Interest heats up in Hispanic market

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Feb 1, 1995 by Jenna Schnuer

Another title targeting the country's growing Hispanic population is in the works. New York City-based Essence has positioned itself as the major investor in Latina, a bilingual title aimed at Hispanic women 18 to 45 years old. The bimonthly magazine, set to launch at the end of 1995, is the dream of Christy Haubegger, a Mexican-American graduate of Stanford Law with no background in the magazine business.

For Latina to fly, Haubegger says she must raise $5 million by this summer. Essence has the option to finance her project in its entirety, but an unnamed investment bank and a venture capitalist have also expressed interest in investing. A direct-mail campaign of 75,000 pieces is slated for April, with Haubegger shooting for a ratebase of between 150,000 and 200,000.

Latina will target women who were born in the United States or have spent most of their adult lives here. The number of Hispanic females in the workforce reached 4.1 million in 1990, according to the U.S. Census, up from 2.4 million in 1980. Those figures are also attracting interest from Hispanic: Executives at the Washington, D.C.-based magazine are thinking about turning the title's quarterly supplement, Moderna, into a stand-alone bilingual publication.

A familiar hurdle

The major stumbling block Latina will face is the same one encountered by all Hispanic publications in this country: the lack of advertising dollars directed toward the print market. Although spending in the category is on the rise--Santa Barbara, California-based Hispanic Business estimates that total ad expenditures for print aimed at Hispanics was $178 million in 1994, up from $168 million the previous year--there's still a lot of room for growth, says Hispanic Business managing editor Hector Cantu.

It's Cantu's belief that marketers who fail to target English-speaking Hispanics are missing out on a vital niche of readers who may be unimpressed with titles like Vogue and Cosmopolitan. According to Hispanic editor and publisher Alfredo Estrada, Hispanic consumers currently account for 15 percent of spending in the American health and beauty market.