Latina Rides Hispanic Tide

The U.S. born segment of the Hispanic market now represents 60% of the total population. This is a tidal wave of consumers, and Latina Magazine is right in front of them.

By successfully targeting bicultural women aged 18-34, publisher David Kahn has made Latina the eighth fastest-growing magazine in America based on ad revenue, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. For the three months ending in March Latina had ad revenue of $2.574 million, against $1.430 million a year earlier. Kahn said Latina is not just a Latin American magazine.

"That woman whose heritage is Mexican, but is U.S. born and living in Los Angeles, has much more in common with the U.S.-born woman of Puerto Rican heritage in New York, than she does with a woman born in Mexico," he said.

Latina will reach 300,000 of these women by the end of the year, and 350,000 next year, against circulation of 225,000 last year, Kahn said. This has driven advertisers such as Volkswagen, Nike, and American Express to advertise in Latina, joining fashion advertisers like L'Oreal, Proctor & Gamble, and Johnson & Johnson.

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Kahn took over the seven year-old magazine just eight months ago, and set out to deliver "a much greater level of client-centered activity" aimed at helping advertisers understand and effectively reach the market.

"Clients are asking where their growth is coming from in the next one, three, five, 10 years, and the Hispanic market is a good answer to every one of those questions," he said. "If you peel the layers of the onion that is the Hispanic market, you will see that the U.S. born segment is driving more than the population growth of the Hispanic market. It's the primary driver of population growth in this entire country."

Kahn targets this market with content that is similar to magazines like "Marie Claire," but focused on the needs of U.S.-born Hispanic women. Kahn is also focusing on expanding the Latina brand, although the privately held Latina Media Ventures does not yet have additional magazines in the pipeline.

"Our vision is to be the leading voice of bicultural Hispanics in America," he said, adding that the market's growth has just begun.

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