Reading All About It - En Español

December 1, 2003

The Spanish-language newspaper business is booming.
BY ELIZABETH LLORENTE

On a single day in late summer, Spanish-language newspapers debuted in Orlando, Chicago and Dallas. The simultaneous debuts underscored a boom that has more than doubled the number of Spanish-language newspapers in the United States from 232 in 1970 to more than 500 today.

The growth has been a natural response to the boom in the Latino population and, by extension, its rising purchasing power. It was only a matter of time before corporate America would wave big wads of advertising dollars to reach the emerging ethnic gold mine.

"As our community grows and develops, so does the competition for our time and resources," said Alejandor Aguirre, deputy editor and publisher of Miami-based Diario Las Américas, which his celebrating its 50th anniversary. The realization has set in, he said, that rich rewards await corporations, politicians and others who make the effort to get their message across to the Spanish-speaking United States.

"The Spanish language is no longer a foreign language in this country," Aguirre added. "Spanish will continue to grow and we will be a bilingual nation. The population that Hispanic media serve is not a passing thing. This is permanent."

Spanish-language newspapers now can be found in such once-unlikely places as Lexington, Kentucky, and Wichita, Kansas. Many of them began as small weekly or monthly efforts, but demand has convinced investors to pour more money into putting them out more frequently.

Knight Ridder's La Estrella in Fort Worth, Texas, for example, recently expanded its twice-a-week publication to come out five times a week under a new name, Diario La Estrella. In Chicago, the Tribune Company relaunched its formerly weekly Spanish-language newspaper, Exito, as a daily renamed Hoy, like its sister publication in New York.

"There are 1.6 million Hispanics in Chicago alone," said Christine Hennessey, the Tribune Company's manager for group communications. "We felt the time was right to consider a daily."

One motivating factor, Hennessey said, is the resounding success of other Spanish dailies. One of the most successful has been El Nuevo Herald, The Miami Herald's sister paper. Launched in 1987 following two less ambitious attempts to cater to Spanish-language readers, El Nuevo boasts a large staff and a circulation of more than 90,000.

Closer to home, Hennessey was inspired by the impressive performance of New York's Hoy, which hit the newsstands in 1998 and is distributed by Long Island-based Newsday. In five years. Hoy has become the fastest-growing Spanish-language newspaper in New York, its circulation topping the city's former leader, El Diario-La Prensa. "It exceeded the expectations we had," said Louis Sito, head of Hispanic media at the Tribune Company.

Gerson Borrero, a columnist and former executive editor of El Diario-La Prensa, welcomes the new paper in town, agreeing with other editors and publishers that the competition sparked by the growing number of papers only makes them better.

Borrero's full baritone voice soars in excitement when he talks about plans to revamp El Diario-La Prensa, which was sold this year by Entravision Communications for $19.9 million to a group of investment firms with a longtime media involvement.

"We're ready to kick ass," Borrero said of his newspaper, which this year is celebrating its 90th anniversary. He cautions, however, that amid all the wooing by English-language media empires that are lapping up Spanish-language newspapers, Latino journalists must never forget their mission. "Many of these companies that are purchasing us are seeing us as dollar signs," he said. "What those of us going through this period of attention need to do is say to them, 'Fine, it's your money, but it's my community.' We can't just say 'Yes, suh.' "

Indeed, some newspapers are foregoing the corporate interest, preferring to rely on a growing number of independent investors interested in getting into the business. Lozano Enterprises is going so far as buying back controlling interest in the Los Angeles Spanish-language daily La Opinion from Tribune Company, which bought 50 percent of the paper three years ago. La Opinion and a growing number of others are betting that their best bet for the future is independence from the media companies.

In any case, "we have to insist on putting out newspapers that will treat with respect the people we address on a daily basis," said Borrero. "I live in the community I cover; I see my readers every day. This is not a market for us, this is 'mi casa.'"

Copyright © 2003, Hispanic Magazine