By Emily Guskin and Amy Mitchell of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The ethnic media play an important role by providing news in both foreign languages and in English about places and issues that are often absent from the mainstream media. To provide greater depth, this year’s Annual Report on the State of the News Media offers reports on different groups at different times. To read our earlier report on African American media, click here.
Spanish-language media remain important to a changing, more acculturated, and more U.S.-born Hispanic population in the United States. And in the last year, Spanish-language media tended to fare better overall than their mainstream English-language counterparts.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the nation’s Latino population grew to more than 50 million, more than double its size in 1990, and up 46.3% since 2000.1 It is also the nation’s youngest ethnic group. The median age of Latinos is 27, while for non-Hispanic whites it is 42 and for non-Hispanic blacks it is 32. Among Latinos, a majority are bilingual. However, as births have become more important for Hispanic population growth than the arrival of new immigrants, the nation’s Latino population is also becoming more U.S.-born. All of these factors could pose a threat to Spanish-language media operations. So far though, the contrary has occurred.2
Hispanic newspapers overall lost circulation in 2010, but not nearly to the extent of the English-language press. The total number of Spanish-language newspapers remained stable.
The story in television was even more positive. Univision, the largest Spanish-language network by far, continued to grow, reaching audience sizes that compete with the three major English-language broadcast networks (ABC, CBS and NBC). In 2011, it also announced the launch of a 24-hour Spanish-language news station.
Radio is growing as well. The number of Spanish-language radio stations increased in 2010, and more Spanish-language radio companies began measuring for Arbitron, the standard method of rating radio stations.
Magazines showed improvement too, with year-over-year growth in ad spending.
On the digital front, while Hispanic Americans do not access the internet at the same rates as other Americans, there is growth, and bilingual Latinos are already heavily online.
Newspapers
In 2010 and the beginning of 2011, the longstanding, flagship Hispanic newspapers saw slight decreases in print circulation. At the same time, though, they grew into other media forms and partnerships, mirroring what English-language general circulation dailies are also doing.
One of the most accepted measurements of the growth and stability of newspapers is the number of publications. Overall, the number of Spanish-language newspapers remained largely stable in 2010 (832 versus 835 in 2009). But the number of papers that paid to have their circulation independently audited is even more indicative of the economic success of newspapers, and those grew by 17% to 142, according to the Latino Print Network.
Most of this growth in audited papers came among the weekly publications, the largest cohort of Spanish-language print publications. The number of weekly newspapers that had audited circulation grew by 18% (to 117) in 2010, according to the Latino Print Network. (Papers that publish less often declined by three to a total of 10. The number of audited daily newspapers remained steady at 15.)
The fact that 2010 was a better year than 2009 was also reflected in the circulation data. The figures varied across the three types of publications, yet overall were more positive than a year earlier, and were better than their English-language counterparts. Daily audited circulation actually grew by 1.9% to 1.02 million from 2009 to 2010.3 U.S. English-language dailies, by comparison, saw a 5% decline in weekday circulation for the six-month period from March – September 2010 compared with the same period the year before. Hispanic weeklies saw the greatest decline, by 2.5% to 11.08 million. Less-than-weeklies dropped slightly, 0.6%, to 4.92 million.
Revenue
When it comes to economics, fortunes of Spanish-language papers also appear to have improved after a rough 2009, but just how much is less clear. Two organizations that measure Hispanic media revenues reported different trends for the year.
Kantar Media, which tracks just Spanish-language newspapers, estimated a small uptick of 2% in total spending on advertising in Spanish-language papers, a major improvement after a 16.4% decrease the company estimated for 2009.4
Another organization, the Latino Print Network, whose measures include both Spanish- and English-language newspapers aimed at the Hispanic population, also showed fortunes improving, but the overall trend line was still down. It estimated ad spending at $712 million, a 5.6% drop from $754 million a year earlier.
The difference there could be attributed both to the presence of English-language papers aimed at Hispanics and different methods of measurement. Latino Print Network also measures total revenue, (which includes circulation and any other revenue sources) while Kantar estimates advertising alone.
By Latino Print Network’s numbers, total print newspaper revenue fell 4% to $791 million, down from $824 million. Weekly newspapers, according to their reports, saw revenues decline nearly 5% to $373 million. But less-than-weekly newspapers, they found, fell a full 30% in 2010 to $33 million, from $47 million in 2009. Dailies stayed steady at $385 million. Still, even these reported losses reflect an improvement over 2009, when the Latino Print Network reported a 22% drop.5
Local ad revenue makes up a much larger slice of the advertising pie for Hispanic newspapers than does national ad revenue. In 2010, local ads accounted for 78% of all Hispanic newspaper ad revenue, or $554 million, according to Latino Print Network. National ad revenue accounted for 21% ($151 million); online web advertising represented only 1% of ad revenue ($7.2 million).6
Given the nature of Hispanic print newspapers, and the fact that so many of the companies are small and privately held and that circulation numbers are unaudited estimates, it can be useful to look at performance of the larger companies to get a firmer sense of things. In Hispanic newspapers, that is impreMedia.
Founded in 2004, impreMedia is a relatively young company. impreMedia has nine print publications and numerous websites. Much of the company’s recent focus has been on becoming “web-centric.”
Monica C. Lozano, who was promoted in May of 2010 from publisher and CEO of impreMedia’s largest paper, La Opinión, to company CEO, told Hispanic Market Overview, a market research report, that, “We’re aggressively evolving to a fully integrated multimedia company.” That has meant producing more digital content like videos, more mobile applications and consolidating some of its newsrooms, including instituting some staff cuts.7
The company has also initiated more content sharing with other organizations:
- In March 2010, it launched a content exchange with the digital arm of television giant Univision. Univision Interactive Media’s national Noticias site now carries headlines from impreMedia’s La Opinión.
- Another partnership is with Critical Media’s Syndicaster, an online video creation and distribution company, which enables impreMedia’s journalists to publish and distribute video they collect across its various newspaper websites.8
- impreMedia also continued a print and online partnership with McClatchy. (For more on the partnership, click here.)
Not all looked good for impreMedia, though, in the last year. Two of the biggest Spanish-language dailies in the U.S. owned by impreMedia (and all independently audited), had year-to-year declines in circulation, a continuation from the year before.
