Latino Magazines, Ebony Buck Slump in Magazine Ads
Magazines targeting Latinos — Ser Padres, Siempre Mujer, Latina, People en Espanol — and the venerable Ebony magazine defied an advertising slump that gripped the magazine business for the first three months of 2012, according to figures released on Monday.
““Clearly the Hispanic category is continuing its momentum from 2011, where it saw 17% gains,” Lauren Michaels, co-president and publisher at Latina Media Ventures, told Journal-isms by email. “The trend continues into the 1st quarter of 2012, where the Hispanic print category is up 19%. One of the factors creating these gains is that this is the first full planning cycle after the April 2011 Census results. The whole category is feeling the positive impact of those numbers.”
She continued, “Latina has seen a very positive 26% increase in the 1st quarter. Some of Latina’s most important gains year to date are in the categories of beauty, retail and food. Overall, we have seen both a deepening commitment from marketers already in the space, as well as new advertisers either coming in for the first time, or back in the Hispanic market with renewed and refreshed commitments.”
Latina rose 26.2 percent in advertising dollars over the same period last year, and 25.8 percent in advertising pages.
Ser Padres and Siempre Mujer, Spanish-language publications produced by Meredith Corp., rose 55.6 percent and 45.1 percent, respectively, in ad dollars and 24.6 percent and 26.2 percent in ad pages.
Enedina Vega, vice president and publisher of Meredith Hispanic Ventures, again attributed the increase to “the growing awareness among advertisers about the importance of the Hispanic market.”
Ebony rose 28.2 percent in ad dollars and 19.2 percent in ad pages. Its sister publication, Jet, rose 9.2 percent in ad dollars and 7.4 percent in ad pages. In January, Stephen Barr, senior vice president/group publishing, said a similar increase was the result of a reorganized sales and marketing operation, a revamped editorial product, new advertisers and other factors.
Essence, Black Enterprise and O: The Oprah Magazine did not fare as well. Essence declined 15.6 percent in ad dollars and 14.9 percent in ad pages; Black Enterprise fell 6.9 percent in ad dollars and 7.8 percent in ad pages; and O, The Oprah Magazine declined 22 percent in advertising dollars and 24.1 percent in ad pages.
Obama: Americans Have Links to Colombia, Africa, Asia
President Obama is often accused of skirting questions of race, but he was asked about the issue again in an interview Sunday with Enrique Acevedo, new co-anchor of Univision’s late evening newscast “Noticiero Univision Edición Nocturna.” This time he linked the question to his trip to Colombia for a hemispheric summit, the occasion for the interview.
Acevedo asked, “. . . why is it that half a century after the Civil Rights Movement and after the American people elected their first African American President do I have to stand today here in front of you and ask you about racial tensions in the U.S.? And of course, I’m referring to the Trayvon Martin case.”
Obama said:
“Well, I think we all understand that issues of race are deeply embedded in the history of this country. Sometimes that history has been tragic, slavery, Jim Crow, but also more recent examples of anti-immigrant sentiment, and you know, I think what I always tell people is that, you know, my election alone is not going to completely transform attitudes because this has to do with hearts and not just minds. It has to do with attitudes, not just laws.
“On the other hand, I think we have to take heart from the fact that things have changed profoundly since I was born, and you know, when you see the next generation, when I talk to Malia and Sasha and their friends, their attitudes are more enlightened than the attitudes of my generation. So with each successive generation there are going to be misunderstandings; there are going to be tensions; there’s going to be tragedy sometimes, and what’s important for us to do is to look at it honestly, look at it squarely, but then move forward.
“And that’s part of the reason why issues like immigration reform are so important. We’re a nation of laws, but we’re also a nation of immigrants. We draw strength from our diversity. The fact that I can talk to you as President of the United States; you’re a major television anchor, both of us having backgrounds that 20, 30 years ago wouldn’t have existed in these positions. Well, that tells a story of American progress and American strength because what it means is we have connections to Colombia and Latin America and Africa and Asia, and that’s part of our influence around the world, is that we’re not just one type of people. We’re one people, but we come from many places, and we need to build on that strength in order to win the future.”
