Easthampton, Massachusetts — The Valley Advocate weekly and La Prensa del oeste de Massachusetts (The Press of Western Mass.), a monthly English-Spanish newspaper, announced today an innovative partnership to reach out to the fast growing Hispanic market in Western Massachusetts.
As part of the partnership, Natalia Munoz, La Prensa’s editor and publisher, will run a bi-weekly column in the Advocate called The New World/El Nuevo Mundo on a range of issues that include political and cultural topics within the Latino communities. Additionally, from time to time, La Prensa will run a story by the Advocate in Spanish, both in print and on its website, www.LaPrensaMa.com.
At the same time, the Advocate has created an ad campaign seeking to engage the Hispanic market that will run in La Prensa.
La Prensa focuses on issues related to politics, education and health. It is distributed in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire counties of Western Massachusetts and sent to the Massachusetts political delegation in Washington, D.C., as well as to the office of Gov. Deval Patrick.
New Mass. Media, Inc. has been the leading alternative publisher in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut for over 33 years. Through its four alternative newsweeklies (Valley, Hartford & New Haven Advocate, Fairfield County Weekly) two magazine titles (CT Slant and Preview Massachusetts) and custom publishing, NMM publications circulate close to 1 million copies monthly and deliver a totally unique media footprint that reaches from Southern Vermont to New York City. More information on New Mass. Media may be obtained at www.newmassmedia.com.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are about 80,000 Hispanics from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador and other Latin American countries in Western Massachusetts, but that number doesn’t take into account the thousands of undocumented immigrants, mostly from Mexico and Central America, who live and work here.
“The Valley Advocate has always reached editorially to ensure the best coverage of the many different communities in Western Massachusetts,” said Janet Reynolds, group publisher of the Valley Advocate. “Today to find new readers, and to engage our existing ones, like any smart newspaper we have have to be willing to try innovative editorial and business strategies. For us, working with Natalia Munoz and La Prensa is a win-win on both fronts.”
“La Prensa’s role in the region is to provide a forum for Latinos to discuss issues and get information that will make a difference in their lives,” said Munoz, a longtime journalist who started her career at The Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton and from has worked in the United States, Puerto Rico and Spain. As to the partnership with the Advocate, “This is happening because Janet Reynolds is a visionary publisher. In fact, this is the first time in the state that an English-language publication is doing anything approximating what we’re doing. It’s ground-breaking and extremely exciting.”
