Tuesday, March 07, 2006

 

If Only My Spanish Didn't Suck

Assuming that young readers are mostly interested in celebrities is like assuming that Hispanic readers are mostly interested in the Chupacabra. RedEye tends to make the first mistake, but Trib Co.'s own Hoy wouldn't dare make the second.

Both are handy tab publications aimed at a specific market and try to focus intensely on the perceived concerns of that market with a variety of hard news and entertainment news. The difference is that Hoy really seems to empathize with its readers, focusing on the hard-news issues that affect them, treating them like citizens of America and the world. Red treats readers like citizens of MySpace.

Let's start with the front pages. Red: Too many clunky wire photos filling up the front page, too many gaudy blaring all-caps headlines trying to milk trivial stories for urgency. Hoy: Sweet, sweet white space, a bright but tasteful logo, readable teasers, and just in general a front page that buzzes with news and helps a reader get interested in several stories without feeling overwhlemed. The photos aren't played out of proportion.

When you look inside, the differences in news values are insanely obvious. Red: General categories like Breaking News, Chicago, Nation, World, etc. Hoy: Issue-specific categories like Immigration, Education, Health, etc. And of course Latin America. Not to mention local stories that fit into the broader categories. Red would do well to think up some categories specific to its market, like, say, Transportation, Working, (also) Health, etc. Also, Hoy has an opinion section worthy of the name. Red just has a desultory page that usually contains a rather large ad, one lame column and an even lamer Reader Powerpoint.

Then the Web sites. This may be where Hoy really stomps its evil twin, if only because it shows that Trib is so much more committed to investing in Hoy. Red: A couple of the day's columns, a .jpg of the cover, a ridiculously truncated version of the cover story, links to Metromix. Metromix is a separate site, and Red's print edition has all this other stuff in full, so this site just isn't that useful. And those background colors--a horrible black-and-grey goulash. Hoy: Sections that correspond to the paper's sections, full and free content plus live news updates in Spanish. Nice photos, white space, bright but mild colors. A site that can earn loyal visitors.

This is just a really cursory look at both publications, but I think that's all it takes to show that Hoy just gets it and should be considered a model for youth mini-dailies to follow. I bet if Hoy were printed in English, it would draw in a ton of non-Hispanic readers. If Red had Hoy's vision, it could satisfy the youth market and draw in some older commuters as well.

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