• by adam.m , Michael Deibert , September 21, 2005

Cornfed Iowa-based Meredith Corporation, the publisher of such magazines as Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies' Home Journal, has dipped its toe into the ever-expanding Latino demographic with its launch of Siempre Mujer, a Spanish-language magazine that targets young Latina women.

Siempre Mujer, whose maiden issue features Cuban-American newscaster Soledad O'Brien on its subscriber cover and Mexican songstress Lucero on its newsstand cover, is the latest offering in what advertisers see as an increasingly lucrative market.

"We're looking at a woman who has a very unique experience in this country, and is still very much in touch with her country of origin and culture--but also very interested in embracing the values of the American culture," says Siempre Mujer's Editor in Chief Johanna Buchholtz-Torres, noting that the magazine's target audience is women between 18 and 49 who have lived in the United States for at least 10 years.

With such publications as Time Warner's People en Espanol and Latina magazine seeing positive circulation movement, Siempre Mujer is the latest publication to attempt to find its niche in the demographic.

According to the Fas-Fax report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), published in June and covering the first six months of 2005, Latina's subscriptions increased 9.7 percent from the same time period the previous year, while single copy sales were up 57.6 percent. In the same categories, People en Espanol saw positive movement in the 2.8 percent range for subscriptions and 5 percent for single sale copies.

Figures provided this month by TNS Media Intelligence, an advertising and marketing information company, said that advertising spending in Hispanic media for the first half of 2005 as a whole clocked in at $1.953 billion--a 3.4 percent increase over $1.889 billion for the same time period in 2004.

"This magazine fills a need in the marketplace in terms of the need for a service publication for the Hispanic woman living in the United States, and that's what advertisers have responded to," said Ruth Gaviria, executive director/publisher of Meredith Hispanic Ventures, citing research that Latina women in the 18-to-49 age range who have a median income of $25,000 or more per year and at least a high-school level education number about 10 million or more.

"It is (a market that is) growing, (and) we have found that (it is) severely underserved," said Gaviria of Meredith's new offering.