By: Mark Fitzgerald The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., will launch a Spanish-language weekly on Dec. 8 to serve a growing Hispanic population in its market between Orlando and Tampa Bay.
Vision Latina will be mailed to 20,000 households with Hispanic surnames and another 10,000 to 15,000 copies will be distributed through newsracks placed in areas with heavy Hispanic populations, Ledger Publisher John Fitzwater said in a telephone interview Thursday.
"We had a [Spanish-language] quarterly, and people in the Hispanic business community approached us about doing this as weekly," Fitzwater said. The rapidly growing Hispanic demographic already comprises nearly 14% of sprawling Polk County, he noted.
Unlike the tabloid quarterly with its advertorial content, Vision Latina will be a broadsheet with its own editor, Imelda Ord??-Dutton, and a stringer. It will launch with 16 pages of local news, business, sports and advertising.
Vision Latina is believed to be the first New York Times Co. property in Florida to launch a Spanish-language weekly, but it is not the first for the chain, a company spokesman said. When the Times Co. owned the Santa Barbara (Calif.) News-Press, it published a Spanish-language paper, he said.
On a contract basis, the Ledger prints another Spanish-language paper, the Florida edition of the Puerto Rican daily El Nuevo Dia.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here