Tampa Bay
The region's Latino presence has contributed to a surge in population in recent years
By Aimee Deeken - April 1, 2006

When one considers the Hispanic presence in Florida, Tampa is not the first city that comes to mind. But the storied port city actually has a long-standing, rich Latino heritage beginning with a tapestry of Spaniards, Cubans and even Sicilians who worked the cigar factories of the 19th century.

The region has seen a population surge in recent years, in part due to a strengthened Hispanic presence. This past fall, Nielsen Media Research bumped up the DMA to No. 12 from No. 13; in BIA Financial Network's rankings, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater radio market moved from No. 21 to No. 19.

" There are a lot of immigrants from the North running away from the cold to move here," says Manuel Ballagas, editor of Tampa Tribune's Spanish-language weekly Centro mi Diario. "Orlando and Miami are too crowded and expensive. And it's not just Tampa — along I-4 up to Daytona Beach, all those little towns are having a Hispanic boom."

Local media executives cite the state's healthy economy, warm climate and right-to-work laws as catalysts of Hispanic population growth. The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Sarasota TV market is 12 percent Hispanic, according to BIA Financial Network. Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa metro, is the most populated of the DMA's 10 counties, with 1.1 million people, and also the county with the largest contingent of Hispanics.

In what was once a Cuban-dominated region, Mexicans are now the Hispanic majority, followed closely by Puerto Ricans and an influx of South Americans in the past 10 years.

The quest to reach these new residents is most evident in the market's print arena, which has a bevy of weekly newspapers — several less than five years old.

Siete Días is the market's only broadsheet weekly, founded in 2002. The free paper is printed and distributed by the Tampa Tribune via a contract expiring this summer.

The agreement is ending because Media General's Tampa Tribune has launched its own Spanish-language weekly tabloid. First launched online as CentroTampa.com in September, Centro mi Diario began printing in October with a Friday distribution of 65,000. Of that, about 45,000 copies are delivered to select Hispanic households, according to Ballagas. The full-color Centro has attracted new print advertisers, such as the Tampa Bay Federal Credit Union and real estate companies with Hispanic representation, Ballagas says.

Central Florida's La Prensa weekly was purchased on Jan. 31 by ImpreMedia, owner of Los Angeles' La Opinión and New York's El Diario La Prensa. Primarily an Orlando paper, the title has increased its Tampa distribution over the past year.

Success for these many upstarts could be fleeting, say local media executives. "Many come in here thinking we have a homogeneous market," says Patrick Manteiga, publisher and editor of La Gaceta newspaper. "But some are long-term residents and don't speak Spanish anymore; some are new immigrants picking tomatoes and strawberries 20 miles from here. In Miami, you have the same diversity but bigger numbers. Here, the diversity mixed with the [market] size makes it tough."

If anyone knows about publishing in the region, it's Manteiga, whose Italian grandfather established La Gaceta in 1922. Now he serves as third-generation owner of the trilingual (English/Spanish/Italian) publication, the market's only paid Hispanic newspaper. Of its 18,000 circ, 55 percent is home-delivered, says Manteiga.

Other veteran publications include Latino International, which has published an Orlando edition since 1990 and a Tampa version since 1993, with separate local advertising and coverage. The free Thursday tabloid is newsstand-only throughout Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. Pinellas County includes St. Petersburg and Clearwater and has a population of 930,000, according to BIA.

Nuevo Siglo, founded in 1990, did not return phone calls.

The print market is "oversaturated," contends Enrique Perez, Latino International regional director, Tampa edition. "But the older papers have a better reputation in the community. Our advertisers don't decrease, because the majority of them don't place ads in those [newspapers] — they're waiting for them to be consistent and stick around."

Upstart Hispanic TV outlets have their own struggles, as evidenced by the experience of Lotus Communications' WTAM-LP station. Its TV Informa Channel 30 launched last year and was on the air less than six months, ending broadcast on Feb. 28. It closed because it was unable to get cable carriage, according to Lilly Gonzalez, general manager of the market's Univision affiliate, WVEA-TV. "It's difficult for a low-power to attract advertisers when its signal is not distributed through cable. And it's challenging to get cable operators' acceptance. You have to have patience and the finances to wait. Low-powers will always run into these roadblocks."

TV stations that are thriving include Entravision Holdings' WVEA, licensed in Venice, Fla. Its 6 p.m.-to-6:30 p.m. local newscast was No. 1 among men 18 to 34 in general-market ratings during November sweeps, according to Nielsen Media Research. Its 11 p.m. half-hour local news grew last November by 200 percent year over year among adults 18 to 49, according to Nielsen. It now ranks fourth in that demo.

Entravision also handles sales for Univision Communications' WFTT-TV Telefutura affiliate. The two outlets are the only full-power Spanish-language stations in the 10 counties and have carriage on DIRECTV and area cable operators Bright House Networks and Comcast, says Gonzalez.

ZGS Broadcasting owns WRMD-LP Telemundo as well as AM radio stations WAMA and WRMD. The low-power station has Bright House carriage and reaches three counties. Una Vez Mas has an Azteca America affiliate in Tampa. WXAX-LP reaches most of Hillsborough County but is not on cable.

Bright House launched the country's first 24-hour local Spanish-language news channel in March 2002. Bay News 9 en Español can be accessed on the MSO's digital tier.

In contrast to television, the market supports many small day-power radio stations, with only one media giant — CBS Radio — offering a Spanish-language format. Last August, CBS switched WYUU's country format to La Nueva 92.5, a mixture of contemporary salsa and merengue, giving the market its only Spanish-language FM. The station is No. 12 in general market and first among Hispanic listeners, according to Arbitron's fall 2005 data.

According to Arbitron's Hispanic listener ratings, there are only two other Spanish-language outlets in the top 10: Mega Communications' WLCC-AM Mexican regional ranks fourth; Radio Tropical's WQBN-AM Spanish variety ranks 10th. Neither made the top 20 in general-market rankings.

Given that the market has no daily Spanish-language newspaper, WQBN benefits from its CNN affiliation, offering five minutes of national news every hour as well as working with Centro for local news briefs during morning and evening drive.

Mega's other holding is WMGG-AM, which changed from tropical to Mega Clásica Spanish variety last September.

For the time being, the market remains too small for more conglomerates to move into Spanish-language radio, contends WQBN vp/gm Marc Vila. "It's a matter of economics, because the total Hispanic [media spending] budget of Tampa is not like Miami's," explains Vila. "In the meantime, we independent broadcasters build up the market."

MARKETING Y MEDIOS – April 1, 2006