Mexican publishing house Grupo Editorial Expansion set up GEE International shortly after the Mexican publishing house was bought by Time Inc. in 2005. GrupoEditorial Expansion is Mexicos third largest publishing house. The sector is led by Editorial Televisa.
Dalia Sánchez, a former Conde Nast International executive who succeeded Bryan Palmer as GEE International´s Managing Director last year leads a team of 6 people. In Mexico, Grupo Editorial Expansion has more than 600 employees working mostly in Mexico City, but also in Monterrey and Guadalajara.
Grupo Editorial Expansion publishes 17 magazines and 6 websites reaching more than 6.3 million readers and getting 3 million visits per month. The publications and websites are divided in the following content units: Business, Womens magazines, Mens magazines, Entertainment and Travel.
German Zimbron, Marketing Manager of GEE International in Miami, tells Portada that the publishing houses advertising bestsellers are the business magazine Expansion, gossip and lifestyle magazine Quien as well as its stable of in-flight magazines. Due to their relatively high-purchasing power and captive audiences in-flight magazines tend to charge higher rates than other consumer magazines. In the case of Vuelo, one of Grupo Expansions in-flights magazines, the rate for a full page ad is $13,200 compared to $8,000 for Expansion.
Luxury category….
Luxury advertisers are an important part of GEE Expansion International sales. ¨The luxury category is particularly important to us¨”, Zimbron says. “Mexico is the number one Latin American luxury product consumer. That includes luxury watches”, he notes. Zimbron adds that his team visits more clients directly rather than visiting agencies.
The below table shows an approximate sales breakdown of Grupo Editorial Expansion International sales (Media buys in one or more Latin American countries that originated outside of Latin America).
Region |
% of total International Sales |
U.S.A |
85% (up to 50% from South Florida) |
Europe |
10% (particularly in France, UK and Switzerland) |
Far East |
5% (particularly Japan) |
….and Interactive
GEE International also sells advertising in Grupo Editorial Expansion websites including CNNExpansion.com, Quien.com (site for the namesake celebrity gossip magazine), Chilango.com (website for the namesake magazine about Mexico City called Chilango), Mediotiempo.com (soccer), SaludEmpresarial.com (which targets accountants and lawyers), and Metrocubicos.com (about real estate).
Zimbron, Marketing Manager at GEE International, tells Portada that his company has particularly high hopes for the soccer website Mediotiempo.com, which Grupo Editorial Expansion acquired in 2008. He also thinks that this website will get a substantial amount of users based in the U.S.Hispanic market which can be targeted by advertisers through IP geotargeting (for an example of a Latin American website geotargeting to U.S. Hispanics click here.)
Approximately 12% of Mediotiempo.com´s 2.5 million unique visitors are based in the U.S.
Another website often visited by Mexican nationals in the U.S. and elsewhere is CnnExpansion.com (which attracts more than 750,000 users per month).
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