Immigrant Press : L.A. Papers Speak a New Language

The black-and-white pictures are muddy and washed out. The paper stock is cheap. The print quality, by most standards, is miserable.

But glance at the classified ads in Rah-E-Zendegi, a Farsi-language Iranian monthly published in Los Angeles, and one quickly sees the audience is not, as they say in marketing, down-scale.

One advertisement offers to sell an entire city block of Boston, 20 buildings on Commonwealth Avenue, for $20 million.

Another ad offers those seeking a tax shelter “control of a public ‘shell corp,’ tax loss in excess of $5 million. . . . Also will discuss merger/acquisitions.”

Announces English Classes

On the next page, however, is a reminder that this is the immigrant press: an announcement of “Business English” classes at the American Institute.

Such are the contrasts among media unknown to most English-speaking Angelenos, contrasts that mirror the new Los Angeles.

During the last five years, the foreign language press here has grown dramatically from a collection of mostly neighborhood weeklies offering gossip and social chatter to close to 50 internationally oriented daily, weekly and monthly journals.

The larger among them are full service dailies using translations from the same international wire services subscribed to by the Establishment press. They deploy staffs of local reporters and national and international bureaus, use satellite technology and serve audiences with incomes that, in many cases, exceed the national average.

Attract National Advertisers

They also have begun to attract national advertisers, including major cigarette, beer, airline and insurance companies.

--Spanish speaking readers, by far the largest and best-known market, can choose from among three daily newspapers, the largest of which is La Opinion, circulation 72,000.

--Six daily papers, three of them with Southern California circulations approaching 50,000, now compete for readers of Chinese. The International Daily News, a Chinese publication based in Monterey Park, averages 56 pages a day, uses full color and has full-time news bureaus in San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Texas, Taipei and Hong Kong, plus a regular non-staff correspondent in Washington.

--Korean speakers can read four dailies, as well as four weeklies and bimonthlies. The daily newspapers’ combined circulation in Los Angeles exceeds 100,000. One of the Korean papers published here, Korea Central Daily, has a worldwide circulation of 2.2 million, roughly 100,000 of whom live on the West Coast of the United States.

--Three Japanese dailies compete here, the largest of which is Rafu Shimpo, circulation 22,000.

--There is one Vietnamese daily paper, plus four weeklies.

--Filipinos, Southern California’s fastest-growing ethnic group, can choose from among four weeklies, all in English, with a combined circulation of 120,000.

--And there are six Armenian papers, six Persian or Farsi papers, two bimonthly Indian papers with 25,000 readers each, and newspapers for immigrants speaking European languages, including German, French and Russian.

“The explosion of the (foreign language) media here is basically an indication of what is going on in our community,” said Holmes Stoner, whose firm Artesa specializes in brokering advertising for the ethnic press. “We’ve turned over more than a million bucks in ad revenue this year alone. That is 100 times more than last year.”

Much of that revenue has gone to the city’s particularly vigorous Spanish-language dailies. La Opinion, now 61 years old, has seen a marked growth in circulation over the last four years, even though two well-financed new papers have been launched to compete with it.

One of them, Noticias del Mundo, began publishing in 1984 and now has a circulation of between 35,000 and 50,000, according to advertising executives. Earlier this year, Mexican businessmen launched El Diario, a full-color newspaper, which advertising officials believe already has a circulation of 40,000.

Combined, the three Spanish-language papers offer advertisers 150,000 readers each day.

Asian Community Grows

But while the nation’s Latino population grew 22% between 1980 and 1985, America’s Asian community increased by 37%, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

However, official statistics, particularly census figures, often undercount immigrants. “The government says there are 18 million Hispanics in the country, but market data suggests the number is closer to 30 million,” said Artesa’s Stoner. “The government says there are 5 million Asians, but the reality is closer to 8.5 million.”

The growth of Los Angeles’ Asian media reflects those changes. Nine new Asian daily papers have started here since 1980, not to mention dozens of weeklies and bimonthlies.

And though many of these Asian readers are struggling immigrants, many others have brought considerable sums of money with them, as have many newcomers from the Middle East.

“Drive up Wilshire toward Westwood,” Stoner said. “Everybody thinks those are Yuppies living there going to UCLA. That is Little Persia. Those people are from Iran.”

