Will Chicago Say Hello to 'Hoy?'

By: Lucia Moses Is Tribune Co. looking to replicate in its Chicago hometown the success of its New York Spanish-language daily Hoy? Tribune won't comment, other than saying through a spokesperson that the paper is "looking at how to serve all our markets, including Chicago." However, company officials have noted pointedly that Louis Sito, who launched Hoy from Newsday in 1998, was named last February to the newly created position of president of Hispanic media with a mandate to look at new products.

Rumors about a Chicago Spanish-language daily have been flying since Chicago Tribune "Media and Marketing" columnist Jim Kirk reported that the paper was considering expanding its Spanish-language weekly Exito to Monday-through-Friday publication, and changing its name to Hoy. Among the rumors circulating last week: the new paper would launch in late summer -- or the Tribune had decided not to go ahead with it. Exito's current principal competitor is La Raza, which is delivered free on Sundays.

Spanish-language dailies are coming to other markets, inspired by Hoy, which is now the third-largest Spanish-language U.S. daily, with a weekday circulation of 91,156. Belo Co.'s Dallas Morning News is developing a Spanish-language daily right now, and last week El Dia Inc., publisher of El Nuevo Dia in San Juan, Puerto Rico, announced that this August it would begin publishing a Monday-through-Friday version of the tabloid in Orlando and central Florida.