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Hispanic Media: A Giant Stirs
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15061 |
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Section : |
SPECIAL SECTION
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1988 |
2,997 Words |
| Author
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Mark Holston
Mark Holston writes about Latin American issues for Américas,
Seis Continentes, Hispanic, and other international
publications. The author wishes to thank InterContinental
Hotels in S‹o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro for their assistance in
making this report possible. |
Until recently, the province of Spanish-language radio, television, and print media was viewed by non-Hispanics, if at all, as an incomprehensible mishmash of "foreign language" concerns--unimportant to anyone except members of the Spanish-speaking community itself. But popular perceptions of the Hispanic media are changing as rapidly as the dimensions of the society they serve. Accelerating population growth, expanding economic and political clout, and an emerging dynamic, well-educated, bilingual middle class all point to a new, important role for Hispanics in the United States. What all this portends for the media that have traditionally served the Latin community, and for the new ventures that are gearing up to serve a highly desirable demographic group, is clear. Like the population they mirror, the Hispanic media have entered a new age that promises challenges, influence, rewards, and respect.
Into The Mainstream
"Hispanics are being discovered as a consumer group--that's the big story," says Lucienne Loman, the Mexico City-born placement officer for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Washington, D.C. "When you have enough of any people in this country, it makes a difference."
To Loman's group, which counts 700 dues-paying members, the new attention being given to Hispanics by mainstream, corporate America means employment opportunities for media professionals of an ethnic group that has seen only sporadic career advancement in the past. But far beyond that benefit is the resounding signal that, from Madison Avenue's top advertising agencies to the boardrooms of major corporations, advertising and business industry leaders are becoming aware of the "new" kid on the demographic block.
"Hispanic is hot!" is how the advertising industry's bedrock source of information on media markets lured readers of trade publications to their advertisement for the first major survey of Hispanic media and markets ever conducted by an establishment organization. Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS) challenged the conventional wisdom with this copy line: "A hot market that's exploding. Exploding with over $134 billion of buying power. Reaching this market has been difficult--until now."
SRDS' Hispanic Media and Markets, which was issued for the first time this spring, became an instant bible for the advertising industry. "Many of our district managers, who are out in the field, began getting requests for this kind of
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