Business

John Voss who was the COO of Hispanic Market Weekly will depart the company at the end of this week.

As a continuation of my three-part look at the potential effects of the economic slowdown on the U.S. Hispanic market (click here to read the first part focusing on Hispanic consumer spending), I will look at the Hispanic advertising market. By Jose Villa/Sensis.

The federal district court in New York today rejected Arbitron’s attempt to block New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s pending state lawsuit against Arbitron.

A question I have been hearing more and more lately with all the negative economic news coming out of Wall Street and Washington is what effect this economic slowdown will have on the U.S. Hispanic market. As I’ve thought about this question, I found it useful to understand the key components of the U.S. Hispanic economy. My approach was to look at the Hispanic market from 3 different lenses – 1) Hispanic consumer spending, 2) Hispanic advertising, and 3) Hispanic small business. By Jose Villa/Sensis.

As many of you know, Interep over the last couple of years has suffered through some tough economic conditions at the company. In an effort to work its way out of its financial woes, the company filed for Chapter 11 protection to pursue options for a private buy-out by one of their partners Oaktree Capital Partners.

It seems that has not worked and Interep filed for Chapter 7 status today in Manhattan Bankruptcy Court and will begin to liquidate assets.

This implies selling all assets, closing the company and letting go of all employees.

This could takes days, weeks and months, but it becomes problematic for all radio and television station that are represented by Interep companies, particularly Spanish Broadcasting System radio stations and Mega TV along with Azteca America TV stations, Una Vez Mas Azteca America TV affiliate group and other independent Spanish language TV station clients.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen the political crescendo rise to deafening levels about our economy and the future of our country. Wall Street and our politicians did not help, since greed and misplaced interest almost brought the world to an economic standstill. And it still might happen.

We have seen the currency and future wars of the world no longer about coins or paper or geography won and lost, but evolving. Its about energy sources for the future.

But what does this have to do with the US Hispanic Market?

It has a lot to do about the US Hispanic Market. We are no longer under the radar as a consumer base, ad budgets or media entities in a vacuum.

We are now a BLIP on the ad industry radar.

What do you think? To read El Blog CLICK above.

Postcards From The Stars and The Ricky Martin Foundation announce a strategic alliance that brings together a groundbreaking new digital media company from Puerto Rico, and the island’s most celebrated music superstar. This homegrown partnership has been formed to unveil a cutting-edge online video technology with a launch that will also benefit the charitable organization’s initiatives for children’s rights across the world.

In the event that retailers needed yet another reminder that this holiday season will be challenging, consumers are happy to oblige. According to NRF’s 2008 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, U.S. consumers plan to spend an average of $832.36 on holiday-related shopping, up a paltry 1.9 percent over last year’s $816.69. This represents the lowest increase in planned consumer spending since the survey began in 2002.

The NPD Group, Inc. released the results of its annual survey of consumers’ holiday spending intentions. This year 26% of consumers surveyed told NPD they plan to spend less. In the 2007 survey results only 18% said they planned to spend less. “This 8% decline illustrates that consumers are already focused on the idea of spending less,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst, The NPD Group, Inc.