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ImpreMedia Acquires El Mensajero
The San Francisco Bay Area's #1 Spanish Language Newspaper
First Acquisition with Proceeds of Goldman Sachs Facility
New York, N.Y. (December 16, 2005) - ImpreMedia, LLC, the nation's leading
publisher of Spanish language newspapers, announced today the acquisition of El
Mensajero, the San Francisco Bay Area's #1 Spanish language newspaper. The
acquisition was made with proceeds of an $82.5 million credit facility with
Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group, L.P.
"We are pleased to add El Mensajero to our company," stated John Paton, Chairman
and CEO of ImpreMedia. "By adding the San Francisco Bay market we can now
provide advertisers with a footprint in four of the top 10 markets, representing
over 35% of the U.S. Hispanic population, or almost 15.5 million Hispanics. We
also open the door to greater cooperation between El Mensajero, which is
distributed weekly in Northern California, and La Opinión, the nation's largest
Spanish language daily newspaper, which serves Southern California."
"We are really excited by the opportunities that ImpreMedia provides for our
readers, advertisers and employees," stated Brad Westerhold, Publisher of El
Mensajero. "They share our commitment to the Bay Area Hispanic community and to
locally produced, high quality, Spanish language journalism."
"California is home to more Hispanics today than any other state and the number
of Hispanics living in California has increased by more than any other state. We
are thrilled to have a partner like El Mensajero help us serve this large and
rapidly growing market," stated Mónica Lozano, Senior Vice President of
ImpreMedia and Publisher and CEO of La Opinión. "The ability for newspaper
advertisers to directly reach Hispanics in both Northern and Southern California
through one Spanish language buy is an opportunity whose time is long overdue."
El Mensajero also joins ImpreMedia's Domingo Network, the nation's largest
Hispanic residential print network. With the addition of El Mensajero's audited
weekly circulation of 111,564, ImpreMedia's Domingo Network now distributes
750,000 free publications each week in high density Hispanic neighborhoods.
Between its Domingo Network and paid daily circulation in New York and Los
Angeles, ImpreMedia now has total weekly distribution of over 1.8 million.
"ImpreMedia's newspapers and customized sales programs offer national
advertisers the ability to bring their message to millions of Hispanics with a
reach and cost that is competitive with both English and other Spanish language
media," stated Erich Linker, Senior Vice President National Advertising. In the
Los Angeles market, for example, according to Scarborough Research, the average
issue of La Opinión reaches more people than one prime time ad on the local
Univision station, three times as many people as one prime time ad on the local
Telemundo and Telefutura stations combined, and more people than one drive time
ad on each of the top four Spanish language local radio stations combined. "It
is for reasons like these that ImpreMedia has grown its national and overall
advertising revenues this year at a rate that is in line with Spanish language
broadcast and several times faster than the general newspaper market," added Mr.
Linker.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
About ImpreMedia
ImpreMedia is the leading publisher of Spanish language newspapers in the U.S.
The company publishes El Diario La Prensa and El Diario Contigo in New York, El
Mensajero in the San Francisco Bay Area, La Opinión and La Opinión Contigo in
Los Angeles and La Raza in Chicago, the number one Spanish language newspapers
in each of their respective markets.
Contacts:
Hilda Delgado: (310)552-4193
Ryan Swafford (310) 552-4110
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