After 16 Years, Publisher Armband Leaves Chicago's 'La Raza'

By: Mark Fitzgerald Robert Armband, who began as the assistant to La Raza's founding publisher Luis Rossi and stayed with the Chicago Spanish-language weekly as it grew under two different owners, is leaving the paper Thursday.

"My real reason for leaving, beyond the fact that I need a new source of creativity, is to spend more time with my family," Armband said in an interview Wednesday. "You know what this business is like -- it's 24/7, you're missing your kid's kung-fu matches because you're spending so much time building that EBITDA."

For the last three years, La Raza has been owned by ImpreMedia, the nation's largest publisher of Spanish-language newspapers and niche publications. "With ImpreMedia, we just about reached the zenith, where by the end of the year we'll be in nine of the top 10 [Hispanic] markets," Armband said.

ImpreMedia was set to announce formally Thursday that Mike Cano will become interim publisher of the 190,000 free-distribution weekly.

Cano joined ImpreMedia last June as director of marketing for the Los Angeles daily La Opinion. He has been general manager of The Dallas Morning News' Spanish-language five-day paper Al Dia and the Orange County Register's weekly Excelsior.

Armband said he was proud of his 16 years "building this into the leading Hispanic weekly in country in terms of both revenue and circulation."

Armband will remain as a consultant to ImpreMedia, and is launching his own business, Venado Consulting, which will be an events marketing and promotions firm. Among his first projects will be a national chain of Latino-themed shopping malls called "Plaza Fiesta."

He also said he wanted to pursue his "true love in content," the motion picture industry. "With the relationships I've nurtured over the years, I've got a drawer-full of dusty scripts I hope to pursue, building a new business, a new lifestyle if you will," he said. "I want to pursue some exciting projects without the daily grind of putting out the paper."