The Battle of Latino Media

...But there is still the feeling that new bilingual generations will force NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS s :e :e 24REPORT ON MEDIA Spanish-language broadcasters and publishers to compete more directly with mainstream media giants...

...Latinos, Univision.com, which gets over 1 billion hits a year...

...La Opini6n President M6nica Lozano says, "This [newspaper] was founded on the principles of service to the community and serving as the voice for those who didn't have one...

...I am a big advocate of Latinos having ownership," he says...

...But not only that, Latinos also had to register to vote...

...Latino population had increased dramatically during the 1990s to 35 million, over 10 million in California alone...

...Univision only has a single cable channel and nascent involvement in satellite and digital televi0 News set for Telemundo's KVEA in Burbank, California...

...They complained that the new company s editor, would have as much as 70% of the entire ad market owners for Latinos...

...In newspapers, the Chicago-based Tribune Co...

...t or by The controversy over the Telemundo merger was rs often mild in comparison to the response to Univision's merger with Hispanic Broadcasting Corp...

...Privately, though, many reporters at Spanish-language newspapers controlled by mainstream media corporations say there is an ongoing culture clash between an activist vision of Latino journalism and the strict standards of "objectivity" still preferred by media corporations...

...Corporations talk about community coverage as they rush to roll out Latino publications and broadcast outlets, but only as an afterthought...

...Some members of the Latino community wonder how much Univision will compromise its commitment to political education and voting rights as it continues to grow...

...Vol XXXVII, No 4 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004 21 Vol XXXVII, No 4 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004 21REPORT ON MEDIA a 0 0 "2 0z New York City's top Spanish-language dailies...

...but to divert Spanish-language advertising dollars to help their bottom-line...

...civic life...

...In 2001, when the second-place Spanish-language C television network Telemundo was looking for suitors, it was General Electric-the megacorporation that owns the NBC television ne that stepped in with a $2 billion acquisition.' triggered a great deal of hand wringing in th community, foreshadowing some of the criti the Univision merger...

...In making their sales pitches, they are also helped by the latest government data...

...What is certain is that the deal catapulted Univision into the category of a bona-fide media giant...

...It's no secret that a bulk of the non-news programming on Univision and its competitors is composed of daytime and primetime soap operas and gossipy talk programs, which are then followed by naughty nighttime variety shows-some reinforcing the brands of sexism and racism present in Latin American nations...

...And Miami-based Radio Unica, a g iant...

...It's entertainment," he said...

...these channels reach nearly all the Latino households in the country...

...He can be contacted at <mballve@yahoo.com...

...Mainstream media conglomerates are racing to acquire satellite television systems and cable channels...

...Both Battle Heats Up...

...His essay "Copacabana Beach" was published by Penguin Putnam in the non-fiction anthology Regeneration: Telling Stories from Our Twenties...

...Housing and Urban Development Secretary under President Bill Clinton...

...Hoy and El Diario/l Angeles' La Opini6n...

...It may be unfair to single out Latino media when complaints of trashy content, manipulative advertising and questionable production practices can also be leveled against U.S...

...In the late 1990s, ation, in after a 1996 telecommunications deregulation bill that the was approved by the U.S...

...I think that's unfortunate," says Walter Ulloa, CEO and Chairman of Entravision, an L.A.-area conglomerate that runs Spanish-language television stations, including Univision affiliates, FM radio stations and billboards...

...This likelihood may boost spending on market research and fuel ratings races, but not necessarily strengthen community involvement and the Latino media's role as a bridge-builder between Latinos and civic institutions...

...national chain of AM talk radio in Spanish, announced that it was looking for buyers...

...There's also Galavisi6n, the Spanish-language cable channel, which reaches 5.7 million Latino cable subscribers...

...The article cited accusations from ly News New Jersey Rep...

...Latinos...

...control of some 1,200 U.S...

...politics, since that legitimates its audience...

...Whatever its motivations, the company has tried to serve as a community advocate at crucial junctures in the political life of U.S...

...May sensitize, so on the network level you'll sta more of what looks like America...

...Another source of pressure is technology...

...a 2002 interview...

