September 18, 2003
More Class, Less Mass
A Mexican newspaper company will begin publishing a new Spanish-language daily in San Diego next month, underscoring both the power of the Hispanic market and mainstream newspapers failed efforts to reach out to it in English.
The new paper, named Diario Latina, will be published by a company that has papers in Tijuana, Mexicali and Hermosillo.
The nearly 40 million Hispanics living in the United States are the nation's fastest-growing population group and many cannot - or choose not - to get the news in English.
That's why Spanish-language broadcasting is drawing an increasingly greater percentage of ad dollars and that's why some major U.S. newspaper companies are scuttling underfunded weekly Spanish-language editions in favor of dailies.
This fall Knight-Ridder launched Diario La Estrella in Fort Worth, Tribune Co. expanded the successful 4-year-old tabloid Hoy from New York to Chicago, and Belo plans to launch Al Dia in Dallas later this month. [ Read: Los Más Nuevos Periódicos ]
As the mass market continues to calve, expect to see more newspaper products targeted at specific fragments (the Chicago Tribune's RedEye, for example). That's where the new readers are - and some of them prefer Spanish to English.
Links
NBC San Diego Spanish-Language Daily Paper Launches In San Diego