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Hemisphere Media Group’s New EVP Lucia Ballas Traynor (UPDATED)

Hemisphere Media Group, Inc. the cable TV property targeting the high growth Spanish-language television and cable networks business in the U.S. and Latin America, announced the appointment of Lucia Ballas-Traynor as EVP of Advertising Sales.

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Hemisphere Media Group, Inc. the cable TV property targeting the high growth Spanish-language television and cable networks business in the U.S. and Latin America, announced the appointment of Lucia Ballas-Traynor as EVP of Advertising Sales. (UPDATED with interview with Ms. Ballas-Traynor).

Mama's Latinas won the 2013 Portada Content Provider to Hispanic Audiences Award: Lucia Ballas-Traynor, Publisher Mamas Latinas, Marcos Baer, publisher of Portada, and Award presenter Evelyn Castro, La Prensa de Houston.
Lucia Ballas Traynor (left) won the 2013 Portada Content Provider to Hispanic Audiences Award with Marcos Baer, publisher of Portada, and Award presenter Evelyn Castro, La Prensa de Houston.

Lucia Ballas-Traynor will lead the advertising sales strategy for Hemisphere’s portfolio of networks. “I will be based in New York,” Ballas-Traynor tells Portada. She adds that she “will be traveling to Miami where we are headquartered, Puerto Rico where WAPA-TV is based as well as Latin America where we have significant distribution for Cinelatino and Pasiones.”

“I am responsible for overseeing all advertising throughout Hemisphere’s footprint, with a primary focus on U.S. Initially our focus will be on our two Nielsen-rated networks: WAPA América and Cinelatino. Both networks offer advertisers unique packaging opportunities, unmatched by any other media company, to reach underserved audiences in various environments that are appropriate for all key ad categories.”

Ballas-Traynor has more than 25 years of experience in Hispanic media, building and leading top Hispanic media brands across TV, digital, mobile, print, and live events. Most recently Ballas-Traynor was co-founder and EVP of CafeMom’s MamásLatinas, a bilingual online destination dedicated to entertaining and empowering Latina moms. Asked by Portada on how her approach is going to change now that she will be mostly selling into cable TV, Ballas Traynor responds that her sales career started at Galavision “so this role is effectively taking me back to my roots in terms of how cable TV is sold. My approach is consultative, insights-driven and content-centric regardless of the medium. Consequently, the approach is not too different from digital.”

“We are thrilled to have Lucia join us,” said Alan J. Sokol, President and CEO of Hemisphere. “She has unparalleled experience and success in driving revenue in a variety of established and growing Hispanic media ventures. We’re confident that through her strong agency relationships and unbridled creativity, she’ll drive our ad sales business and put Hemisphere at the forefront of creative thinking.”

Digital Rights

Regarding Hemisphere Media’s plans on the OTT and digital streaming side, Ballas-Traynor tells Portada that Hemisphere Media owns digital rights for a “significant percentage of our content and are well-positioned to capture viewers wherever and however they choose to consume video content. Furthermore, we own an expansive library of the best Spanish-language films and other content and are continually generating new content that can be distributed digitally or licensed to over-the-top platforms.”

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