After the summit, Obama joined his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos in Cartagena, Colombia, to hand over land titles to descendants of the country’s runaway African slaves.
Representatives of some 1,000 Afro-Colombian families were to receive ownership titles to more than 8,200 acres of ancestral land they occupy, Agence France-Presse reported.
- Perry Bacon Jr., theGrio.com: The Obama Coalition: Do female voters care about Ann Romney’s work?
- Frances Martel, mediaite.com: Awkward: Obama Excuses Chris Matthews During Panel With Latin American Presidents
- John McWhorter, Daily News, New York: We already talk about race (April 5)
- Patrick B. Pexton, Washington Post: Debating the cost of Obamacare
- Juan Williams, the Hill: How race may affect this year’s election
The first story by CBS-TV’s Mark Strassmann on the Trayvon Martin killing aired March 8. (Video)
CBS Says Atlanta Correspondent Broke Trayvon Story
CBS News is crediting Mark Strassmann, its correspondent in Atlanta, with breaking the story of the Trayvon Martin killing, a distinction others have similarly claimed. Strassmann’s story appeared on CBS “This Morning” on March 8, the same day that Trymaine Lee wrote about Martin for HuffPost BlackVoices, and the less-visible Clutch magazine and Black Youth Project ran the same day but gained less attention.
On CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, host Bob Schieffer said,
“From time to time with our new expanded format, we’re going to bring in the reporters who break big stories. And we begin that today, I’m proud to say, with a CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann of our Atlanta bureau. He ran across the story in Florida in early March. It had actually happened in February that he thought deserved more than just local attention than it was getting. And he brought it to the attention of ‘CBS This Morning.’ “
Asked what caused him to notice the story, Strassmann said, “It just sat there as a sort of a local Orlando story. It was the shooting of a teenager on a rainy Sunday night. And we get a phone ball about 10 days after it happened from a guy who was aligned with the family, who was a contact of ours, he is the producer Chris St. Peters in our Atlanta bureau and I. He said please take a look at this. And he described it to us. And so we — we set up a conference call with Tracy Martin, Trayvon’s father, and attorney Ben Crump. They walked us through the facts of the case, asked for the police report, contacted the Sanford Police Department. And essentially this was just a story that was crying out for a second look. And we came along and gave it one.”
Orlando Sentinel to Compete With National Media for Eyeballs
“The Orlando Sentinel’s Twitter account for the Trayvon Martin case is up and running,” Brian Stelter reported Sunday for the New York Times. “So, too, is its topics page, with links to all the newspaper’s articles about Mr. Martin and the man who shot and killed him, George Zimmerman, as well as video clips of its reporters talking about the case on television. A Facebook page will go online on Monday. And a Web video series might be next.
“For The Sentinel, the story is local; the shooting of Mr. Martin happened in Sanford, a suburb of Orlando. But the newspaper senses an opportunity to reach a national and even international audience with online coverage. It is competing with all manner of national media, which have seized on the story with a ferocity that has already drawn comparisons to the Casey Anthony trial and, years before it, that of O.J. Simpson.”
- Gustavo Arellano, “Ask a Mexican,” OC Weekly: Do Mexicans Support Trayvon Martin’s Killer?
