Reaching Out to Chicago Hispanics p. 12

By: Mark Fitzgerald

Sun-Times joins with La Raza, a weekly newspaper, to publish
a Spanish-language supplement to be distributed Sundays
THE CHICAGO SUN-Times launched a Sunday Spanish-language magazine Sept. 5 in a joint venture with La Raza, the weekly Chicago Spanish-language newspaper.
La Raza Domingo is a tabloid magazine of local news and features distributed inside more than 100,000 copies of the Sunday Sun-Times that circulate in 26 city and suburban ZIP codes with substantial Hispanic populations. Individual subscribers anywhere else can arrange to have La Raza Domingo inserted in their Sunday papers.
La Raza Domingo is written and designed by the staff of La Raza, a two-decades-old tabloid with an audited paid circulation of 40,000 and a total market coverage product with a distribution of 180,000.
La Raza editor Gabriela Bustamente also edits La Raza Domingo. With the Sept. 5 launching of La Raza Domingo, the Sun-Times beat rival Chicago Tribune into the Spanish-language market by at least a few weeks.
The Tribune has announced it will begin publishing its own weekly targeting the Hispanic market ? the free-standing and free-distribution, mostly Spanish-language Exito ? in early autumn. Executives at the Sun-Times and La Raza, however, said their venture had nothing to do with the launching of Exito.
"This is something we had under way for several months," Sun-Times publisher Sam S. McKeel said. "It had such a long gestation period to ensure that La Raza would publish, and we would distribute, a high-quality publication. We had this in our plans long before the Chicago Tribune ever announced Exito."
McKeel said La Raza's involvement will be a big advantage.
"The reason I think this will work is because this is a well-established, 23-year-old publication that is well-received in the Spanish-language community and has been successful on its own hook. It's not a start-up venture. It brings its own reputation, it brings an experience of its own," McKeel said.
Similarly, La Raza publisher and president Luis H. Rossi said the entry of big mainstream papers such as the Sun-Times and Tribune into Chicago's Spanish-language print media will be a good thing for La Raza and the entire range of Hispanic media.
"It is great for the Spanish community," Rossi said. "I look at it as you've got 200 extra salespeople out selling Hispanic media.
"It's not going to be that [Exito or La Raza Domingo] are taking a piece of the cake ? we are going to have a bigger cake because they are convincing advertisers to spend more on the Spanish market," Rossi said.
Rossi also said the La Raza partnership will give the Sun-Times more access to Hispanic community retailers.
Much the same point was made by the Sun-Times' vice president of circulation operations, Luis Serpa, who was involved in the launching of the Miami Herald's El Nuevo Herald.
"Here in Chicago, with a Hispanic population of over a million, it does not take a genius to realize that there are gigantic circulation growth opportunities within the Latino community," he said.
La Raza editor Bustamente said La Raza Domingo ? Domingo means Sunday ? will have a heavy concentration of local and international news and features. The newsprint magazine will make generous use of color and will have a full-time staff of six reporters, she said.
Unlike Exito, which the Tribune said may have some English features, La Raza Domingo will be completely in Spanish.
La Raza Domingo will have an initial size of 24 pages and an editorial hole of more than 50%, said La Raza associate publisher Robert J. Armband.
According to its rate card, La Raza Domingo will have a retail and classified full-page rate of $1,750 and a national full-page rate of $2,500.