By: Mark Fitzgerald A third big newspaper player is plunging into the competition for Chicagoland's Hispanic market.
On Sept. 26 the Daily Herald will relaunch its weekly newspaper Reflejos with a new design by famed newspaper makeover artist Mario Garcia, with editorial that will emphasize Spanish over English -- and with a distribution nearly doubled to 100,000.
"We are launching a huge Latino initiative," said Douglas K. Ray, president and CEO of family-owned Paddock Publications, owner of the Arlington Hts., Ill.-based daily and the bilingual Reflejos.
Until now, Reflejos, which was a monthly when Paddock Publications bought it in the summer of 2000, has been a minor player in the intense competition among Spanish-language newspapers. The Chicago Tribune published first the free-distribution weekly Exito and the, last fall, replaced the paper with Tribune Co.'s national daily Hoy. During the same time, the long-established weekly La Raza moved its emphasis to free, targeted household delivery and expanded its reach.
Nevertheless, Reflejos and the Daily Herald share a market in the northwest and western suburbs of Chicago that has seen strong growth of its Hispanic population. Right now, Reflejos has a free-distribution of 58,000 with about 19,000 copies delivered to targeted households, according to its Web site.
The new version of Reflejos drops the old formula of publishing every article in both Spanish and English in favor of mostly Spanish with short English summaries, Ray said. Articles will also focus more on culture, he added.
Reflejos will keep one unique aspect of its former self: a strong distribution to area high schools and colleges for use in Spanish-language instruction. "Of the total distribution, 90,000 will be for consumers and 10,000 will go to schools," Ray said.
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