Hispanic publications generated $1.7 billion in total revenues last year.With Latinos now comprising 15 percent of the nation's population, the year 2007 was another one of growth for its print publications. More than half (54 percent) of Hispanic households use Hispanic newspapers on a weekly basis. In fact, nearly a third read more than one title per week.As a solid sign of continuing growth, 40 percent of today's Hispanic newspapers were started in this decade. At the end of 2007, there were 827 in the United States, including Puerto Rico, with the addition of 92 in the past two years. Circulation is also on the rise, having increased by 800,000 over the same period.Magazines are filling many different roles. Local glossy magazines are probably the most unsung success going on within Hispanic print. Last year saw the segment grow by 15 publications as revenues advanced from $37 million to $42 million. This segment also continues to transition toward English. The quality of these magazines has also improved significantly.Local newsprint magazines, many of them weeklies, held solid and saw $3 million in growth. Spanish is the strongest in this category. National Hispanic magazines were also very strong, with growth of 1.2 million in circulation and $18 million in ad revenues.Job opportunities continue to grow. Employment in Hispanic print topped 17,000 for the first time, a positive in this era of media consolidation. Over 4,600 of the employees are editors and writers -- an impressive number in these days of declining editorial staffs.Bilingual newspapers are more popular. In 2000, there were 58 bilingual Hispanic newspapers. Today, there are 189 with a combined circulation of 4.2 million.Tabloids are surging, with 81 percent of all Hispanic newspapers now in tabloid format, up from 59 percent in 2000.There are two areas where the Latino press felt the same market influences as did the English-language-media industry:Hispanic newspapers experienced a slight decline in ad revenue. It dipped by 0.6 percent. Latino Print Network has been analyzing trends for Hispanic print since the late 1970s. From the mid-1980s till the early 2000s, every year saw double-digit growth in Hispanic print advertising. Last year was the first we've ever seen a decrease, and that was just for Hispanic newspapers.Decline in Spanish-language dailies. Between 2005 and 2007, nine Spanish-language newspapers ceased as dailies, with four folding and five switching to a weekly basis. There are still a number of very strong Spanish-language dailies in the United States. The demise of some of the weaker ones should not be seen as a negative so much as the evolution toward fewer but strong dailies in key markets and many more quality weeklies. Weeklies seem to be a better fit for many families' media habits.The year 2008 promises to be a good one for strong Hispanic publications as they fine-tune their sales efforts and continue to show improvement in editorial and graphic quality, as well as branch out onto the Internet.(Kirk Whisler, who nearly three decades ago put together the founding team of the National Association of Hispanic Publications, has continued to track the growth of Hispanic print annually through his Carlsbad, Calif.-based Latino Print Network. E-mail him at kirk(at)whisler.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
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