Tribune Pulls Trigger on Los Angeles 'Hoy'

By: Mark Fitzgerald Just days after severing its partnership with the Los Angeles Spanish-language daily La Opini?n, Tribune Co. announced Monday that it will launch its national Spanish-language daily tabloid Hoy in L.A. in March.

Tribune had been widely expected to introduce Hoy in Los Angeles, home to more than 8 million Hispanics and to the company's biggest daily, the 955,211-circulation Los Angeles Times (Click for QuikCap). Tribune launched Hoy (Click for QuikCap) in the New York City market from its daily Newsday in November 1998. Within three years, it surpassed the venerable El Diario/La Prensa (Click for QuikCap) to become the market's biggest Spanish-language daily. The paper has a circulation of 93,902.

A Chicago edition of Hoy was launched last September with a press run of 60,000. Its circulation has not yet been reported separately from the New York/New Jersey editions.

Like its other editions, the Los Angeles Hoy will sell for a quarter on a single-copy sales basis only.

"Through its editorial expertise and ability to form a unique, local connection with the community, Hoy has been very successful in New York and Chicago. We believe it will be well-received by Los Angeles Hispanics also," said Jack Fuller, president of Tribune Publishing, the Chicago-based company's print division.

Publisher Louis Sito, who launched Hoy in New York and is now Tribune Publishing's vice president/Hispanic media, said the L.A. edition "will provide advertisers with an opportunity to reach Los Angeles-area Hispanic consumers, whose retail buying power is estimated to be $48 billion annually."