ImpreMedia Acquires San Francisco's 'El Mensajero'

By: Nancy Ayala (Marketing y Medios) New York-based ImpreMedia LLC today announced that it acquired the San Francisco Bay Area's top Spanish-language newspaper, El Mensajero. It joins New York's El Diario La Prensa, Los Angeles' La Opini?n and Chicago's La Raza.

"This is consistent with our strategy to [own Spanish-language newspapers] in the top 10 markets," John Paton, chairman and CEO of ImpreMedia, told Marketing y Medios. "It is important to grow the national footprint for advertisers, to offer a single order. This clearly lets us do this." Most important, it will enable advertisers to reach Latinos in both Northern and Southern California.

The acquisition was made with proceeds from an $82.5 million credit facility with Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group L.P., which entered into an expansion deal with ImpreMedia a few months ago, Paton said. Exact terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition follows recent news that Knight Ridder, owner of the San Jose Mercury News, abruptly shuttered the Spanish-language weekly Nuevo Mundo for cost-cutting reasons. The 9-year-old paper was replaced with the Mexico-based tabloid Fronteras de la Noticia.

"The situation with Knight Ridder is atypical," Paton said, pointing out that ImpreMedia is interested only in acquiring newspapers in the top U.S. markets that are "produced for Hispanics by Hispanics."

El Mensajero has an audited weekly circulation of 111,564, the press statement said. Like its new sister publications, it will distribute the Domingo Network's Contigo, a free weekend supplement available in high-density Hispanic neighborhoods.

The Domingo Network now distributes 750,000 free publications each week, up from 650,000, and will count a total distribution of more than 1.8 million for its newspapers.