Research: Hispanic Magazines 2009, A Challenging Year to Say the Least

Hispanic magazine advertising declined substantially during 2009, according to statistics gathered by HispanicMagazineMonitor/Media Economics Group.

One cause of the decrease in ad revenues is the fact that some publications closed in 2009 including Fox Sports en Español, Kena, Ocean Drive en Español, Sobre Ruedas and the U.S. Hispanic edition of Selecciones. However, two new launches bravely faced the crisis: LATINO magazine and Cocina al Máximo.

A total of 6.600,3 ad pages were placed during the January-November 2009 period, a 5.3% decline compared to the same period of 2008. Measured in rate card advertising dollars the decline was even bigger (30%) reaching a market volume of $155.9 million. Notable exceptions in Hispanic magazine advertising declines were TV Notas, a weekly magazine published by Maya Publishing Group, and Espera, the quarterly parenting magazine published by Meredith Hispanic Ventures.

Despite being already underrepresented in Corporate America’s budgets, Hispanic advertising, and even more Hispanic magazine advertising, declined more than general market advertising. This trend is in line with what industry insiders tell Portada: during last years economic “crash”, many corporate marketers cut their Hispanic advertising budgets even more than their general market budgets.

According to Publishers Information Bureau figures for the general market (January-December 2009 period), none of the top 10 magazines had advertising revenue decreases, measured by rate card, higher than 13.3% (Time). Another remarkable fact is that, People, see Table 1 below, the general market magazine with the highest revenues, sells more than six times more than all Hispanic magazines combined. People’s advertising revenuescan also be equated to a fourth of the overall Hispanic advertising market (including all media types).

Table 1: Top Revenues for Hispanic and General Market Magazines

Source: PIB                                                            

Source: MediaEconomics

Automotive craters

Looking at growth/decline patterns in major Hispanic magazine advertising categories (see table 2 below), a substantial decline (-78%) in automotive advertising has to be noted. The automotive category already fell by 44.8% in 2008. During 2009, the automotive category left its traditional top spot among advertising categories to currently occupy the 11^th position. (Automotive Advertising spending in Hispanic magazines reached its peak in 2008 with a record $38,307,116). Industry observers tell Portada that an increase in automotive advertising could be at hand during the second half of 2010, once Detroit has solved most of its structural problems.

“Personal Care – Babies/Children” was the only major category whose advertising increased (13%) during 2009.   

Table 2: Hispanic Magazine Categories that grew and Hispanic Magazine Categories declined in 2009

 Table 3: Top 5 Categories in Each Market

Source: MediaEconomics and PIB

Toiletries/Cosmetics and Food Products where the largest categories in the Hispanic Magazine Advertising during the January 2009 – November 2009 period, according to Table 3 above . General market categories decreased a bit less than Hispanic. Interestingly there was a similar decrease of the top categories in both markets.