La Opinión in Los Angeles lost 14.4% of its average weekday circulation, falling to 78,712 for the six months ending September 2010, from 91,977 the same period in 2009.9
New York’s El Diario/La Prensa, the oldest Hispanic daily in the U.S., lost 9.5% of its daily circulation in the 26 weeks ending September 2010, falling to a combined average circulation of 46,851 from 51,749 for the same period in 2009.10 It, too, as a means of expanding, started its own content sharing partnership. Begun in November 2010, El Diario and the U.S.-based Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network share content across their print, online, mobile and television platforms so each can offer their audiences a wider mix of coverage.
Another large daily, El Nuevo Herald, published by McClatchy in Miami (and distributed by the Miami Herald Company), lost 4.5% of its circulation in the same six-month period to 57,748, from 60,483 in the same period the year before. This was, though, a much smaller decline than its 22% drop between 2008 and 2009.11 The paper in 2011 also expanded its offerings to include a special insert from Spain’s El Pais, the flagship newspaper of Grupo PRISA.12
One daily reported an uptick in circulation in 2010. The free Hoy Chicago, owned by the Chicago Tribune, increased its circulation by 40% in September 2010. The decision to expand was due to the increasing Hispanic population in Chicago, especially the suburbs, which were expected to have a 22% growth in Hispanic population. The newspaper’s readership grew by 27% over the three years prior to the increase in circulation with no distribution increase.13
In addition to cross-platform sharing, impreMedia moved toward some cross-cultural sharing among several ethnic newspapers in 2010. In April and June, ethnic media entities in New York and Arizona published joint editorials on immigration. In April, El Diario/La Prensa published an editorial urging congress to reform immigration policies that was also published by the Haitian Times, Nowy Dziennik (a Polish daily) and Caribbean Life.
Another group of both impreMedia newspapers and dozens of other ethnic news outlets across the country followed suit in June. Ethnic media outlets, including Native American, Asian, Muslim and Hispanic publications, printed a joint editorial calling for immigration reform. In addition to English and Spanish, the editorial ran in nine other languages.
Outside of impreMedia, one newspaper ramped up its English-language offerings in 2010, and at least two newspapers closed.
La Prensa Riverside (Calif.) began to include the English-language USA Weekend as an insert in July 2010. “More and more this is a story of both languages,” Frank Escobedo, the publisher of La Prensa Riverside, told Portada.14
La Palma, a weekly newspaper in West Palm Beach, Fla., created by Palm Beach Newspapers in 2004, ceased publishing both print and online in July 2010. At its peak, it reached 25,000 readers through both home delivery and street racks. Palm Beach Newspapers said it would create a Hispanic affairs reporter staff position for its English-language publication and would retain some of La Palma’s staff.15
Diario San Diego shut down in June 2011 after seven years of publishing. The paper’s president, José Santiago Healy, cited “harsh economic conditions” for the newspaper’s closure, with the loss of several national clients which negatively impacted its income. The paper was first launched in 2003 as a daily and in 2006 went to a twice-a-week publishing schedule. In 2008, it downsized to a weekly.16
Television
Hispanic television is now a large industry in the U.S. In the last year its total audience continued to grow and now rivals non-Hispanic television in many of the nation’s largest markets.
The number of Hispanic households with TV sets increased 3.1% in February 2011 from the year before. That is more than three times the increase in TV households overall, which grew 0.9% according to Nielsen Co.17
As with newspapers, bilingualism has had some impact on audiences, though English-speaking Hispanics continue to watch Spanish-language TV. Almost a quarter of Hispanics who speak English mostly at home, 24%, watch between one and three hours of Spanish-language TV a day, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. Still, among those who mostly speak Spanish at home, 40% watch one to three hours of Spanish-language TV a day. (For those who speak Spanish only, 36% watch between one and three hours of Spanish-language TV.)18 But, both audiences and revenue for the biggest Spanish-language networks are on the rise.
Television ad spending grew in 2010. Spanish-language TV ad spending rose 10.7% from 2009 according to Kantar Media. A good part of that is attributed to the FIFA World Cup, which brought in huge advertising dollars to Univision.19 That is double the bounce that network TV overall received, 5.3%, and also outpaces revenue growth for television media overall (10.3%).
Most analysts also predict a bright future for Spanish-language television. Between the enormous Univision and the much smaller Telemundo (and all of their stations), the 2010-2011 season is projected to bring in $1.5 billion in ad revenue. (Univision and its cable channel TeleFutura accounted for about $1.1 billion and Telemundo about $400 million.)20 Ad rates on Spanish-language channels are typically 50% to 75% less than similar English-language channels, yet they too have increased about 25% in the last two years, according to Steven Wolfe Pereira, who runs the multicultural division of MediaVest, a media buying agency.21
Univision
Univision is now the fifth-largest network in primetime audience in the United States. In 2010 and early 2011, it also broke viewership records, invested heavily in news, increased cross-content partnerships and amplified bilingual offerings.
Univision dwarfs all other Spanish-language broadcasters in the United States. While the company still carries debt from its 2006 decision to go private, Univision is expected in 2011 to take in almost one billion dollars more in ad revenue than Telemundo, its closest rival.22
Total Viewership
In the 2010-2011 television season, Univision was the only major U.S. TV network to grow average primetime audience among 18-49 year olds—up 8% versus the season before. For the same demographic group, among the English-language networks, Fox lost 4%, CBS lost 8%, ABC lost 9% and NBC lost 14% over the same period.23
In total viewers, Univision remains behind its English-language counterparts (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC). But it has closed the gap substantially in recent years. For the season (June 2010-May 2011), Univision averaged 1.9 million viewers ages 18 to 49 in primetime, according to Nielsen data cited by The Wall Street Journal. That would rank it just over a million shy of the fourth-ranked English-language network, NBC, which dropped to 3.1 million viewers in that age group. Rival Telemundo, by comparison, averaged less than half of Univision’s audience, 650,000 viewers between 18 and 49 for the same period, down 1.5%.24
On a number of occasions throughout the 2010/2011 season, moreover, Univision even surpassed one or more the English-language networks.
