Tu Ciudad Los Angeles Magazine To Launch.

Embracing the growing strength of the affluent U.S.-born Latino market, Emmis Publishing L.P., a subsidiary of Emmis Communications Corporation, and Ciudad LLC, today jointly announced their plan to launch Tu Ciudad Los Angeles, an English-language magazine targeted to upwardly-mobile Latinos in Los Angeles, the city with the nation’s largest Hispanic population.

The bi-monthly magazine, targeting three and a half million affluent Latinos, will debut in newsstands and reach subscribers in May 2005. Tu Ciudad (pronounced TOO SEE-YOU-DAHD), which literally means “your city,” will be the definitive guide to Los Angeles culture, entertainment, and lifestyle for urbane Latinos and other like-minded Angelenos.

“I’m thrilled that Emmis has joined us in producing a magazine that speaks to the lives of Latinos in Los Angeles,” says Jaime Gamboa, publisher of the new magazine. “I’ve lived in this city my entire life and know first-hand that ambitious, on-the-move Latinos are looking for sources of culture that reflect equally on our Latino and American experience.”

The full-color, high gloss magazine will serve as the authoritative source for Latino culture in the city, showcasing LA people, places and trends while tackling serious issues. “Latinos, and in particular Mexican-Americans, have been a vital part of the history and fabric of Los Angeles from its inception,” says Angelo Figueroa, Tu Ciudad’s editorial director, and the founding editor of both Time Inc.’s People en Espanol and the San Jose Mercury News’ Nuevo Mundo, a Spanish-language newspaper. “Now they’ll have a magazine that reflects and celebrates the fact that they are transforming the economic and cultural landscape of the city.”

The publication of Tu Ciudad LA heralds a tectonic shift away from the notion of Latino identity built around language, and toward the new reality of culturally-identified and geographically dispersed U.S.-born Latinos who are a growing percentage of high-income individuals in metro areas across the U.S. This hot market, with a buying power of $78 million in Los Angeles alone, is just beginning to be noticed.

Gabriel Grimalt, Tu Ciudad’s associate publisher, says the magazine will give advertisers an opportunity to reach the highly coveted English-dominant segment of the Latino population, which tends to be more affluent than their foreign born, Spanish-dominant counterparts.