La Opinión Digital & Los Kitos Launch Notikitos.

In an effort to provide a fun and interactive tool for reading, laopinion.com together with Martha Montoya, creator of the worldwide syndicated cartoon characters, Los Kitos, is launching Notikitos (News 4 Kids). The web channel is aimed at Latino youths, age 6-12 years-old.

Because children develop a taste for reading in their early years, laopinion.com will offer Notikitos as a tool for students, parents and teachers to learn about history, literature, ecology, sports and world news. Bilingual, but with a primary focus in Spanish, the content is presented in an interactive news format.

Census 2000 results show that Latino children are now the largest young minority group in the U.S. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of Latinos under the age of 18 increased 59% to 12.3 million. According to recent data from Nielsen/NetRatings, Latinos also represent the fastest-growing online ethnic group in the country.

“We have had a long-standing relationship with Los Kitos. We were the first newspaper to publish the comic strip, Los Kitos, and we are extending that by creating the Notikitos channel on laopinion.com,” said Mary Zerafa, Director of New Media for La Opinión. “There is a lack of Spanish-language content for youth on the web and this channel will fill that void. Our goal is for it to be both educational and entertaining.”

Young people visit an average of seven websites during the course of a typical week. If they had the choice of only one medium or media technology, more children would choose the Internet (33%), with television placing second (26%), and telephone third (21%), according to Youth Market Alert, EPM Communications, Inc.

Notikitos will be promoted in over 800 schools in Los Angeles through the 26,000 volunteers who are part of the volunteer program of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Under the efforts of Joan Suter, Director of Volunteer Programs for LAUSD, it will inform the school community of this new educational website for kids.

In addition, the site will be promoted by the Reading by 9 program, a multi-year campaign started by The Los Angeles Times in 1998. The goal of Reading by 9 is to help kindergarten to third grade students read at grade level by the age of nine.

“The most important thing you can do to prepare your children for school success is to read to them everyday. Children can learn the alphabet and acquire many words in their vocabulary before they begin their first year of school” says Lani Duke, Manager of The Los Angeles Times’ Reading by 9 program. “The Internet is a way for children to practice their reading and to acquire information. We’re partnering with Notikitos to provide news for kids as a way of making reading fun.”