- July 2010 was the first month in which Univision attracted more 18-to-34-year-old viewers in primetime than any network, including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.25
- About half of the nights during the first quarter of 2011 it attracted more 18-to-49-year-old viewers than NBC.
- For 22 nights over the February 2011 sweeps period (February 3-March 2), Univision had higher ratings in primetime than at least one of the big four English-language networks in the 18-34 or 18-49 age groups.26
- Later, for a week in April 2011, Univision attracted more primetime viewers than NBC – the second time in four weeks that it edged out a big network.
- And for a week in May 2011, Univision was the No. 3 broadcast network in primetime, ahead of CBS and NBC with 1.1 million viewers ages 18 to 34.27
“Univision has gotten so big over the years that our primary competition is the English-language networks,” César Conde, president of Univision, told the Miami Herald in March 2010.28
In January 2011, Conde announced that he expected Univision to be the No. 1 network in the U.S. in the next five years.29 The strategy to reach that goal has included a clear investment in news.
News
Over the last year, Univision furthered its news offerings in several different realms.
The most substantial effort, announced in March 2011, is the plan to launch a 24-hour news channel, Univision 24/7, which would be distinct from its existing cable channel Galavisión. Details of how this channel will function have yet to be released, but the 24-hour news channel, expected to debut in 2012, will reportedly draw heavily on the strength of Univision’s current news division.
The network already carries six national news programs on its main channel:
- Noticiero Univision, its half-hour nightly news program, attracted nearly two million total viewers each night on average for the 2010 calendar year, about a third of the audience for CBS Evening News, the lowest rated English-language network news program.
- Despierta América, its morning news program, was expanded by 30 minutes in May 2011. The network will follow that program with the Televisa-produced magazine program Hoy, already popular in Mexico, growing the morning news block from three to five hours overall. Despierta América averaged 702,000 viewers in 2010, significantly less than the average viewership of the lowest rated English-language network morning news program, CBS’ Early Show, which averaged 2.9 million in 2010.
- Aquí y Ahora, the weekly nighttime newsmagazine, had a 2% increase in its audience in the second half of 2010 compared with the same period in 2009, to 3.2 million total viewers. That’s half a million viewers below the English-language news magazine with the lowest viewership, ABC’s Nightline, which averaged 3.7 million in 2010.30
- Primer Impacto, an early evening nightly news show, attracted 1.7 million viewers on average in 2010.
- Noticerio Univision: Edición Nocturna, the late night news show, changed its name from Ultima Hora in March 2011. It attracted 454,000 viewers on average in 2010.
- Al Punto, the Sunday morning political talk show, gathered an audience of 951,000 people on average in 2010.31
In addition to the Spanish-language programming, Univision also took some steps to reach out to English-language news audiences on digital platforms.32
In March 2011, it launched an English-language Twitter news feed. And in April, it released an English-language News Tumblr. This followed an English-language soccer website launched in February.
“We are increasingly using social and interactive media, as well as radio, to further engage with our bilingual audiences in English and Spanish,” a Univision spokesperson told Hispanic TV Update.
Local News
Univision also has a local news component, which set new audience records in 2010 and 2011.
Univision and TeleFutura each produce local morning news in 10 U.S. markets. (The TeleFutura local news programs are generally more entertainment-focused than the local news programs on Univision.)
In 17 markets, Univision also airs early and late night local newscasts, and 14 cities have early and late weekend newscasts.
Some of the milestones during the 2010/2011 season included:
- Univision launched three newscasts in 2011: Morning news in Houston and Dallas and late news in Atlanta.33
- In Los Angeles, Univision Communications’ flagship television station, KMEX-TV, came second in sweeps for 6 p.m. local evening news in May 2010.
- In May 2011, Univision’s local news in New York City beat all other major networks for adults 18-49 in the 6 p.m. slot, averaging 129,000 adult viewers, and was ranked No. 2 for its 11 p.m. news with 176,000 adult viewers. Also in New York, Univision’s network news program Noticiero Univision won its time slot with 136,000 viewers 18-49. ABC’s Word News was second with 102,000.34
Beyond News
For all its growth, Univision’s News division still lags behind the network’s popular telenovelas in audience and revenue.
The evening telenovela series have historically garnered strong Friday audiences, and an awards show also won its timeslot in summer 2010 ahead of all other networks.
Yet in the summer of 2010 the World Cup surpassed them all. “We transform ourselves into World Cup Media Company for the next 30 days,” Conde told the Philadelphia Inquirer in June 2010.35 For good reason:
- The second-round match between Mexico and Argentina was the network’s most-watched broadcast of all time, bringing in more than 9.4 million total viewers, a record for any program on Spanish-language television in the United States (5.5 million watched the same game on ABC).36
- Univision broke records for the final as well, with 8.8 million total viewers, compared with 5.9 million in 2006’s final.37
- The U.S. audience for the opening days of the World Cup almost doubled from four years ago. But for many games, much of the audience still turned to ABC. For the U.S.-England game, 3.8 million people watched on Univision, compared with almost 13 million on ABC.38
The World Cup brought in about $73.6 million in the second quarter, $5 million of that from online coverage.39 Univision also got the Spanish-language and digital media rights to another soccer dynasty: the Mexican national team. (Previously, Telemundo held the rights.)
In addition to the 24-hour news channel, Univision announced plans to launch a new cable channel dedicated to telenovelas (Univision TL Novelas) and another focused on Mexican league soccer and other sports (Univision Deportes).
Univision Economics
Despite its gains in audience, for the last five years Univision has carried significant debt, and servicing the payments has kept the company in the red.
The debt stems from a 2006 decision to take the company private, in a debt-ridden deal. Haim Saban, Providence Equity, TPG and their partners bought the network in a $13.7 billion deal, with debt that exceeded 12 times the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Two years later, complicating matters, the recession in the United States added to the pressure.40
The company’s operating successes in the last year have helped. Univision’s revenue in 2010 grew 13.8% to $2.25 billion, up from $1.97 billion in 2009. The television unit alone increased 16.7% to $1.86 billion, up from $1.59 billion in 2009. Of that, $109.5 million came from the FIFA World Cup.41 (As a basis of comparison, Disney, ABC’s parent company, had revenues of $28.3 billion in 2010, with ABC News revenue estimated by PEJ at around $700 million.) But despite the revenue, the company in 2010 reported a loss of $555.9 million.