...Congress, the company o media succeeded in establishing unprecedented dominance uld help over music radio and the live music industry with its e better...

...The Roll Call article also menThe deal tioned ads published by critics of the merger pointing e Latino out that the fusion would create a Spanish-language cisms of media powerhouse under the control of two "nondvocacy Hispanic media czars...

...Many Latinos-even those born in the United States-have held on to the Spanish language and Latin American cultures as central components of their identity...

...radio stations, as well as ct NBC hundreds of concert venues and billboards...

...Latino talent or sensibilities...

...The changes, which are still being fought over in the U.S...

...t it was The FCC-approved merger paved the way for anguage Univision's entry into radio over the objections of ion to a some of the company's competitors, as well as some soup of Latino activists and politicians, who argued that Halyard Univision was being allowed to amass too much t Paton power...

...Latino music market...

...Javier Aldape, publisher of El Diario La Estrella, acknowledges that the paper's first loyalty is to Knight Ridder's company-wide journalism standards, which value accuracy and objectivity...

...Unquestionably, though, it is this demographic Univisior explosion that is fueling the category of growth in Spanish-language media...

...government's media regulation arm, approved Univision's merger with Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., the nation's largest owner of Spanish-language radio stations...

...The National Association of Hispanic Publications, or NAHP, which brings together over 200 publications, said it opposed the Univision merger because the new company would control over two-thirds of the entire Latino ad market...

...Plus, she says, apart from Perenchio, the real players in the deal were not U.S.-based investors, but Latin American media companies, which increased their stake in Univision as a result of the merger...

...When Guti6rrez is talking about shows that "lower" information awareness, he is putting it diplomatically...

...According to KMEX's slick media kits and public relations materials, including a 2002 document entitled "The Hispanic Market," L.A.'s huge population of Latin American descent ranks ahead of the entire Boston viewing area as a television market...

...The truth behind Lozano's words is that even in today's world of Internet self-publishing and hand-held digital video cameras, media is an expensive business...

...Jonathan S. Adelstein, a Democrat who is on the five-member FCC, said he believes the Univision merger was approved too hurriedly by a commission that seems unconcerned with preserving a variety of viewpoints and information sources in Spanish-language media...

...immigrant communities...

...The $3.5 billion deal also attracted I to run scrutiny because non-Latino investors, including A. Borrero Jerrold Perenchio, an Italian American who is eal with Univision's longtime CEO and largest shareholder, series of played an important role...

...The up-to-the-minute technologies that allow media to track who and how many are watching their shows feed Latino broadcast media's emphasis on sure bets: sex, escapism, reality TV and celebrity gossip...

...Members of the Lozano family-grandchildren of Ignacio E. Lozano, who founded the newspaper in 1926-are now searching for venture capital to help them make the paper independent...

...He was hopeful, however, partnership between mainstream and Latin embodied by the NBC-Telemundo fusion wo change the entire media landscape for th "Maybe there's a possibility that we'll affe culturally as much as they affect us...

...sion...

...Latinos are also The merger Black or Indian...

...The diversity of opinion and that kind of perception through a different cultural value system, that different kind of ethos, that will disappear" with corporate involvement in ethnic media, he says...

...This clash was evident last year in Los Angeles when the country's largest Spanish-language daily, La Opinion, suddenly announced a "divorce" from Tribune, which had owned 50% of the newspaper...

...Clear -d Eddie Channel, of course, is the poster child for the consean Jose, quences of media consolidation...

...Also last year, Knight Ridder launched a new daily, El Diario La Estrella, in Ft...

...At a recent ethnic media conference, Jos6 C. Cancela, president of Radio Unica, was asked if his chain of Spanish-language talk radio was focused on information or entertainment...

...even weeklies received into the injections of dollars as corpoa bona-fide rate investors took over...

...The Latino media boom is a national phenomenon with Los Angeles at the epicenter of the tremendous spurt of Spanish-language media growth that occurred in 2003...

...Those investo arrive with their own agenda...

...Latinos, as they attempt to reach the portion of Latin America's population and spending power that is shifting north...

...In the aftermath of Proposition 187, which many Latinos saw as racist and divisive, Univision aired television spots aimed at increasing the political participation of Latinos...