- Tommy Christopher, mediaite.com: Michael Eric Dyson Blasts Conservatives For ‘Swallowing Camels’ In Trayvon Martin Story
- Ta-Nehisi Coates blog, the Atlantic: In Defense of Cable News
- Mary C. Curtis, Washington Post: Trayvon Martin: Communities sort out facts, feelings and what comes after
- Matt Gertz, Media Matters: NRA’s LaPierre Responds To Trayvon Martin Killing By Attacking The Media
- Adam Hochberg, Poynter Institute: CNN’s unedited epithets raise questions about when to use unfiltered hate speech
- Wil LaVeist, urbanfaith.com: Trayvon and America’s Damascus Road
- Roland S. Martin, Creators Syndicate: Trayvon Martin: Moving From a Moment to a Movement
- Julie Moos, Poynter Institute: How CNN homepage evolved with news of Zimmerman charges, arrest for Trayvon Martin shooting
- Geraldo Rivera, Fox News Latino: George Zimmerman Should Face Manslaughter, Not Murder
- Jeff John Roberts, paidcontent.org: Trayvon Martin, theGrio and “new guards” of black media
- Frances Robles, Miami Herald: Trayvon’s parents find purpose, solace in activism
- Brent Staples, New York Times: Young, Black, Male, and Stalked by Bias
- Brian Stelter, New York Times: Trial in Martin Case, Filled With High Emotion, Would Draw a News Swarm
- Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel Media lawyers: Unseal the George Zimmerman court file
- Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel: George Zimmerman judge: My husband works for a lawyer who’s doing case commentary for CNN
- Mallary Jean Tenore, Poynter Institute: How 5 news sites monitor, moderate conversation about Trayvon Martin stories
Anchor Is “Unofficial Asian-American Ambassador”
“It’s hard to keep up with Shannon Hori,” Johnny Diaz reported Saturday for the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“Whether she’s traveling to Japan to see recovery efforts from last year’s tsunami disaster, or attending an April lunch presented by the Consulate-General of Japan in Miami, the WFOR-Ch. 4 lead news anchor has become an unofficial Asian-American ambassador in South Florida.
“On camera, she is the Fort Lauderdale-Miami TV market’s first and only Asian-American primary TV news anchor, and one of the few nationwide in top TV markets. Off-camera, the third-generation Japanese-American shares stories about her bicultural upbringing at local and national events.
“. . . Hori’s ascension to the main anchor chair reflects South Florida’s changing demographics and the expanding presence of Asian-Americans in broadcast. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are among the largest Asian hubs in Florida. The number of Asians in Broward County grew by 6 percent to 56,795 people in 2010 from 2000, according to the U.S. Census. The number of Asians in Palm Beach also increased, and they represent 2.4 percent of the county, or about 31,100 people according to the census.”
Nominate a J-Educator Who Has Helped Diversity
The Association of Opinion Journalists, formerly the National Conference of Editorial Writers, annually grants a Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship — actually an award — “in recognition of an educator’s outstanding efforts to encourage minority students in the field of journalism.” The educator should be at the college level.
Nominations, which are now being accepted for the 2012 award, should consist of a statement about why you believe your nominee is deserving.
The final selection will be made by the NCEW Foundation board and will be announced in time for the Sept. 20-22 convention in Orlando, when the presentation will be made.
Since 2000, an honorarium of $1,000 has been awarded the recipient, to be used to “further work in progress or begin a new project.”
Past winners include James Hawkins, Florida A&M University (1990), Larry Kaggwa, Howard University (1992), Ben Holman, University of Maryland (1996); Linda Jones, Roosevelt University, Chicago (1998), Ramon Chavez, University of Colorado, Boulder (1999), Erna Smith of San Francisco State (2000), Joseph Selden of Penn State (2001), Cheryl Smith; Paul Quinn College (2002), Rose Richard, Marquette University (2003), Leara D. Rhodes, University of Georgia (2004), Denny McAuliffe, University of Montana (2005), Pearl Stewart, Black College Wire (2006), Valerie White, Florida A&M University (2007), Phillip Dixon, Howard University (2008), Bruce DePyssler, North Carolina Central University (2009), Sree Sreenivasan, Columbia University (2010), and Yvonne Latty, New York University, 2011.
Nominations may be emailed to Richard Prince, AOJ Diversity Committee chair, richardprince (at) hotmail.com. The deadline is May 18.
Short Takes
Halimah Abdullah, shown with her husband, John Irons, and daughter, Zahra, on the White House lawn, has left the McClatchy Co., where she was a Washington correspondent, and is now a political contributor to the “Today” show’s website. website. “I love the gig and it’s given me a chance to write with more voice and spend a lot more time with our baby,” she writes. ” The TODAY folks also gave me a weekly political roundup column: “The column appears every Friday. . . . Last week, I ‘came out’ about our infertility battle and covering politics in this piece: - Journalists at the Washington Post eligible for a buyout had until 5 p.m. Monday to submit their paperwork, but have seven days after to change their minds and withdraw.