The losses have continued into 2011. In the first quarter of this year, Univision’s revenue rose 6% to $481.8 million and is expected to grow further as the ad rate secured at the upfronts suggest a 12% growth over 2010. But Univision posted a $74.1 million loss for the same period, compared with a $3.4 million loss a year before, due to increased expenses, restructuring and severance charges.42
One positive sign for Univision is that it finally ended an expensive legal battle with the Mexican company Grupo Televisa over the decision to go private. Televisa was suing to cancel Univision’s exclusive programming agreement and to increase Univision’s royalty payments for programming. The settlement not only lifted uncertainty, it provided Univision with an infusion of cash. Univision COO Randy Falco (now CEO) said this was “a great signal to the marketplace…There’s finally a tipping point that marketers can no longer ignore.”43
The October 2010 settlement between Univision and its former part-owner, Grupo Televisa, allowed Televisa to once again become part-owner of Univision. It raised cash for the debt-strapped company and also gave Univsion the rights to air Televisa’s telenovelas on all of its channels, including its announced 24-hour cable telenovela channel. But it was not a complete win for Univision, as Televisa ended up paying about 40% less than it would have back in 2006 when the legal battle began.
(For more on the Univision/Televisa deal, click here.)
Changes in Leadership and Staffing
The other major change, besides the resolution of the Televisa lawsuit, was that Univision saw substantial personnel changes in late 2010 and early 2011, including a new CEO, a new head of news, and a shift among anchors.
At the top, CEO Joe Uva announced in March 2011 that he would leave the company at the end of the month. Three months later, Randy Falco, who had been at the company since January after coming from AOL, was tapped as Univision president and CEO.44 Falco has extensive experience as both a television executive (at NBC) and in multimedia, and this background is expected to play a role in his leadership style at Univision.
In news, the founder of PODER magazine, Isaac Lee, was appointed as Univision News president in December 2010, replacing Alina Falcón, who stepped aside after 26 years at Univision in a number of roles. Falcón will remain as special advisor to Univision.
Lee made several changes in management and on-air, from appointing a new director of news operations to shaking up the Despierta América desk. The changes, Lee indicated, are intended to increase the focus on news operations, specifically on investigative reporting and political coverage in both the U.S. and Latin America. Lee also mentioned increasing usage of new media and integrating more with Univision Local Media. See a list of personnel changes here.
Cross-Content Partnerships
Univision also pushed further into digital in the last year, particularly through partnerships.
One of those partnerships involves bringing newspaper content to the web.
Launched in March 2010, the partnership with impreMedia Digital puts that company’s newspaper content across Univision’s U.S.-based online and mobile networks.45 (For more on impreMedia, click here.)
In 2011, Univision also extended its mobile news offerings, releasing an iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad app in April and continuing to reach its audience via Twitter feeds in both English and Spanish.
Telemundo
While much smaller than Univision, Telemundo still reaches 93% of all Hispanic television households and can be found in 210 markets across the U.S. Telemundo also owns or operates 15 stations in major cities in the U.S. and can be found on 47 affiliates across the country.46
Over the year, Telemundo saw its parent company, NBCUniversal, purchased by Comcast; it also broke viewership records, had changes in leadership, revamped its news offerings and planned for growth in local news.
The network had record-breaking ratings the first quarter of 2011 as well. It was Telemundo’s strongest quarter in network history in weekday primetime, averaging more than 1.2 million total viewers for the quarter, which was an 11% increase from the year before. Telemundo also grew its evening news audience in that time.47 And in May 2011, it had its best ever month for viewership, with 1.6 million total viewers, up 41% from the same period the year before.48
Telemundo’s new owner, Comcast, expects to turn this audience growth into revenue. When Comcast took control of NBCUniversal in January 2011, the company’s executives said they saw opportunities to produce more revenue for the company through Telemundo. Telemundo was restructured, and network president Don Browne was assigned a new supervisor, Lauren Zalaznick, who made her name in part by building the Bravo channel with its reality programming and is seen as a strong marketer.49 The company also has a Latino market awareness campaign called “the shift,” paying attention to the increase in Hispanic cultural influence in the U.S.50 (For more on Comcast’s purchase of NBCUniversal and diversity, click here.)
Network president Don Browne retired on June 3, 2011, the eighth anniversary of his arrival at Telemundo (he had been with NBC for 32 years, primarily in news).
In his time at Telemundo, Browne sought to end the network’s reliance on foreign studios for its prime-time shows and oversaw the building of a TV production center in Miami. The Telemundo Television Studios in Columbia and Miami now create more than 1,000 hours of prime-time productions a year, making Telemundo the world’s second largest provider of Spanish-language content.
Telemundo’s news programming also went through some significant changes in the past year, many focused on increasing the bottom line. In February 2011, Telemundo revamped its morning news show, Levántate, moving it back to Miami, changing the talent lineup, and including more entertainment news. Since its August 2008 start, the show had been produced and transmitted out of Telemundo’s Puerto Rico station, but NBCU announced in November 2010 that the show would move to Miami as a “strategic investment…to continue to grow the show and its viewership.” The show will now have four anchors instead of three. (For more on the anchor changes, click here.)
And Telemundo plans to increase its local news and information programming by 25% at its owned and operated stations. In August 2011, the company announced the planned launch of morning news programs in Los Angeles and Houston, weekend news programs in Dallas, New York and Puerto Rico and a weekday news program in Denver.51
The network also premiered a Sunday morning political show in April 2010, Enfoque, broadcast from Washington, D.C., in April 2010. In August 2011, Telemundo said it would launch monthly local public affairs programs in eight more cities by January 2012.52
Telemundo also added new correspondents in early 2011. (For more on the new correspondents, click here.)
Telemundo is also attempting to reach more English-language speakers. It began to offer closed captioning for its online streams, which could appeal to younger Hispanics who both watch video online and communicate in English.