...I think there are fewer entrepreneurs that are owning and operating Spanish-language media than before...

...The channel broadcasts its news programs from Studio 5, the first in the United States to house three separate television stations broadcasting in two languages...

...In July 2003, Entravision announced tha selling 90-year-old New York City Spanish-l daily El Diario/La Prensa for some $20 mill private group whose makeup was an alphabet investment firms: Clarity Partners LP, BMO Partners, ACON Investments and Knigh Media...

...For critics, even some within the FCC, the approval of the Univision merger appeared to be more of the same...

...Many of Latin America's media giants, including Televisa, Venevisi6n and TV Azteca, have huge financial stakes in television aimed at U.S...

...Univision Communications Inc., with its corporate headquarters and largest television station in Los Angeles, is the key player in this market...

...20REPORT ON MEDIA spoken in 88% of L.A.'s Latino households, which are considerably younger and larger than the average U.S...

...Of course, it is in the company's own selfinterest for more of its viewers to participate in U.S...

...But it's clear that competitive pressures are growing on all the players in Spanish-language broadcast media, and that their dedication to civic engagement could change...

...Latinos have not assimilated to U.S...

...A flurry be we'll of news articles on the Univision merger also pointed rt to see out that both men are well-known contributors to Republican causes...

...news coverage...

...media ownership regulations...

...According to Morales, "They are establishing their own Spanishlanguage media, not to serve that community...

...When Tribune's Chicago Spanish-language publication converted from a weekly known as Exito to the daily Hoy, she explains, Tribune only had to add "three or four" editorial staffers...

...culture as unambiguously as other major immigrant groups have in the past...

...Only a few months later, the paper': Gerson Borrero, resigned when the new decided to spike a column he had planned penned by Cuban President Fidel Castro...

...Latino population...

...It became clear that the only way Latinos were going to put a stop to those types of reactions was to become citizens themselves," says Patricia Ramos, public affairs director for KMEX...

...Tribune's business model for its Hoy newspapers includes the creation of an integrated chain of newspapers to maximize "business efficiencies...

...Felix Guti6rrez, a visiting professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications, says Spanish-language television "news programs are still fairly strong from what I see, but the rest of the schedule is dominated by shows that lower rather than raise the information awareness of people in this society...

...In Los Angeles, where Univision station KMEX pulls in as many as 450,000 viewers for its 6 p.m...

...In 1994, Univision, along with La Opini6n and other Spanish-language media, was key in a voter registration and citizenship camdominance paign led by the Mexican American Legal Defense and anic media Education Fund in the wake of Proposition 187-the voter ini- diversity in tiative that sought to deny pub.wer voices lic services to undocumented immigrants...

...But Univision argued that the merger was "pro-competition" because it would allow Latino media to be a stronger force in the fight for all U.S...

...listeners and viewers...

...The Univision deal, however, represents only one of many mergers, acquisitions and investments that have convulsed Latino media recently...

...The ad featured a letter penned by Henry Cisneros, a former Univision president who was also U.S...

...Some Latino a groups-including the National Council Raza-expressed fears that the deal coul Telemundo's links to the Latino community...

...Congress and the courts, favor large corporations and the concentration of media ownership through consolidation...

...has arguably made the biggest splash with its successful Hoy brand, a tabloid format daily that expanded to Chicago last year after establishing a successful flagship edition in New York City...

...hospital that he helped fund to be named after former President Ronald Reagan...

...mPr1i4 r n In the fall of 2003, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the U.S...

...This 18page Univision publication estimates that Spanish is NNCNLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Marcelo Ballv/ is an associate editor at the Pacific News Service and covers Latin America and U.S...

...Additionally, Univision owns the top Web site for U.S...

...With costs sky-high and rising, and demands for profits built into the corporate model, it may become increasingly difficult for Univision and others to invest in improving or overhauling programming, or to continue developing solid local and U.S...

...Univision also responded to the allegations of bias with a public relations counterattack, publishing a full-page ad in The New York Times...

...On Univision, a comedy variety show like "Los Metiches" has a regular character named "La Tetanic," an off-color nickname for a well-endowed Argentine model who appears in various stages of undress...

