McClatchy to boost Spanish content

Hoping to offset its losses in the U.S. newspaper market, McClatchy Co. will sharpen its focus on the rapidly growing Hispanic community by sharing articles and other content with a major publisher of Spanish-language publications.

The partnership, to be announced Tuesday, will allow McClatchy's Spanish-language papers and Web sites to feature information produced by ImpreMedia, a privately held publisher that operates in markets covering about two-thirds of the Hispanics living in the United States.

The seven ImpreMedia newspapers covered in the agreement are: El Diario La Prensa and Hoy Nueva York in New York; El Mensajero in the San Francisco Bay area; La Opinion in Los Angeles; La Raza in Chicago; La Prensa in Orlando, Fla.; and Rumbo in Houston, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

McClatchy, the third largest U.S. newspaper publisher, runs three Spanish-language papers: El Nuevo Herald in Florida, Vida en el Valle in California's Central Valley and La Estrella in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. The Sacramento-based company owns 29 daily papers printed in English and 31 newspapers in all.

The partnership's financial terms aren't being disclosed.

Like the rest of the print news industry, McClatchy has been struggling as advertisers shift their spending from newspapers to the Internet in pursuit of the Web's expanding audience.

The trend has devastated McClatchy's stock, which has plunged by 82 percent since the end of 2005, triggering $2.8 billion in charges to account for the company's crumbling value. McClatchy shares fell 20 cents to $10.70 Monday.

ImpreMedia touts its Spanish-language newspapers as an advertising gold mine. The New York-based company estimates the 29.4 million Hispanics living in its target markets have a combined $478 billion in spending power.

"Sharing with other top Spanish-language publications is a chance to improve our service and also share our content with many thousands of new readers in new markets," said Howard Weaver, McClatchy's vice president of news. "It's a clear win all around."