In May 2011, it launched a bilingual Spanish-English action drama, RPM Miami, about the underground street car racing scene and aired cross-network programming, A Nation Divided, with NBC, MSNBC and CNBC.
Like rival Univision, Telemundo, too, is reaching out through social media, with a Facebook page for each of its television shows and series. “The ultimate goal is to keep our audiences engaged and drive them to our TV shows,” Peter Blacker, the executive vice president of digital media and emerging business at Telemundo told Multichannel News. “You’re creating a forum where your viewers can chat and communicate about all the things that are happening on their TV sets. That’s what I call being at the digital water cooler. And we want to be there.”53
Other Hispanic Network TV:
Beyond Univision and Telemundo there are still many other Hispanic television channels that find smaller audience niches, ranging from immigrants from specific countries to particular subjects. Several of these niche networks and cable channels increased their news offerings in the last year. And one, Estrella TV, has emerged as a sizable player in the market. Additionally, a handful of English-language companies began their own Spanish-language networks.
Estrella TV
Estrella TV, launched by Liberman Broadcasting (a Hispanic radio company) in 2009, reaches more than 75% of U.S. Hispanic television households in 32 markets (as of May 2010).54 Nielsen Media Research began listing Estrella in its national ratings alongside Univision and Telemundo in March 2010.
The network began a national newscast in April 2010 anchored by Enrique Gratas, which airs weekdays at 10:30 p.m. Gratas previously was laid off as anchor of Univisions’ Última Hora, where he had worked for 10 years.
Estrella also announced a forthcoming weekly investigative reporting program called El Momento con Enrique Gratas, also hosted by the former Univision news anchor.
In addition, the network expanded into new markets in 2010, bringing Estrella’s roster of affiliates to 27, including new affiliates in Greensboro, N.C.; Omaha, Neb.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Wichita, Kan.
Its parent company, LBI Media (Liberman Broadcasting), had revenue growth of 13% in 2010 compared with 2009.55
Mega TV (Spanish Broadcasting System)
Another smaller Spanish-language television company is Spanish Broadcasting System. Initially a radio company, like Estrella, it dipped its toes into television in 2005 by buying a small Key West UHF station that is now a full network. By March 2010, the company had 11 affiliates around the U.S. and a channel on the Spanish-language DirecTV Más satellite service.56
To distinguish itself in news, in mid-2010, the network restructured its 5 p.m. newscast to be an “interactive news magazine” with audience participation via social networking sites like Facebook, Skype and Twitter.
Other smaller stations expanded their news offerings in 2010 and 2011 as well. For more on them, including Azteca América, LATV, Latino Public Broadcasting and more click here.
CABLE TV
News programming in Spanish-language cable television expanded as well.
CNN en Español
This biggest player remains CNN en Español (CNNE), a 24-hour news channel spin-off of CNN. It launched several new news programs in 2011.
On March 7, CNN en Español launched three new shows, Café CNN, CNN Dinero and Conclusiones.
- Café CNN airs weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET as a “rolling three hour news magazine show.”57
- CNN Dinero is a finance, economy and money show that airs weeknights from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET.
- Conclusiones, at 10 p.m. ET, gives a recap of the day’s headlines with analysis.
And in May, CNNE launched México Opina, an opinion show that is a collaboration between CNNE and CNNMexico.com. The show analyzes current events in Mexico and asks the audience to weigh in via its website, Twitter and Facebook.58
InfoMás
Another 24-hour news station emerged in mid-2011 – but just on a local level. Two stations, Tampa’s Bay News 9 en Español and Central Florida’s News 13 en Español combined their resources to create InfoMás, a 24-hour cable news channel for Florida. The network’s reporters will also contribute to two local Spanish-language newspapers, El Sentinel Orlando and Centro Tampa.
Fox Hispanic Media
Another large English-language media company entered the Spanish-language realm as well. In April, Fox Networks Group announced Fox Hispanic Media, a partnership between Fox International Channels and Fox Global Networks. It will house three Spanish-language networks, including a family-oriented cable channel called Nat Geo Mundo as well as Fox’s existing Spanish-language networks: Fox Deportes (sports) and Utilísima (women’s lifestyle).59
Fox Hispanic Media will be led by Hernán López, president and chief executive at Fox International Channels.
Fox News also released a Fox News Latino website in both English and Spanish in October 2010.
Radio
Radio continues to be a popular medium for Spanish-speakers in the U.S.
By the most recent count (fall 2009), there were 1,323 Spanish-language stations, up 8% from 1,224 in fall 2008. News talk remains a small part of that, with 96 stations using that format, up by three from the year before.60
Univision Radio
The dominant Hispanic television force in the U.S., Univision is also a big player in radio.61 The company ended 2010 owning 70 stations and counted 21,700,000 cume listeners in a given week.62
The market also appears to be growing in financial sophistication. In April 2010, Univision Radio began to format more of its radio broadcasts so that Arbitron could measure Univision’s audience figures. The move followed pressure from advertising agencies and major advertisers, who complained about the lack of data for Spanish radio in important markets, according to Radio Business Report. Univision now allows Arbitron to track its broadcasts in Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, San Antonio and Las Vegas, in addition to the cities it was already encoding (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, San Jose and Houston). Still, the company does not subscribe to Arbitron’s Portable People Meter data in any of those markets but Houston, because of the expense, but the stations will still be included in Arbitron’s ratings reports so that the data is accessible to advertisers.63 (The Portable People Meter is an audience measurement device that tracks encoded broadcast signals.)
There are numerous, smaller radio companies that gear their content to a Hispanic audience. Some, like Entravision, faired pretty well in 2010 and the first half of 2011; others, like Bustos Media, did not do so well.
Bustos Media
Founded in July 2003, Bustos Media was almost whittled down to nothing in 2010. With 28 stations in its roster, in January the company announced that it was in default with its lenders. In June, it transferred its stations to NAP Broadcast Holdings, which was controlled by some of Bustos’ senior leaders.64 CEO Amador Bustos and his brother, VP of operations John Bustos, resigned, and the NAP Broadcasting Company named the former Bustos Media “Adelante Media Group.”
