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First Acquisition With Proceeds of Goldman Sachs Facility
NEW YORK, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- ImpreMedia, LLC, the nations leading
publisher of Spanish language newspapers, announced today the acquisition of
El Mensajero, the San Francisco Bay Areas #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 Opinion, the
nations 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 Monica Lozano, Senior Vice President
of ImpreMedia and Publisher and CEO of La Opinion. "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 ImpreMedias Domingo Network, the nations largest
Hispanic residential print network. With the addition of El Mensajeros
audited weekly circulation of 111,564, ImpreMedias 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.
"ImpreMedias 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 Opinion 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 Opinion and La Opinion
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
Barbara Hodgson: (310) 552-4134
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