- Kimberley Martin is officially Newsday’s beat writer for the NFL’s New York Jets. “It was announced in a memo on April 11,” Hank Winnicki, assistant managing editor/Sports, told Journal-isms Monday by email. “Kimberley’s first official day on the Jets beat is today. The Jets are such an important beat for our readers that there really is no offseason. The team has optional workouts this week and the NFL draft is next week, so Kimberley is jumping right into it.” He wrote in his memo, “Kimberley has covered everything from high school sports to George Steinbrenner‘s funeral to the Giants victory in the Super Bowl.”
- ABC Television Network executives have apologized to the New York group Boricuas For a Positive Image for a line in the Jan. 3 pilot episode of the now-canceled prime time sitcom “work It.” Angel Ortiz, a character seeking work, said, “I am Puerto Rican I’ll be great at selling drugs.” “This was followed by a smile on his face and the sound of laughter,” the group said in a March 30 letter [PDF]. The group listed 13 ways that ABC could improve Puerto Rican community relations, provide equal employment opportunities and for programming.
- “Spanish-language channels in the US are getting only half the advertising revenues they should, according to the new chief executive of Telemundo, the second largest broadcaster in a Hispanic television market that is becoming more crowded,” Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson reported Sunday for the Financial Times. ““Hispanic television media get 8 per cent of the viewership on average on a single day and only 4 per cent of the total advertising [revenue],” Emilio Romano told the Financial Times, six months after Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit named him to run the network in Miami. “. . . Their growing spending power is attracting more advertisers, but many brands remain unsure about how to reach an increasingly bilingual audience.”
- “Coupled with a handful of new affiliates, fresh deals with cable distributors Time Warner Cable and Cablevision in New York has the multicast channel Estrella TV in 78% of Hispanic households, according to the company,” Michael Malone reported Thursday for Broadcasting & Cable. “Finalizing partnerships with WANN Atlanta and KOCY Oklahoma City, among others, Estrella has 31 broadcast partners, including stations owned by Hearst TV and Belo, along with eight O&Os held by parent Liberman Broadcasting.”
- Mychal Denzel Smith, a writer for theGrio.com, wrote Friday of his disappointment that T.J. Holmes, the former CNN anchor, will head a new show on BET that seeks to emulate late-night comedians Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and Stephen Colbert. Smith said of BET, “In Holmes, they have the potential to establish a serious news program focused on the issues and concerns of black America, an opportunity to highlight the work of black journalists, thinkers, and activists across the country that are otherwise locked out of the national agenda setting conversation. They don’t have to take the approach of The Daily Show to accomplish that.”
- This columnist has been named a “Game Changer” by the Politic365 website. The “Game Changers” are defined as “a distinguished group of bi-partisan, multi-cultural leaders from across the country whose foresight and active engagement in both the public and private sectors are critical to America’s domestic success and global leadership,” according to Kendrick B. Meek, the former Democratic congressman from Florida who is editorial board chairman of Politic365.com.
- “A TV reporter claims an Albuquerque police officer with a history of bad behavior destroyed evidence of the cop knocking down a teen-ager — which the reporter was able to recover with help from a forensic technician,” Evan Prieskop reported Thursday for Courthouse News Service. “Christina Rodda, a reporter and news anchor for KOB-TV in Albuquerque, sued Officer Stephanie Lopez and the City of Albuquerque in Federal Court.”
- Black journalists Mary C. Curtis, a contributor to the Washington Post’s “She the People” website, among other roles, and Jarvis Holliday, who “freelances at many places, now most consistently now at Charlotte Magazine’s ‘The DNC In The CLT’ feature,” are among four voices from Charlotte, N.C., cited by Andria Krewson in Columbia Journalism Review. The four “present that truer story, every day, through consistent, on-the-ground reporting, writing, and analysis,” and “flesh out the political story and add to the region’s sense of itself.” Charlotte is hosing the Democratic National Convention in September.
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