...minority group that is hungry for inclusion, information and perhaps, above all, a vehicle for self-expression...

...area, a megalopolis with 6.2 million Latinos-18% of the entire U.S...

...But, he says, "I don't believe that impedes us from being advocates for our community, whether it is in Spanish or in English...

...But then, mainstream media are not claiming a unique role as the communications bridge between a larger mainstream society and a primarily immigrant U.S...

...With the merger, Univision can also now boast of 65 radio stations that it either owns or programs...

...Venevisi6n, Venezuela's leading television network and television producer, now owns 19% of Univision Communications Inc...

...This growth has displayed the same kind of feverish deal making, merger-mania and ambitious rollouts that shaped the Internet explosion...

...Plus, Univision says, even bilingual Latinos think advertising in Spanish is more persuasive...

...In 2003 alone, five new Spanish-language daily newspapers were launched or announced in cities catapulted like Chicago, Orlando and Dallas...

...Perenchio even lobbied for an Vol XXXVII, No 4 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004 23REPORT ON MEDIA L.A...

...Cisneros's letter flatly denies all the innuendos of bias and own- " Univision' ership distant from Latino community interests, stressing the of the Hisr company's diverse stock owners, that Latinos make up more means less than 50% of its board of direc- news and f tors and its overwhelmingly Latino workforce...

...In this area, Latino broadcast media lag behind...

...Univision is not shy about talking up its political clout, but insists that its only bias is a single-minded determination to serve its viewers by boosting their political participation and engagement with U.S...

...for list Critics still insisted that the Spanish-language broadcast market should be regulated under the assumption that it is separate from the English-language market and, therefore, Univision should be barred from proceeding with the merger because it would become too dominant...

...And Mexico's Televisa, the largest producer of Spanish-language television programming in the world, controls 15...

...ikewise, other recent controversies st ing deals in Latino media have revolved around exactly who is behind the capital and what strings are Cl attached...

...The paper's editorial board, in a message to readers the day the split with Tribune was made public, declared that La Opini6n considered its community-oriented vision "incompatible" with its former partner's goals: "We are in deep disagreement with the idea that a newspaper be principally a vehicle for marketing or that we be forced to abandon the principles that are close to our hearts...

...It was passed by ners...

...mainstream media companies...

...Months consider before the merger was approved, The Roll Call, the Borrero influential newspaper of Capitol Hill in Washington on as a D.C., published an article headlined: "Univision ry...

...I'm not saying I would have necessarily opposed that [merger], but we should have looked at how to preserve diversity...

...that is a concern everyone has," acknowledge Dominguez, manager of Telemundo's Sa California-based San Francisco Bay Area st...

...Nationally, publishers and broadcasters in Latino media can point to similar statistics when trying to sell their airtime or ad space...

...But that wasn't the end of the sto Hoy and the English-language New York Dai decided to publish Castro's column, embarra Diario/La Prensa's new owners and cha their editorial decision-making...

...La Opinion has retained the services of high-profile global investment bank UBS AG as it hunts for a new set of financial backers...

...California voters, but later overturned by the courts...

...The criticisms were tinged [ers...

...While resigned as editor on October 1, he stayed columnist...

...Univision, of course, says not at all...

...This, of course, would be a generalization, but essentially, a true one...

...Stephanie Pillersdorf, Univision's spokeswoman, points out that Clear Channel's stake in Hispanic Broadcasting Corp...

...The company now owns 62 television stations, which broadcast either Univision or its sibling, the Telefutura network...

...says the Castro column, which was to de Cuban education, was the first in a planned columns by different Latin American lead there's space for George W. Bush, then ther be space for Fidel Castro, whether people him a dictator or not," Borrero says...

...This kind of dominance of the Hispanic media world means only one thing: less diversity in news, less voices for the millions of listeners," said Hernin Guaracao, NAHP president...

...The 2000 Census revealed that the U.S...

...was actually diluted by the merger and that Clear Channel now only controls a 3% stake in the post-merger Univision...

...In newspapers, if the commercial success of Tribune's Hoy is any indication, the trend is toward more homogenized content, sensationalistic reporting, gossip and crime-oriented tabloid style coverage...

