INTERVIEW WITH SERGIO SALINAS

By DINAH ENG

Launching a new publication is never easy, but when you've got an emerging market that clearly promises increased revenue for the bottom line, newspapers aren't hesitating to move full speed ahead.

Case in point -- the San Antonio Express-News debuted its bi-lingual Spanish weekly Conexión on May 5 this year, timed to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the victory of the Mexicans over the French Army at The Battle of Puebla in 1862, honoring a small, outmanned militia that bravely fought to preserve Mexican independence.

Conexión, just six months old, is already outperforming revenue expectations by more than 15 percent, and plans for spin-offs of the 50,000 circulation paper are being developed.

Sergio Salinas, who holds the dual responsibilities of senior vice president of sales and marketing at the Express-News and general manager for Conexión, recently agreed to talk about the formulation and launch of the highly successful new product.

Salinas, a native Texan and first generation Hispanic American, worked as circulation director and advertising director of the San Antonio Light, advertising director of The Daily Oklahoman, and senior vice president of sales and marketing for The Dallas Morning News before joining the San Antonio Express-News in 2003.

QUESTION: What was the timeframe between conception and launch for Conexión?

SERGIO: We started talking about a publication in the fall of 2003, and were given the green light for the launch in January 2004. San Antonio is approximately 1.3 million in population, and is almost 60 percent Hispanic. We knew we were in the epicenter of a very assimilated, acculturated market, and did our homework. When our corporate chiefs asked if there was a real economic opportunity here, separate and aside from serving the community, we asked advertisers if they had set aside dollars to market to this audience, and they said yes. It didn't take long to get the go-ahead. Four months later, Conexión launched on May 5.

QUESTION: Who is the audience for Conexión?

SERGIO: We're targeting the 25 to 54-year-old Hispanic, earning $35,000 plus. Our research came up with about 200,000 Hispanics in San Antonio who fit that profile, so we decided that the content would be written for that audience, and initially, the distribution was to be accessible to zip codes geared toward this audience. However, we found this population is scattered throughout the city, so we now distribute to about 1,500 locations, including local grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants and other retail outlets. The home delivery is concentrated on the north side of town in our more affluent areas. But overall, we've now got the entire city covered.

QUESTION: Who was part of the development team?

SERGIO: The team included our publisher, editor, general manager, senior vice president of circulation, vice president of technology, vice president of marketing, research director, our ad agency, Creative Civilization, which does any media placement outside the newspaper, and myself. We engaged every single department at the paper, with representation from top management to key principals driving the product.

QUESTION: Does Conexión have a dedicated staff?

SERGIO: We have a dedicated sales and marketing director, but she utilizes the sales resources of the Express-News. A lot of our Express-News account execs sell into Conexión. The newsroom has a dedicated editor, designer, photographer and reporters. We have some Express-News columnists who also write a separate, dedicated column for Conexión. The staff shares space on the newsroom floor with the Express-News, but hopefully in the future, we'll find dedicated space to house both the news and sales staff of Conexión in one part of the building.

QUESTION: Is Conexión a paid, or free, publication?

SERGIO: Conexión is a weekly tab, published on Thursdays. It's a paid publication that you can buy over the counter at retail outlets or at the newsstand for 25 cents an issue, or get home delivered for $10 a year. The circulation ratio right now is 50-50. We chose to do a paid tabloid because the advertisers said that was their preference, and it tested well with our focus groups.

QUESTION: How did your focus groups work?

SERGIO: Over a two-day period, we had eight focus groups meet in March. We showed them some prototypes, with different kinds of covers and color schemes. The focus groups were readers and non-readers of the Express-News, put together by age group and language preference.

One surprise we discovered from the groups was that the publication needed to be bi-lingual, rather than Spanish only. Research showed that 76 percent of our Hispanic audience preferred getting their information in English. Fifty six percent of our audience is third generation Hispanic or later.

QUESTION: How did you promote the launch of the paper?

SERGIO: We created some special commercials that received the IMAGEN Award, which recognizes achievement in promoting Hispanics, given by the Imagen Foundation in Encino, Calif. We had a combination of Spanish and English ads in TV and radio, outdoor billboards and wraps that targeted high density Hispanic zip codes. We had a sweepstakes where you could take your Conexión order entry to the sponsoring car dealer, and be eligible for a drawing to win a Honda Civic.

We did a home delivery sampling with a mail back card inserted in the publication, which started our home delivery subscription drive. We also did some direct mail soliciting subscriptions.

QUESTION: If you were going to launch your publication again, what would you do differently?

SERGIO: You can't argue with success. I think we did it just right. Conexión has become a shining star, and we're capturing some new readers from this. Two-thirds of Conexión home delivery readers also get the Express-News, but one third are new readers. It fees pretty good when you have advertisers renewing long-term contracts.

QUESTION: What targets do you have in mind for 2005, in terms of circulation growth?

SERGIO: Our goal is to sustain it at 50,000. Our whole rate structure is based on that. One key goal is to build our national business. We're looking at some strategic alliances with other Hispanic publications to be our next frontier. In the later half of next year, it's spin-offs. We're thinking of developing a shopper spin-off and auto trader branded under the Conexión name.