Hispanic Market Growth: Dispersion and Diversity.
by Carlos Pelay, Media Economics Group
HispanicAd.com, September 4, 2002

In mid-August the Sun-Sentinel Co. (publisher of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper) fired the latest salvo in the ongoing battle with the Miami Herald Publishing Company for newspaper readers in South Florida. The Sun-Sentinel announced that in October it will launch "a new Spanish-language weekly newspaper for Broward County's burgeoning Hispanic population" called "El Sentinel."

For those of you who may not be familiar with the geography of South Florida: Broward County (home to Ft. Lauderdale) lies just north of Miami-Dade County. Broward is home base to the Sun-Sentinel daily newspaper, while Miami-Dade is home base to the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. [In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that at one time or another I have worked for both the Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel market research departments.]

The main field of battle between the two papers - South Broward - has been the focus of a heated competition for readers at least since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 rapidly accelerated the migration of Miami-Dade residents northward to the suburbs of Broward County.

What's especially interesting about this announcement by the Sun-Sentinel is that it sharpens the focus of the competition for readers directly on the increasingly important Hispanic segment of the market. "El Sentinel" will compete for those readers not only with "El Nuevo Herald" but also with literally dozens of Spanish-language community newspapers each serving its own niche of Hispanic readers from Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Peru, Puerto Ricans, Venezuela, etc.

More generally, the launch of "El Sentinel" illustrates how advertisers and media companies in markets that have not traditionally been Hispanic markets are having to adjust and react to the growth and dispersion of the Hispanic population. The geographic patterns of growth are subtly shifting, so that non-traditional Hispanic market areas - like Broward County - are becoming increasingly important for advertisers and publishers wanting to reach Hispanics. At the same time, both traditional and non-traditional Hispanic markets are becoming more diverse and less likely to be dominated by Hispanics from one particular country-of-origin, making the challenge even more complex.

These trends are characterizing the growth of Hispanics across the nation - not just in South Florida. A recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center (see link below) analyzed Census data for the 100 largest metropolitan areas and found that "Hispanics flocked to the suburbs during the 1990s." During that decade, the number of Hispanics living in suburbs grew by 71% so that the share of Hispanics in suburbs grew from 50% in 1990 to 54% in 2000.

Established Hispanic markets like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago are still posting the largest absolute gains in Hispanics. But the fastest growth is happening in what the Pew Study calls "New Latino Destinations" - markets like Atlanta, Orlando, and Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale PMSA). In fact, an astonishing 61 of the top 100 markets fell into this category: i.e., markets with a relatively small base of Hispanics, but explosive growth between 1990 and 2000.

Broward County illustrates this "explosive growth." Here, the share of Hispanics doubled from 8% of the total population in 1990 to 17% in 2000 according to Census figures. In South Broward, the share of Hispanics is even higher, rising to one-third of the population in some of the western communities.

Orlando, also on Pew's list of "New Latino Destinations", saw its share of Hispanics grow from 8% in 1990 to 17% in 2000. Not coincidentally, the Orlando Sentinel (which along with the Sun-Sentinel is owned by Tribune) also launched its own "El Sentinel" Spanish-language newspaper last year in response to the rapid growth of Hispanics (especially Puerto Ricans) in Orlando. (It's been reported that Puerto Rico's "El Nuevo Dia" is also considering a possible daily edition for Orlando.)

Some of the other 61 "New Latino Destinations" with the most dramatic increases in Hispanic share are:

- Bergen-Passaic, NJ PMSA (11% Hispanic in 1990 to 17% in 2000)

- Fort Worth-Arlington, TX PMSA (11% to 18%)

- Las Vegas, NV MSA (10% to 21%)

- Nassau-Suffolk, NY PMSA (6% to 10%)

- New Haven, CT PMSA (6% to 10%)

- Salt Lake City, UT MSA (6% to 11%)

- Raleigh-Durham, NC MSA (1% to 6%)

- Springfield, MA MSA (8% to 13%)

- Washington, D.C. PMSA (5% to 9%)

- West Palm Beach, FL MSA (8% to 12%)

These newer markets often pose special challenges for advertisers and publishers since accompanying this growth is a second trend: the increasing diversity of Hispanic markets. Here again, South Florida illustrates the point. Whereas Miami-Dade's Hispanic market has traditionally been majority Cuban (although this has declined dramatically from 91% Cuban in 1970 to 53% in 2000), Broward County is a new kind of market with no clear dominant Hispanic group: Puerto Ricans (21%) and Cubans (20%) account for a roughly equal share. But political and economic unrest has led to the fastest growth in recent years coming from South America: Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela. South American's account for more than a third (34%) of Broward Hispanics.

The spreading out of the Hispanic population and the increasing diversity characterizing the growth of the Hispanic market will provide new opportunities to advertisers and media companies across the country. But new challenges will be posed as well to both existing Hispanic advertisers and publishers as well as those who are coming to grips with these markets for the first time. Both will be forced to pay close attention to differences in cultural backgrounds, acculturation levels, and even language preference in their emerging and evolving Hispanic audiences.