ImpreMedia buys Hoy New York.

Tribune Publishing announced the sale of Hoy New York, its Spanish-language daily newspaper, to ImpreMedia, LLC. The sale, which is expected to close during the first quarter of 2007, does not include the Hoy publications in Los Angeles and Chicago. Terms were not disclosed.

“Although Hoy New York made good progress over the last year, we did not see a path to profitability in this market,” said Scott C. Smith, Tribune Publishing president. “Hoy is a better operational fit for ImpreMedia, a respected Spanish-language publisher that will carry on Hoy’s commitment to informing and entertaining New York’s widely diverse Hispanic community.”

John Paton, Chairman & CEO of ImpreMedia, LLC said, “This is one of our most important announcements to date. By adding Hoy New York, we will increase our readership in New York – the nation’s second largest Hispanic market to 478,393.”

“The addition of Hoy New York to the ImpreMedia national sales network will significantly increase our penetration of the New York Hispanic market,” said Erich Linker, Senior Vice President of Sales for ImpreMedia. “It will expand our overall national reach and make our sales proposition even more compelling.”

With the acquisition of Hoy New York, ImpreMedia will have a strong combination of free and paid dailies in the New York market. In addition to New York’s El Diario La Prensa, the nation’s oldest Spanish language newspaper, which has an ABC-audited daily paid circulation of 50,105 and Scarborough-measured daily readership of 266,812, ImpreMedia, also owns the weekend paper El Diario Contigo, which is CAC-audited and distributed to nearly 200,000 households in high-density Hispanic zip codes throughout the New York metropolitan area.

Tribune will continue to publish Hoy editions in Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as weekly Spanish-language newspapers in Orlando and South Florida.

“In all of our markets, serving Hispanic consumers and helping advertisers reach them is an important part of our publishing growth strategy,” Smith said.

Going forward, the Los Angeles and Chicago editions of Hoy will be more closely aligned with the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, respectively. Javier J. Aldape, Hoy acting publisher, will now serve as general manager and editor of Hoy’s Los Angeles edition, and oversee shared editorial content in both editions. Julian G. Posada continues as Hoy general manager in Chicago. Anne S. Kelly, Hoy vice president/advertising, will manage national sales and major retail accounts for both editions of Hoy.