In January 2011, Amador Bustos tried to make a comeback with the few stations he held on to before Bustos Media went into default. In addition to the few stations in Oregon, California and Texas, he launched two stations in Portland.65 By publishing time, no data was yet released on these stations, so it is too early gauge Bustos’ level of success.
Entravision
Entravision owns 48 stations in the U.S. and is having a solid 2011. The company bought out Lotus Entravision Reps’ (LER) stake in Entravision in January 2011. LER’s holdings reached approximately 68% of the U.S. Latino market. A few months later, Entravision let its affiliation agreement with Citadel Media Networks lapse, and the company’s inventory was moved to its own LER NETWORK in March 2011 – meaning all of Entravision and LER’s inventory is now combined and the company can market for ad sales more easily.66
For more on other stations, click the name of the company, below:
Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS)
LA Public Media and LA>Forward
Magazines
While there are a myriad of Hispanic magazine titles, only a handful are news-based. The Hispanic magazines with the largest advertising revenues are geared toward women or entertainment: People en Español, Latina, TV y Novelas, Vanidades, Ser Padres and Siempre Mujer led in advertising revenue among Spanish-language magazines for the first four months of 2011.67
While a few popular Spanish-language magazines closed in 2010, they did not have the kind of economic impact on the industry as the closure of mega titles LATINO and Reader’s Digest’s Selecciónes did a year earlier.
There are several ways to measure ad spending and revenue in Latino magazines depending on the universe of magazines examined. All showed some growth in 2010. According to Kantar Media, Spanish-language magazines showed a 5.5% growth in ad spending in 2010 compared with 2009. This is more than its 2.9% estimated growth for magazines overall in the same time period.68
Another company that provides measurements of ad spending, Media Economics Group, reported smaller estimated growth of 3.9% to $178.8 million along with a 4.7% drop in ad pages. Still, this was a vast improvement from 2009 where ad pages had a 23.5% decline and ad spending declined 27.1%.69
And a third company that measures Hispanic print media, Latino Print Network, cited an 8.4% increase in Hispanic magazine revenue in 2010 to $387 million, from $357 in 2009.70
Looking across all of these calculations, PEJ puts ad revenue growth at about 5% in 2010.
The largest U.S. Hispanic magazine, People en Español, came in slightly below the industry average with a growth of 3.2% in 2010 to 724.14 ad pages, from 701.95 the year before.71 So far in 2011 its growth appears to be greater, despite the magazine’s publisher, Lucía Ballas-Traynor, stepping down in March 2011 (she announced in May that she would be running a social-networking and community website aimed at Hispanic mothers). Media Economics Group estimated that People en Español’s ad revenue went up almost 58% for the year in May 2011.72
Other large titles include Padres, the Spanish-language version of Parents magazine, which had a 23% increase in ad pages in 2010 to 195.25 from 158.78 in 2009.
At the same time, several magazines aimed at Latinos that contained at least some news content folded in 2010:
- Harper’s Bazaar en Español: Editorial Televisa began printing it in October 2005 but decided to no longer publish it on a regular basis in February 2010.73
- Hispanic Magazine (English): Merged with Poder Enterprise to form PODER Hispanic. Its last independent issue was April/May 2010. The magazine was founded in 1987 and was billed as the largest subscription-based Hispanic publication. In November 2004, the magazine was taken over by Editorial Televisa.74
- National Geographic en Español: Closed in June 2010 when Televisa Publishing decided to discontinue its U.S. Hispanic edition, but to continue to publish and circulate its Mexican edition.
Other Hispanic magazines that shuttered in 2010 include Maxim en Español, Mira, Disney en Familia and English-language titles Latino Future and Café.75
Digital
The digital divide between Latinos and whites remained in 2010, and yet another divide among Hispanics emerged: Bilingual and English-dominant Hispanics are more digitally attuned than those who are Spanish-dominant.
While as a group Latinos are younger, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center conducted in August 2010, they are still less likely to access the internet, have a home broadband connection or own a cell phone than whites are– which limits how Latinos can access the news. Still, Latinos and blacks have similar rates of internet and cell phone use.76
About two-thirds of Latino (65%) and African American (66%) adults went online in 2010, compared with 77% of white adults. And only 45% of Latinos have broadband access at home, compared with 52% of blacks and 65% of whites. Just over three-quarters, 76%, of Latinos owned a cell phone in 2010, compared with 79% of blacks and 85% of whites.
But digital media is still important to the Hispanic population, and access is growing.
When controlling for education and income (on average, Hispanics have lower levels of education and earn less than whites do), the differences in these three measures between Hispanics and whites disappear. In other words, Hispanics and whites with similar socioeconomic backgrounds have similar usage patterns. Moreover, those born in the U.S. and bilingual and English-dominant Latinos were more likely to be digitally-attuned.
These figures might have some effect on the increased availability of English-language Latino news content online, like Univision’s English-language news Twitter feed.
Bilingual and English-dominant Hispanics are far ahead of Spanish-dominant Latinos in many measures of digital usage, too. Spanish-language Latinos are significantly less likely to use the internet, have a home internet connection, have home broadband access, or have a cell phone than English-dominant and bilingual Latinos. But Spanish-dominant internet usage has increased from 36% in 2009 to 47% in 2010.
And the most popular websites among Hispanics are largely representative of other media outlets geared toward Latinos. The No. 1 website visited by Spanish-speakers in the U.S. in May 2011 was Univision’s, according to ComScore. Televisa and impreMedia also made the top-10 list.
