Commentary
Under-35 Hispanic Age Group Engages With Hispanic Newspapers
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 14, 2009
Greg Anthony, SVP, Alloy Access "The Hispanic community... is proving their weight as a segment of influential consumers, with an estimated $951 billion in spending power... "
Of the 1,030 respondents in the top five states measured for Hispanic population, 82% read Hispanic publications and reported sharing their copy with at least one other person. 26% of readers share their paper with at least four others. In addition, 74% of Hispanic newspaper readers have read three or more of the last five issues, and 53% have been reading their favorite Hispanic newspaper for three or more years.
Though Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Hulu and MySpace are all common hubs for today's mobile and digitally connected youth, young Hispanic consumers look to their Hispanic newspaper as an important source for news, entertainment and product information. The 18-24 year old segment favors the politics and entertainment sections higher than the other segments reporting. And overall, the business section appears to be the most favored.
63% of Hispanic newspaper readers report looking at the advertisements at least frequently, with 24% stating they always pay attention to ads. Overall:
- 39% report sharing advertising information with a friend
- 34% have gone to an advertiser's website after reading an ad
- 20% of respondents have attended an event, such as a festival or job fair in response to an advertisement
- 24% of 18-35 year olds report they are more likely to have inquired about a job or career or attended an event such as a festival or job fair
- 25% of the 25-34 year old segment state they are most likely to have called or visited a retail store in response to an ad
- 55% of all Hispanic newspaper readers state they use coupons from the newspaper at least occasionally, with almost one-third using coupons frequently.
- 36% show high redemption of coupons for food and groceries
Clara Padilla Andrews, President of the National Association of Hispanic Publications, concludes that ".. Hispanic print is alive and stronger than ever... circulation continues to increase... (and) is the trusted source of news and information for the growing Hispanic population."
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.
I disagree with Clara Padilla Andrews quote "Hispanic Print is alive and stronger than ever.The annual survey of the Hispanic print industry conducted by Latino Print Network, based in Carlsbad, California, found that the number of daily Spanish-language newspapers fell 31 percent to 29 between 2005 and 2008. Circulation for these newspapers dropped 29.2 percent.
Advertising revenue for Spanish-language daily newspapers reflect the same pattern. Revenue fell 30.1 percent, to $427 million, between 2005 and 2008 after exponential growth since 1990, when the total was just $76 million. Impre's Hoy New York Closed as well Clara. So how is "Hispanic print is alive and stronger than ever"?. Paper has moved to digital and cell phones at an increasing rate. The newspaper industry is being challenged by technology. Eric Schmidt was quoted "We need to reinvent the way the Web delivers this content,"he said,"so that you can have the kind of experience, when people are wandering around with their phone and so forth, that you can have with a printed magazine". I strongly believe as well newspapers are being replaced and to keep up with trends and future, Guias Local, has been focusing these past weeks on our mobile platform, and made some mobile domain purchases we feel are important for SERPS and our revenue model. We had purchased LaPrensa.mobi, ElComercio.mobi, UltimasNoticias.mobi are just a handful of domains, aside from our corporate portfolio domains to increase mobile reach to the masses for aggregated news and to be a mobile content competitor across our local cities. Integration leads to innovation.
I would look at circulation numbers for the top Hispanic Newspapers that are audited and in major Hispanic DMA's to reach a conclusion on the validity of this report. When advising a client, we need facts not bias reports.
There are other conflicting reports: Web use by young Hispanics is on the rise and they tend to be more English dominant.
When the New York Times and LA Times are in hot water and HOY New York ceased circulation, the industry in general is in a downward trend.
What the report does not reveal, but is evident in other research, is that despite the demise of newspapers in the general market circulation of Hispanic print continues to grow.
The vast majority of Hispanic newspapers are weekly. The need to emulate the general market daily model is costly, thus the recent spate of revisions to frequency by papers to reduce costs. LPN's data is a reflection of daily products only.
Although circulation is a metric used to determine reach in a market, it is not the only criteria used to determine which are best titles to use for a marketer's specific objectives.
The growth of online and mobile useage by Hispanics is real, but used as marketing tools on their own, have few channels that deliver critical mass on any given day compared to print.
Integrated approaches using multiple media platforms is still the most powerful strategy.