Publications for Latinos Booming, Especially in L.A.

Publications aimed at Latino consumers are springing up in record numbers, and revenues are growing even faster as advertisers ramp up efforts to tap Latino buying power, now estimated at more than $340 billion, according to statistics released at a National Assn. of Hispanic Publications convention this week.

So strong is the trend that Latino market analysts refer to it as a “revolution in Hispanic print.”

But despite the gains--and a growing sophistication among Latino publications--advertising in Latino media accounts for less than 1% of the nearly $200 billion spent on advertising in the United States last year. And the bulk of the Latino ad dollar goes to television and radio.

“Our whole challenge is to explain [to advertisers] that this has become the general market,” Ric Trent, associate publisher of Wave Community Newspapers Inc., told Latino publishers and corporate sponsors at the convention, which continues through today in Huntington Beach.

Interest by corporate advertisers has been “too small and too slow, and a lot of the dollars have been chased to broadcast,” said Trent, whose company publishes 31 Los Angeles-area newspapers, 11 of them bilingual. “Print needs to coordinate itself better.”

Despite these hurdles, however, the growth of Latino publications is undisputed, especially in Los Angeles, the nation’s leading media market. As the Latino community burgeons, publications are bursting forth in a race to keep pace. And they are branching out to the English-speaking and bilingual Latino community as it moves into the middle class.

Since 1990, the number of Latino-oriented publications nationally has grown 69%, from 742 to 1,256--84% of those in Spanish. Combined circulation has grown by 248% to 33 million, and advertising revenue has jumped 305%, to $572 million, according to Kirk Whisler, head of Carlsbad-based Western Publication Research.

The trend does not appear to be slowing: Two new publications aimed at Latino teens are now being launched--SuperOnda, published by Santa Barbara-based Hispanic Business Inc., and Latin Girl, published by New York-based MicroMedia Affiliates Inc.

A host of mainstream publications such as People, Teen and Glamour have rolled out Spanish-language editions in the last few years, and even Sears and Target are publishing Spanish-language magazines for their customers. Dozens of other publications--mostly weekly newspapers, glossy magazines and newsletters--have sprung up, catering to everyone from brides-to-be to the Latin food industry.

Los Angeles County alone boasts 135 Latino-oriented publications. They range from La Opinion, the nation’s largest Spanish language daily, to weeklies and biweeklies catering to Salvadorans and Guatemalans, to a monthly magazine for tango enthusiasts.

The proliferation of publications is enabling more targeted marketing by advertisers, who can appeal to consumers by gender, taste, age and language ability, as well as by generation, said Isabel Valdes, president of Los Altos-based Access Worldwide Cultural Access Group, a market research and consulting firm. Research also shows that Latinos are “leading the market in new readership,” she said.

“The advertiser has been educated to think that we Latinos don’t read,” she said. “[The industry growth] is changing stereotypes.”

About 120 publications--a 10th of the national total--are members of the National Assn. of Hispanic Publications (NAHP), founded by Whisler in 1982 and now headed by Executive Director Andres Tobar in Washington. Despite their small number, they represent 7.5 million in circulation, about a quarter of the total for Latino publications. Member publications must be majority Latino-owned and community oriented.

The association held its first solo convention in 1988 with six sponsors and came away with a meager $10,000, said Eddie Escobedo, the group’s president and publisher of El Mundo, a Las Vegas weekly. This year it expects to gross a quarter of a million dollars, tripling the number of sponsors, including AT&T; Corp., General Motors Corp., Philip Morris USA and Adolph Coors Co.

Fighting for the attention of advertisers, however, has not been easy. While the $572 million in ad revenues pulled in by Latino publications in 1998 represents a 40% boost over 1996 and 305% over 1990, print totals are still eclipsed by spending for TV and radio. According to Hispanic Business Magazine, total Latino market ad spending reached $1.7 billion in 1998, with less than $300 million going for print.

That $1.7 billion is only a tiny slice of the nearly $200 billion spent by advertisers in the general market. Even Internet advertising, still embryonic, is expected to top $2 billion this year.

Latino media advocates, however, are making slow progress. Agencies can now place media buys through the Latino Print Network, a new NAHP program that links advertisers with members through a group buying plan--a service long available for Latino radio and TV and leading general market newspapers. The network also enables publications to receive their advertising digitally, cutting down on hassles for ad agencies.

“Hispanic print is maturing right now,” said Manuel P. Galvan, president of Chicago-based Vantage Point Marketing Ltd., a marketing and media consulting firm that focuses on the Latino market.

“They are learning about audits, about how to target the community, so they are becoming much more viable, not just for readers, but to consumers and ad agencies,” he said.

“I tell my clients, ‘You have to put Hispanic print into the mix and you cannot simply throw money at the situation. You have to build relationships,’ ” said Galvan, who attended the conference with one of his clients, Sprint PCS. Sprint spent $6 million on the Latino market in 1998, according to Hispanic Business Magazine.

Others have weighed in with larger commitments. GM, for example, spent $17.5 million on the Latino market in 1998, ranking it fourth on the magazine’s list. The auto maker has taken greater interest in the market as it has sought to regionalize products and marketing, said Chevrolet spokesman Dan Hubbert.

“As the business becomes more competitive, you’ve got to maximize your opportunities in every area of the country. And if those areas have a large Hispanic population, you’ve got to be able to reach that group,” he said.

“We’re not looking at the United States quite as homogeneously as we once did.”