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Nuevo media: Growing Spanish-language newspaper, radio presence in central Ohio mirrors rising number of Latinos who make their home here
(Columbus Dispatch (Ohio) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 15--The competition for space on the newspaper racks at La Michoacana Mexican market on S. Hamilton Road is getting fierce. With headlines reading, "Mexican flag raising and dedication of recognition," and, "My crime is being Hispanic," a new crop of weekly and bi-weekly newspapers is competing for readers' attention.
"To have the news in your first language is easier for many Latinos to read and to understand," said Hector Villareal, an owner of Fusion, one of the newest Spanishlanguage newspapers to enter the market.
Central Ohio is now home to at least five weekly and bi-weekly Spanish-language newspapers, and two radio stations.
La Voz Hispana began publishing in 2001 and has a circulation of 20,000 statewide. Since then, Fusion, Impacto Latino, Noti Deportivo and Fronteras de La Noticia have entered the fray.
Villareal, who also manages WVKO (103.1 FM), a Spanish-language radio station, said the offerings are increasing because "They fill a need that other media doesn't touch." Topics range from immigration laws and how to navigate the immigration system, to in-depth stories about events that affect people throughout the Latino communities.
Most of the newspapers also have dedicated sections for news from Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The radio stations serve similar purposes, Villareal said. In addition to music -- mostly Spanish rock, Latin pop, tropical and regional Mexican -- his station has call-in radio shows that allow community leaders and social-service organizations to air information about programs they have to offer or to answer questions from new residents.
The Spanish-language news media reflect the area's growing Latino community and the push by businesses to tap into the growing economic power of the Latino market.
Latinos will spend $798 billion nationally this year, with expectations that their collective spending will rise to $863.1 billion next year, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.
In Ohio, Latino buying power increased 247 percent from 1990 to 2006, said Jeff Humphreys, director of the center. As a result, advertisers increasingly look to media that can reach that growing demographic.
The Latino population in Franklin County was 35,526 in 2005, up about 11,200 from five years earlier, according to U.S. census data. Other estimates by some within the Latino community put the number as high as 150,000. The difference, according to some community leaders, can be attributed to the fact that many minorities shy away from surveys and census counts.
The population growth and ensuing buying power "caught many advertisers by surprise, and many are now playing catch-up by devoting more money to Spanish-language media," Humphreys said.
Advertising sales at Spanishlanguage newspapers rose in 2004, with revenue climbing to $923 million. That compares with $854 million in 2003, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. The data are the most recent information available, according to the Washington-based research organization that studies the performance of the news media.
The increased dollars spent by advertisers for Spanishlanguage media has created a larger market for ethnic newspapers, said Dante Chinni, senior associate for the Washington group. Also key is the fact that 87 percent of Latinos read, listen to or watch Spanishlanguage media, he said.
The majority of the Spanishlanguage papers are free, meaning advertising sales account for most of their revenue.
The nations' 42 Latino daily newspapers last year had a total circulation of 1.6 million, averaging 38,000 readers per paper, Chinni said. Most of the growth is in weekly papers, which stand at 317 papers and counting.
The surge in Spanish-language media in central Ohio began in earnest in 2002, about when the area's Latino population began its growth spurt, said Sonia Galicia, who owns Impacto Latino and Noti Deportivo, both Spanish-language bi-weekly newspapers.
Now, the market is "exploding as more businesses see the market potential and are saying, 'I want to get a part of that business; how can I do it?' " said Luis Orozco, general manager and part owner of WXOL (1550 AM). The Spanish-language radio station, also know as RadioSol, started as a two-hour show on WVKO (1580 AM) two years ago.
It now has its own studios and radio signal, with revenue projections of more than $1 million this year. It plans to add an FM signal by the end of the year, he said.
Two of the station's largest advertisers are Wal-Mart and Ricart Automotive, Orozco said.
"We're trying to speak to a community that's living a bicultural existence, where they are connected to their culture, their home countries and connected to the central Ohio community," said Stephanie Czekalinski, editorial coordinator for Fronteras de la Noticia.
The Spanish-language weekly, which is owned by The Dispatch Printing Company, publisher of The Dispatch, celebrated its first anniversary in the Columbus market Oct. 1. It has a circulation of 10,000.
Czekalinski said the paper "wanted to reach out to that community and get into the market while it was still emerging."
"If you don't pay attention to minority markets, you are limiting the number of people that you can reach. Having a vehicle to convey news (in one's native language), especially local news, is important to that effort."
tturner@dispatch.com
Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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