• by Larry Dobrow , August 12, 2003

Since the release of the 2000 U.S. Census data, media behemoths have stepped up their interest in Hispanic consumers, and thus the smaller media companies that have shown the ability to reach them. Witness NBC's $2.7 billion purchase of Telemundo Communications Group. Now a major print media purveyor, Tribune Publishing, is expanding its coverage of the Hispanic marketplace by introducing one of its flagship Spanish-language brands, Hoy, in Chicago.

Hoy, which has flourished in New York City since its introduction in November 1998, takes over in early September for !Exito!, a free 10-year-old Spanish weekly published by the Chicago Tribune.

"You don't launch newspapers overnight here in the U.S., so it's smart for us to move into a city where we already have an established track record," says Louie Sito, Tribune Publishing's vice president/Hispanic media and Hoy's publisher.

While the management team remains largely the same, Hoy is otherwise an entirely distinct product from !Exito!: its frequency has been upped from weekly to Monday-Friday and it will now cost a quarter. While local information and features will predictably be emphasized, pages will be devoted every day to news from Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. "Society tends to think all Hispanics are the same because they speak the same language, but there are different heritages and societal customs and dynamics," Sito explains.

When asked about Spanish-language newspaper fragmentation, Sito offers several reasons for the current state of affairs. Many Spanish-language papers are unaudited, he notes, which tends to make would-be advertisers skittish about large investments. Similarly, the papers are usually weeklies or monthlies, but arrive in different sizes on different days of the week. "As an industry, we haven't made it easy for advertisers to come on board with us," he acknowledges.

As for marketing Hoy in Chicago, Sito is hoping to replicate the paper's slow build in New York. When the paper first debuted, advertisers took a wait-and-see approach towards signing on the dotted line. "I got a lot of 'come back six months from now,'" he recalls. "Basically, we published for the first six months with almost no advertising." Once companies became wise to the buying power of the Hispanic market, however, Hoy quickly prospered into one of the city's most successful dailies.

"There are so many misconceptions about the Hispanic market," Sito says. "We might speak in Spanish, but when you go to our countries of origin you see Sears, Target and Rite Aid. The companies we're familiar with are the Fords and AT&Ts. When Hispanics come to the U.S., they maintain that brand awareness."

Sito says Hoy's primary audience in Chicago will likely be the same audience that has fueled its New York growth: first-generation U.S. Hispanics who are more comfortable communicating in Spanish than in English. "Those that haven't made the transition yet," Sito explains. "There're still so few properties that address these communities with respect and give them the information they want."

Similarly, while Hoy hasn't yet formulated a demographic profile of its Chicago audience, Sito believes the paper's readership will mirror its New York readership: mostly in the 18-to-34 age range, approximately 54% male, with household income in the neighborhood of $55,000. Given these figures as well as the size of the Chicago Hispanic market - it is nearly two million strong, making it the fourth-largest Hispanic market in the U.S. - there's reason to believe that advertisers will quickly embrace the new paper.

While Sito's New York experience leads him to anticipate quick returns from consumer electronics, automotive and telecom advertisers, he isn't taking anything for granted. "Just like anything new, there will be an education process," he explains. Among the categories where he hopes to improve (both in New York and Chicago) are financial services and pharmaceuticals. "There's this belief that Hispanics don't use traditional financial services," he says. "On the other hand, there used to be a belief that Hispanics don't read and wouldn't buy a daily Spanish-language newspaper."

With the latter two misperceptions addressed to just about everybody's satisfaction, it's likely that Tribune Publishing will attempt to grow the Hoy brand into other top Hispanic markets. In addition to Hoy, the company currently publishes weekly editions of El Sentinel in Orlando and el Sentinel in South Florida; it owns 50% of Los Angeles Spanish-language daily La Opinion.

"Our model is a single brand with very strong local roots," Sito says. "Our dream and vision is to be in the top 10 Hispanic markets in the country, but you can't do this overnight. Every market presents a different set of challenges."