Press Groups
Press groups hold a particular importance for ethnic media in the U.S. And the largest Latino press group in the U.S had a challenging year.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) reported serious debt and saw a decline in its membership. In December 2010, the organization projected a $240,000 deficit for the year, and its president, Michele Salcedo, said that its cash flow was at “dangerously low levels,” even though it made around $270,000 in cuts.77
Compounding its financial woes, the organization’s paid membership also dropped to 1,300 in 2010 from 2,400 in 2008. In addition, corporate and foundation sponsors donated only $400,000 in 2010, half of what was collected in 2007.78
And one of its largest money-makers, its convention, saw its attendance plummet in recent years. Convention attendance in 2010 declined to 700 participants, down from 800 in 2009 and 1,800 in 2007 – but in 2011 it went up to almost 900 attendees, bringing in a surplus of $170,000 to $200,000 – still not enough to get NAHJ out of its financial crisis.79
At its annual convention in July 2010, board members said that if $125,000 was not raised by the end of the year, the organization could be in the red – an estimate that ended up being a reality. Staff members took a three-week furlough to save money and the organization borrowed funds from itself: $75,000 from the student scholarship fund, another $75,000 from the association’s reserve account and, in August, $50,000 from its endowment fund to meet payroll and overhead costs. Staff and board members also raised $118,000 trying to meet the shortfall.80
To make matters worse, in August it became clear that convention sponsors had not yet paid pledges totaling near $100,000.81
And the organization also saw leadership changes. In June 2010, NAHJ elected Michele Salcedo as president, who beat her opponent by only 13 votes.82
In April 2011, Iván Román, the executive director of NAHJ since 2003, resigned, but said he would stay on the job through NAHJ’s convention in June. Roman said that “the board is moving in a different direction and I think that it is time for me to leave.”83 In July, Anna Lopez Buck was named interim executive director. She had been the organization’s executive director from 1995 to 2003.84
The announcement also said the board of directors passed an austerity budget, cutting expenses 15% and laying off its entire staff as a cost-saving measure on June 30, shortly after the 2011 convention came to a close.85 Only one part-time employee remained on staff, along with the new executive director, who will be announced in July 2011.
With the future of NAHJ itself in question, the organization was looking for other groups to partner with to put on future conferences, its treasurer Russell Contreras told Media Moves.
- The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this report. ↩
- “The Hispanic Population.” U.S. Census. May 2001. And “Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010.” U.S. Census. March 2011. The population grew between 2000 and 2010, 43%, after a 58% increase the decade before. The population is also younger than the U.S. population overall and increasingly bilingual. Almost half (49.6%) of Hispanics between the ages of 5-17 who speak a language than English at home speak English proficiently, compared with only 36% of those 18 and older. (Language Spoken at Home and English-Speaking Ability, by Age, Race and Ethnicity. Statistical Portrait of Hispanics in the United States, 2009. Pew Hispanic Center.) ↩
- Whisler, Kirk. “The State of Hispanic Print 2010.” Latino Print Network. ↩
- “Kantar Media Reports U.S. Advertising Expenditures Increased 6.5 Percent In 2010.” Press Release Kantar Media. March 17, 2011. ↩
- Whisler, Kirk. “The State of Hispanic Print 2009.” Latino Print Network. And Whisler, Kirk. “The State of Hispanic Print 2008.” Latino Print Network. ↩
- Whisler, Kirk. “The State of Hispanic Print 2010.” Latino Print Network. ↩
- Jacobson, Adam. “Hispanic Market Overview 2011.” Adam R Jacobson Editorial Services and Research Consultancy. ↩
- Winslow, George. “Hispanic Publisher impreMedia to Expand Video Offerings.” Broadcasting & Cable. April 1, 2011. ↩
- Audit Bureau of Circulations Publisher’s Statement: La Opinión. ↩
- Audit Bureau of Circulations Publisher’s Statement: El Diario/La Prensa. ↩
- Audit Bureau of Circulations Publisher’s Statement: The Miami Herald/el Nuevo Herald. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “PRISA Partners with El Nuevo Herald.” Media Moves. March 10, 2011. ↩
- “Hoy-Chicago to Increase Circulation by 40%.” Portada. Sept. 17, 2010. ↩
- “La Prensa Riverside Expands Circ., Adds USA Weekend Magazine as Insert.” Portada. June 28, 2010. ↩
- “Palm Beach Newspapers to Discontinue La Palma, its Spanish-language Newspaper and Website.” The Palm Beach Post. June 21, 2010. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “Diario San Diego Shuts Down.” Media Moves. June 13, 2011. ↩
- Schuker, Lauren A. E. “Fox Networks Targets Hispanic Audience.” Wall Street Journal. April 4, 2011. ↩
- “Nielsen Details Hispanic Media Usage in the U.S.” Radio & Television Business Report. September 15, 2010. ↩
- “Kantar Media Reports U.S. Advertising Expenditures Increased 6.5 Percent In 2010.” Press Release Kantar Media. March 17, 2011. ↩
- 20. Consoli, John. “A Very Good Year for Hispanic TV.” The Wrap. May 11, 2011. ↩
- Schuker, Lauren A. E. “Fox Networks Targets Hispanic Audience.” Wall Street Journal. April 4, 2011. ↩
- “Three New Spanish-Language Networks to Roll-Out New Channels in the US.” AFP Relax. May 19, 2011. ↩
- Univision Press Release. May 26, 2011. ↩
- Schechner, Sam. “Univision to Make More Shows Itself.” The Wall Street Journal. May 19, 2011. ↩
- Lieberman, David. “Advertisers Can Cheer Univision, the Web, and Politics Even as Economy Weakens.” USA Today. July 29, 2010. ↩
- Consoli, John. “Spanish-Language TV Networks Poised for Advertising Fiesta.” The Wrap. May 12, 2011. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “Univision #3 Among Networks in Primetime.” Media Moves. June 1, 2011. ↩
- Blog recopy of a Miami Herald article that was taken down. “Spanish-Language TV Networks Thriving.” Media Issues. March 22, 2010. ↩
