic print market is worth about $6 million annually. In 2006, his company launched Centro Mi Diario, a weekly targeting Tampa Hispanics.

 > Orlando 

Orlando is interesting demographically in that over half of the Latin population— 52%— hails from an assortment of Latin American countries, each group present in such small numbers as not to justify individual representation in census figures. The largest single group Puerto Rican, comprising about 32% of the area’s Hispanics, followed by Mexicans at just under 10%. Orlando’s largest Hispanic paper is El Sentinel (81,243, weekly, bilingual). The free publication is distributed through bulk delivery, racks and home delivery. Another heavyweight in Orlando is Impremedia’s La Prensa newspaper, which also publishes a Tampa edition. Yet another magazine that has decided to launch in Orlando is the Puerto Rican women’s fashion publication Imagen. The magazine has a circulation of 80,000. There has been bad news in this market: El Nuevo Día Orlando, a daily free newspaper published by Puerto Rico’s Ferre Rangel Group, suspended publication in late August. The real estate crash and the related economic slowdown have made life much more difficult for many Floridian media properties.

> Miami/Ft. Lauderdale 

Miami-Dade is home to the nation's third-largest Hispanic community behind Los Angeles County and Harris County (Houston), Texas, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Alejandro Aguirre, deputy editor and publisher of Diario Las Americas says that the biggest change that has occurred in South Florida’s print market is that newspaper companies are no longer simply newspaper companies, but full-blown media companies and original content producers: “Now they are realizing that newspapers are no longer just in the newspaper business any more. That is one of our product lines, but there is much more to it than that. We’re in the midst of a strong integration not just of platforms but also of products in terms of content. We are no longer just transferring our print content to the site. Instead we are creating whole new products out of the material. We’re integrating our resources to become the dominant player in this market,” says Aguirre. “Don’t get me wrong, advertisers are still very interested in the printed product, as well as direct mail. At the end of the day, it’s about reaching the intended demos with high precision.”

El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language daily published by McClatchy, is the nations’ Hispanic newspaper with highest advertising revenues. It profits from a long history, it was launched in the mid eighties, an efficiently run organization and the very desirably South Floridian high purchasing power demographic it targets. El Nuevo Herald is putting a lot of effort in developing its website, which apart from Floridians is also visited by South Americans.

> Print in high demand 

Eager to take advantage of this advertiser interest in targeted print publications, a number of new publications have sprouted up recently. Express Media International Group, a London-based company that publishes newspapers and yellow pages targeting Latin American communities in Madrid (Spain) and London recently launched a Spanish-language free weekly newspaper called ExpressNews targeting the U.S. Hispanic market. The publication has a distribution of 40,000 (CVC audited) in the South Florida communities of Miami-Dade, West Palm Beach and Broward. “The publication has 700 distribution points and we also have homedelivery.” The newspaper is also supported on Internet,” Carla Mena General Manager of ExpressNews U.S. edition tells Portada. The publishing of newspapers for immigrant Hispanic communities has been spreading, not only in the U.S. Hispanic market, but also in Europe, particularly in Spain. Panregional advertising from advertisers in the U.S. and Europe targeting an immigrant population plays a significant role in Express News’s U.S. edition. Venezuela Al Día (25,000, Spanishlanguage), a weekly newspaper published in Miami targets the growing Venezuelan population there. Venezuelans in the U.S. have a relatively high purchasing power. Many wealthy Venezuelans arrived in the U.S. fleeing from the economic policies of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Such is the Venezuelan community’s growth that the paper is rapidly expanding into other U.S. cities as well.

Publisher Manuel Corao tells Portada that it recently started publishing 2,000 issues in Houston, where Venezuelan State company PDVSA has its U.S. headquarters, and 2,000 in Chicago. In Houston, the publication is distributed in racks and Hispanicowned stores of the Katie neighborhood, which has a strong Venezuelan population. He also plans to launch a New York edition in the next few months, starting with a circulation of 2,000 that will be distributed mostly in the Bronx.

For now, the Chicago, Houston and New York versions of the paper are going to be the same as the anchor Miami edition. USA Printing is printing the publication in Chicago and Houston. Corao says that the expansion should allow Venezuela Al Día to garner interest from national advertisers. He also plans to launch a New York edition in the next few months, starting with a circulation of 2,000 that will be distributed mostly in the Bronx. For now, the Chicago, Houston and New York versions of the paper are going to be the same as the anchor Miami edition.

> Luxury Market 

One seemingly inexhaustible market in South Florida is the luxury market. As Nicolas Ibarguen, publisher of business magazine Poder Enterprise, points out, Miami is home to 11 of the top 20 ZIP codes with high-income Hispanic households in the country. It is therefore no surprise that the city is home to various publications that specifically target this affluent segment. Ocean Drive Español is a luxury lifestyle publication that is geared toward affluent Latinos living in and around Miami. The publication is distributed through hotels, salons, doctor’s offices, real estate offices and other locations where affluent Hispanics are found. Approximately 18% of the magazines monthly distribution is homedelivered. About 60% of the magazine’s readers are Female, 89% are Latino or of Hispanic origin, and the average household income is around $175,000. Publisher Tatiana Angel tells Portada, “Ocean Drive Español has been able to successfully grasp the Latin luxury lifestyle markets and its readers with a very upscale and sophisticated content and will continue to build upon and make the necessary adjustments and continue to expand its reach capabilities to keep up with the changing times.”

Asked whether the publication is focusing more effort online, Angel says, “Print is still priority at Ocean Drive Español, but so is our website, among other fresh initiatives we are developing. We take the issues and the articles that matter to our readers most and package them for their enjoyment online.” 

> Broadening horizons…

Poder, the magazine targeting the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American business elite, adjusted its strategy with new content and an expanded distribution this past summer when it changed it merged with Hispanic Enterprise and changed its name to Poder Enterprise. As part of the deal, the magazine boosted its circulation from 55,000 to 125,000. Hispanic Enterprise's distribution partnership with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce continued, with Poder Enterprise being distributed in Hispanic Chambers of Commerce nationwide. The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has a small revenue share in Poder Enterprise.
In addition, the magazine recently launched a Poder Miami edition. Publisher Nicolas Ibarguen tells Portada, “The edition for Miami only circulates in Miami. We have another edition for the rest of the US and we have local editions of Poder in Mexico and Colombia bi-weekly and in Chile a monthly, but each magazine has its own independent editorial team. Beginning next year, we are launching Peru, Argentina and Venezuela.” Poder Enterprise and Poder are published by Televisa Publishing and Page One Media is the company producing the content.

> New kid on the block…

“Our goal is to convey the authenticity of being Latin American: a cosmopolitan innovator who has become a key player at generating and propagating trends in our society’s domain,” says Nicolas Ramirez, Editor-in-chief of Level Magazine (15,000, Monthly, Spanish). “We want to emphasize that
attitude, that mindset, that language; and use it to inspire a community though even far from its motherland, has found a new home that can assure its lifestyle, its identity, its success.” When considered in its totality, with the diverse range of Florida Hispanics hailing from all over Latin America, and representing an infinite range of interests and backgrounds, one can easily say of Florida’s media market what one can of its Latin population. There’s a bit of everything—o mejor, hay de todo…

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