It’s Jennifer Lopez versus Eva Longoria as Condé Nast and Hearst duke it out in the Hispanic market.
In one of the few announced launches from a major media company this year, Condé Nast will debut Glam Belleza Latina, a Glamour spinoff aimed at the Hispanic market with Lopez as its inaugural cover girl.
The Lopez interview was conducted by Veronica Chambers, editor of the magazine, which is slated to publish quarterly in 2013. The first issue hits March 5.
Glamour was beaten to the punch by arch rival Cosmopolitan, which last year launched Cosmopolitan for Latinas. The Cosmo spinoff had three issues last year and plans to publish four this year.
Michelle Herrera Mulligan is the editor of the title, whose spring issue published on Feb. 5 with 60 ad pages and Longoria on the cover.
Glamour Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive said the Hispanic version “will be narrowly focused on the beauty market. We are not trying to be a general-interest magazine.”
Unlike big sister Glamour, the Hispanic-centered version will be a trim size measuring 6-3/4 inches by 9-1/8 inches — the same size as Teen Vogue in the US and the overseas versions of Glamour.
Cosmopolitan for Latinas is the standard magazine size.
The activity in the Hispanic market stands in sharp contrast to the dearth of major launches on the English-language side of the ledger.
The only other major launch on the horizon is a Dr. Oz magazine from Hearst, where sources say a deal is “99 percent certain.” Neither side has officially confirmed that launch just yet.
With an estimated 60 million Americans of Hispanic background, it is easy to see why media firms are catering to the rapidly growing audience. Until now, most of the growth has been on the TV side.
Donna Kalajian, publisher of Cosmopolitan, said, “The brands that win are going to be the ones that have a big level of engagement with the Latina consumers.”
Glam Belleza Latinas and Cosmopolitan for Latinas are written predominantly in English, with maybe 10 percent of the content in Spanish.
“There is room for continued growth in the Hispanic magazine business so long as publishers have organic consumer demand for the product, high reader engagement, original content, and research that shows and proves they are reaching this market effectively,” says Monique Manso, publisher of People en Espanol.
Check in mail
Media Ink gets results.
Just days after we reported that BuzzMedia owed a big six-figure settlement to Radaronline, BuzzMedia CEO Steve Hansen claims to have paid up.
“We are current with Radaronline,” said Hansen, adding that the first he learned that the company was in arrears was when Media Ink reported it on Friday.
BuzzMedia was hired in 2011 to sell advertising that appeared on the Radaronline website. Radaronline is owned by Odyssey Magazine Publishing Group, a joint venture of America Media Inc. and Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos.
David Pecker, CEO of American Media, said he was still awaiting receipt of the check.
Radaronline claims in court papers that BuzzMedia owes it $173,188.97 plus another $47,729.64 to Odyssey, for a total of $220,918. It says another $44,242.64 is due from BuzzMedia in early March.
BuzzMedia provided Media Ink with an electronic copy of a check for $117,000 that the company said it sent last Friday and that should have reached American Media’s offices by yesterday.
Radaronline may have to wait a while longer for the rest of the money it claims it is owed. Hansen said the company has a 45-day window to pay the rest and is current.
Separately, a report from Dun & Bradstreet says that the likelihood that the BuzzMedia will experience financial distress in the next 12 months is “high.” BuzzMedia is slow-paying, and its payment schedule is “worsening,” the report said.
A BuzzMedia spokesman said. “D&B is what it is . . . I’m sure it’s an indicator that at times is accurate and at times is not reflective of a company’s financials.”
Hansen said the company, founded in 2006, was “profitable at points in 2012” — but not for the entire year, despite what he said was 36 percent growth in revenue year over year.
One critic said the engagement numbers suggest that viewers are popping into most BuzzMedia brands but then quickly checking out. “Engagement is one of the metrics that we are most focused on,” Hansen said.
He noted that the brands on average keep readers for more than two minutes, although some of its biggest sites show engagement times of 90 seconds or less.
He said the company is picking websites and trying to drive traffic. He was adamant that he rarely pays for traffic, although he does shepherd traffic from site to site through mutually beneficial exchanges.
“There are traffic swap deals, but we don’t buy traffic,” he said. “That is not our practice.”