- Guider, Elizabeth. “Univision’s Goal: Number One Network in Five Years.” The Hollywood Reporter. Jan. 26, 2011. ↩
- Viewership data from Univision, citing The Nielsen Company. And Nielsen Media Research, used under license. ↩
- Viewership data from Univision, citing The Nielsen Company. ↩
- Szalai, Georg. “Univision Communications Plans Novela, Sports, News Channels.” April 12, 2011. ↩
- Malone, Michael. “Univision’s Local Vision.” Broadcasting & Cable. May 2, 2011. ↩
- “WXTV Univision 41 Wins the 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. News Races.” Univision Press Release. May 26, 2011. ↩
- Whitefield, Mimi. “Univision Hopes to Cash in on World Cup Fever.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. June 12, 2010. ↩
- Walker, Hunter. “Univision’s Kicking Sand in the Faces of the Big 4 This Summer.” The Wrap. July 22, 2010. And Sandomir, Richard. “World Cup Ratings Certify a TV Winner.” The New York Times. June 28, 2010. ↩
- Carey, Bridget. “Univision Tries to Boost Youth Appeal.” The Miami Herald. July 15, 2010. ↩
- Schechner, Sam. “World Cup Scores Increase in TV Ratings.” The Wall Street Journal. June 14, 2010. ↩
- “Univision Revs Zoom, but Radio Dips.” Radio Ink. July 29, 2010. And Villafañe, Veronica. “Univision’s Revenues Soar in Q2, Tops Ratings.” Media Moves. July 30, 2010. ↩
- Goldfarb, Jeffrey and Cox, Rob. “A Plot Twist at Univision.” Reuters. Oct. 5, 2010. ↩
- Univision Press Release. ↩
- Szalai, Georg. “Univision Communications Loses $74.1 Million in Q1.” The Hollywood Reporter. May 6, 2011. ↩
- Szalai, Georg. “Univision Communications Plans Novela, Sports, News Channels.” The Hollywood Reporter. April 12, 2011. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “Univision Appoints New COO.” Media Moves. Jan. 18, 2011. ↩
- “Univision, Impremedia in Content Deal.” TVNewsCheck. March 30, 2010. ↩
- Jacobson, Adam. “Hispanic Market Overview 2011.” Adam R Jacobson Editorial Services and Research Consultancy. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “Telemundo Breaks Ratings Records.” Media Moves. April 4, 2011. ↩
- “Telemundo Delivers Best May Ratings and Share in Its History, Growing 41% Year-Over-Year Among Adults 18-49.” Telemundo Press Release. May 26, 2011. ↩
- James, Meg. “Telemundo President to Retire June 3.” Los Angeles Times. April 13, 2011. ↩
- James, Meg. “Univision Plans Three New Cable TV Channels.” Los Angeles Times. May 19, 2011. ↩
- “Telemundo O&Os Boosting Local News and Information.” Radio and Television Broadcasting. Aug. 20, 2011. ↩
- Kenneally, Tim. “Telemundo Plans to Increase Local News Programming.” Reuters. Aug. 8, 2011. ↩
- Martinez, Laura. “Hispanic Media’s Social Revolution.” Multichannel News. March 17, 2011. ↩
- “TV Revenues Up, Radio Flat for LBI.” Radio & Television Business Report. May 17, 2010. ↩
- “LBI Media, Inc. Announces Preliminary Financial Results for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2010.” LBI Media Press Release. Feb. 10, 2011. ↩
- Blog recopy of a Miami Herald article that was taken down. “Spanish-Language TV Networks Thriving.” Media Issues. March 22, 2010. ↩
- Prince, Richard. “CBS Names Latina as VP/News.” Journal-isms. March 3, 2011. And Villafañe, Veronica. “CNNE Launches New Shows.” Media Moves. March 2, 2011. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “CNNE Launches Mexico-Based Opinion Show.” Media Moves. May 11, 2011. ↩
- Schuker, Lauren A.E. “Fox Networks Targets Hispanic Audience.” The Wall Street Journal. April 4, 2011. ↩
- National Radio Format Shares and Station Counts. Aribtron, Inc. ↩
- The company with the biggest Hispanic market profile is Clear Channel, which also owns the most radio stations overall. ↩
- BIA Financial Network and PEJ Research. ↩
- “Univision Encoding for PPM in More Markets.” RBR. April 1, 2010. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “Bustos Makes a Comeback.” Media Moves. Jan. 27, 2011. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “Bustos Launches Second Portland FM.” Media Moves. Feb. 14, 2011. ↩
- “Entravision to Form New Network with LER.” Radio & Television Business Report. March 30, 2011. ↩
- “Hispanic Magazine Top 10 Tables for May, 2011.” HispanicMagazineMonitor, a service of Media Economics Group. June 21, 2011. ↩
- “Kantar Media Reports U.S. Advertising Expenditures Increased 6.5 Percent In 2010.” Press Release Kantar Media. March 17, 2011. ↩
- “Hispanic Magazines Post Uneven Results for 2010 but Improve Over 2009.” Media Economics Group. Jan. 19, 2011. ↩
- Whisler, Kirk. “The State of Hispanic Print 2010.” Latino Print Network. ↩
- Magazine Titles Data (YTD) January – December 2010 vs 2009. The Association of Magazine Media. ↩
- “Hispanic Magazine Top 10 Tables for May, 2011.” HispanicMagazineMonitor, a service of Media Economics Group. June 21, 2011. ↩
- Editorial Televisa changed its name to Televisa Publishing in July 2007. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “Televisa Pulls Plug on Hispanic Magazine.” Media Moves. June 14, 2010. And Villafañe, Veronica. “PODER Magazine Downsizes to Bimonthly.” Media Moves. July 5, 2010. ↩
- HispanicMagazineMonitor Folded Magazines. Updated Jan. 10, 2011. ↩
- All data in this section is from the following study: “Latinos and Digital Technology, 2010.” Pew Hispanic Center. Feb. 9, 2011. ↩
- Prince, Richard. “NAHJ Projects $240,000 Deficit for the Year.” Journal-isms. Dec. 22, 2010. ↩
- López, Ernesto. “Sparks Fly at Latino Journalists’ Convention.” Hispanic Link. July 14, 2010. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “NAHJ Convention Summary.” Media Moves. June 20, 2011. ↩
- López, Ernesto. “Sparks Fly at Latino Journalists’ Convention.” Hispanic Link. July 14, 2010. And Prince, Richard. “Hispanic Journalists’ Money Woes Worsen.” Journal-isms. Aug. 16, 2010. ↩
- Prince, Richard. “Hispanic Journalists’ Money Woes Worsen.” Journal-isms. Aug. 16, 2010. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “NAHJ Has New President.” Media Moves. June 27, 2010. ↩
- Roman, Ivan. Interview with PEJ. May 6, 2011. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “Lopez Returns to NAHJ.” Media Moves. July 13, 2011. ↩
- Villafañe, Veronica. “NAHJ Executive Director Resigns, Cuts to Follow.” Media Moves. April 4, 2011. ↩