Fault Lines Chapter XI

Part II

Chapter 11: What Would You Do?

Conexion, which launched in 2004, is a weekly tabloid published by but distributed separately from the San Antonio Express-News. It focuses on entertainment, but also includes world, national and local news, sports, travel, business, religion, society and advertisements.

The target audience is Hispanic, ages 25 to 54 with household incomes of $35,000 and higher. But sales also go outside these demographics. Some stories are written in English, some in Spanish.

Subscription circulation is 50,000, single-copy sales 5,000 to 10,000.

San Antonio has a 53 percent Hispanic population, of which:

82 percent are highly or partially acculturated.
56 percent are third-generation Americans or more.
72 percent speak Spanish; 89 percent speak English well/very well.

Conexion staff is Hispanic, ages 20 to 45.

Here is a 'mini case study' from Conexion in 2005:

Destiny's Child is coming to San Antonio as a stop on the group's farewell tour before embarking on solo careers. The group includes three young, black female singers originally from Houston, including Beyonce Knowles.

The young staff wants to feature Destiny's Child on the cover of Conexion to advance the concert. 'But wait,' the Express-News' top management says. 'Your target reader is Hispanic.'

The staff, in turn, tells management, 'We listen to the group's music and this cover will appeal to readers. Don't pigeonhole young people's musical tastes. Yes, we are a Hispanic-based publication, but we must find balance.'

What Fault Lines can you identify in this discussion?  What would you do?

This exercise is popular with Fault Lines training groups. Some argue on the side of the Express-News management and focus on the ethnicity Fault Line: 'Why bother to have a publication aimed at Hispanics if Conexion is going to go outside the parameters of the target audience?' they ask.

Others frame the ethnicity angle from the geography Fault Line. For example, the editors of Spanish language publications in West Palm Beach, Fla. (which targets a diverse Hispanic audience) and in East Brunswick, N.J. (which targets a mostly Latin American immigrant audience) said going outside their demographics would not work for their readers.

Some take the other side, saying that the Express-News management should listen to their young staff and take the generation Fault Line into account. And also geography, as Destiny's Child is originally from Houston and thus has a Texas connection.

A: What do you think they did?

A vote in various training groups usually favors going with a different cover for Conexion, figuring the run-of-press paper will cover Destiny's Child.

B: What they did

C: The Outcome

Now that you've had a chance to catch you breath (the cover often is the showstopper in a training session). ‚

This was the highest selling cover for single-copy sales of Conexion up to that time (mid-August, 2005). The reasons? Sales likely went outside the demographic to include non-Hispanic readers, and, perhaps, more males.

But there also were some e-mails and comments, asking, 'Why were those girls on the cover? They are not Hispanic.'

The response: 'We are geared to a younger audience and younger audiences seem to be more color blind and race blind than older,' said Julie Ann Vera, then an editor at Conexion and now editor of 210SA, the Express-News' youth-oriented weekly tabloid. (Vera is a Media Academy graduate.)

What was the dominant Fault Line in this discussion?

Generation, though some argue that it ties with ethnicity.

D: Who Are You?  

This cover story illustrates how self-identification varies with generation, ethnicity, and geography.

Think about your coverage area, and how people of Latino or Hispanic heritage self-identify. How does it change with their geography and their generation?

Here's a link to a story about self-identification from The Washington Post, told through the perspectives of Capitol Hill interns in a program hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute:  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/25/AR2007072502483.html