...At the end of the day, it's the owner that can influence content, and the content is what people listen to and watch every day...

...Many of these programs are imported, maquiladora-style, from Latin America's big production houses, so they are not produced with U.S...

...Furthermore, he believes that the advertising on Spanish-language television manipulates immigrants' insecurities and "preys on [Latinos'] desire to show they are making it in this society...

...household...

...Senate...

...news, the station's news director Jorge Mettey described his editorial mission during California's historic recall election in October 2003: "We are focusing on promoting the vote of the Hispanic community, that is the focus of our coverage...

...National and international news, for example, can come from a central news desk in New York City, says Tribune spokeswoman Christine Hennessey...

...The company can now use its radio stations to promote its stable of music talent...

...But La Prensa, and Los industry journal Editor & Publisher, along with The Wall Street Journal, claims that such a statement is disingenuous...

...In 2003, the Census Bureau confirmed that Latinos, who can be of any race, were the single largest minority group in the United States-a fact that was played up by the mainstream media, but was greeted ambiguously in the Latino press where many commentators noted that a significant portion of U.S...

...Tribune, for its part, is saying that it supports La Opini6n, which has a circulation of 130,000, becoming an independent newspaper...

...With all these properties in its portfolio, Univision raked in a reported $100 million in net income during the first nine months of 2003...

...This was a very strategic acquisition because Univision also controls three record labels that it says capture 35% of the U.S...

...We would love to compete with the Univisions of the world...

...If with allegations of right-leaning political bias, which e should Univision went to pains to try to deflect...

...Additionally, in a September 5 press release, Univision said that to impose a "separate regulatory framework" on a company that chooses to serve a minority audience is "discriminatory," since mainstream media companies have been allowed to complete similar mergers...

...Another major newspaper chain, the Hearst Corp., announced in 2003 that it would offer a new Spanish-language weekly insert called "Diversi6n" through its King Features Syndicate...

...In order to grow on a national or even a regional scale, a media outlet must attract hefty investments, 22 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 22 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON MEDIA either by issuing shares in a stock marke attracting moneyed investors...

...If anyone ever sets out to write a history of Latino media in the United States, he or she could devote a whole chapter to the year 2003, and the chapter could be called "Corporations Plunge into Latino Media...

...The stampede of investors into Latino media is transforming the business, with corporations' bottom-line motivations and corporate values eclipsing an old guard of community-based entrepreneurs and journalists, says Hilbert Morales, publisher of the San Jose, California bilingual weekly, El Observador...

...Jos6 I. Lozano, La Opini6n publisher and CEO, argues that the future of mediumsized Latino media like his newspaper will depend on their ability to access cash in order to diversify, expand and be strong enough to resist competitive pressure...

...I would love to own radio and TV in Los Angeles, but the question is access to capital," he says...

...During the recall, the station was extremely critical of Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger's links to party leaders seen as anti-immigrant by large sectors of the Latino community...

...For the entire summer, the FCC had been at the center of a storm of public criticism over its historic decision in June to loosen U.S...

...Both sources say Tribune is expected to expand its Hoy brand newspapers to Los Angeles, perhaps as early as the beginning of this year, in which case its investment in La Opini6n would conflict with those plans, since the company in effect would be competing with itself...

...twork- in the U.S...

...last year...

...Radio, where the emphasis is on shock jocks, formulaic play-lists and jacking up the ratings, is no different...

...Worth, Texas...

...Bob Menendez, who heads the ssing El powerful House Democratic Caucus, that Univision Ilenging was trying to curry favor for its merger by airing programming that was favorable to a conservative White House judicial nominee, Miguel Estrada, whose rround- appointment was eventually blocked by Democrats ear Channel is the poster child for the onsequences of media consolidation...

...It is difficult to exaggerate the influence KMEX has in the L.A...

...KMEX, which is channel 34 on the Los Angeles television dial, is Univision's flagship station...

...We're in this to make a buck...

...The reference was to of La Perenchio and L. Lowry Mays, the Texan who heads d erode Clear Channel Communications, which owned a "I think chunk of Hispanic Broadcasting Corp...