HPRA-NY chapter hosted an interesting event last night (July 31) at Cohn & Wolfe’s offices in New York City. The panel called “Meet the New Hispanic Media” was moderated by Ford’s Alvaro Cabal, (Multicultural Communications Manager – Ford Motor Company).
Top Editors discussed Hispanic media trends for 2013 and how to successfully pitch and partner with their teams. Special emphasis was placed on new digital and social media properties. In fact, all the editors that participated in the panel were from digital media properties. However, it is interesting to see that some of these media brands origins are not in digital media.
Two of the editors participating in the panel were from purely web based new properties: Café Mom Mamas Latinas’ Managing Editor Mariela Rosario and HuffPost Voces Editor Zuania Capó-Ramos. Two other panelists represented media brands that were born as magazines: Samantha Leal, Online Editor – Latina.com and Michelle Herrera Mulligan, Editor-in-Chief Cosmopolitan for Latinas. A fifth one, Adrian Carrasquillo, Web Producer/Social Media Manager – NBC Latino, was from a mainly broadcast based media property
All panelists agreed on the increasing importance of online video on their websites. CafeMom has a dedicated team of video bloggers. Most of these videos are editorially created, however, sometimes they include PR pitched videos. This is the case of a recent video promoting Got Milk (Milk Board). In general, the panelists noted that they like PR pitches as long as they contribute to their editorial line. Café Moms’ Mariela Rosario admitted that in the online world the boundaries between Advertising/Pr and editorial are more blurry compared to the print magazine world.
Asked about what amount of their stories is pitch driven as opposed to 100% produced by their editorial team, Michelle Herrera Mulligan, Editor-in-Chief Cosmopolitan for Latinas said that between 30% and 40%. Café Moms’ Rosario said that on her website that ratio is much lower. Zuania Capó-Ramos from HuffPo Voces noted that a story may be published because a PR pitch idea prompted it.
However, most of the story’s content may still be produced by a sites editorial team. In terms of the amount of the stories per day that are published on their sites. Answers ranged from 20-35 at Café Mom’s Mama’s Latinas site to 2-3 at www.cosmopolitan.com/cosmo-latina/.