Confusing to Advertisers

Such wealthy readers not withstanding, to Madison Avenue, the ethnic press remains largely a mysterious region of strange sized papers, using odd printing styles and conducting cash-only business.

But in the Southland, at least, the immigrant press is moving beyond merely serving neighborhood merchants who cannot afford ads in the larger, mainstream papers.

Oscar L. Jornacion, publisher of the California Examiner, which is aimed at Filipino readers, said half his advertising now comes from non-Filipino businesses.

Jornacion said his 4-year-old weekly paper, circulation 30,000, averages 50 pages a week and has a correspondent in Washington, one in New York, another in San Francisco and five in Manila. The California Examiner, like its two main rivals, publishes in English.

Simon Chen, publisher of the International Daily News, said his 6-year-old paper is attracting advertising from tobacco companies, airlines, insurance agencies and utilities such as AT&T; and PacTel.

Enormous Buying Power

The reason is simple. Many of these ethnic markets have enormous buying power. In 1984 and 1985, for example, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.’s top sales offices were located in Asian neighborhoods in Houston and Los Angeles.

Remy Martin cognac has aimed a $400,000 ad campaign at Chinese-Americans, whose median family income is well above the national average.

One of the slickest publications aimed at the ethnic market is Rice Magazine, a San Francisco based monthly that described itself as “The magazine of Asian influence.” Among its advertisers: Cartier jewelers, Benetton fashions and Harrahs resort.

“In the past five years I have seen a change from indifference or even ignorance to the ethnic market to a certain degree of interest,” said David Chen, a partner in Muse, Cordero, Chen & Baca, a newly formed advertising agency catering to the ethnic market.

But, said Chen, while “some businesses already have noticed and moved into the ethnic market, the majority are still taking a wait-and-see attitude.”

One problem, said Stoner, is most advertising firms don’t know how to reach the ethnic markets. “People call up and say I want to put together an Asian ad package. I’ll say, we have six Asian groups. Which ones do you want?”

Demand Cash for Ads

And many foreign language papers, accustomed to dealing with local merchants, demand cash up front before they run an ad.

“Can you imagine what a Madison Avenue ad agency must think when some little Chinese publisher in Los Angeles refuses to run an ad from a national car company unless they pay cash up front?” Stoner asked.

Many of the foreign language papers are money losers, officials familiar with the market said. But the problem is not a lack of advertising.

Rather, the market is so competitive that many of the ethnic publishers charge ad rates that are very cheap by American standards, ranging from only a few thousand dollars per page to a few hundred.

A full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times, in contrast, could cost up to $37,000.

Some of the ethnic papers are not profitable, however, because profit is not their publisher’s primary concern.

Echoes Earlier Publishers

It may be prestige or power for wealthy immigrants who already own other businesses. Such was also the case for an earlier generation of American publishers like Marshall Field, who started the Chicago Sun-Times to counter the political influence of the Chicago Tribune, or William Randolph Hearst, who often seemed to put political or personal interests above financial considerations.

Some of the new ethnic publishers also retain strong links to their home country’s political Establishment. For example, an advertising executive, who asked to remain anonymous, said many Koreans believe that one of the larger Korean dailies here is financed by the Seoul government.

Noticias del Mundo is owned by interests controlled by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church.

Much also is made of the political pedigrees of the Chinese papers, such as Centre Daily News, which is jointly headquartered in Monterey Park and New York. It generally supports Peking’s policy of seeking Taiwan’s reunification with China.

“This is all, ah, very delicate,” said one Asian journalist, who requested anonymity. “There are many rumors that one paper has financial backing from one political side or another. Nobody has any proof, but there are plenty of rumors.”

Question of Assimilation

Perhaps the key question, however, is whether the ethnic media here will emerge as an important influence in a multi-ethnic Los Angeles or whether their readers will assimilate, as did earlier European immigrants, into the mainstream media.

In some places, such as Miami, the largely Cuban refugee population has formed its own parallel economy within the city, a trend some see mirrored among certain groups here.

Yet the multiplicity of ethnic groups here, plus the difference between economic immigrants--the category into which most new Angelenos fall--and political refugees--such as the Cubans--leads others to believe that second- and third-generation Asians and Latinos will assimilate into the mainstream media.

“The second- and third-generation Asians will merge into the landscape of English-speaking culture,” advertising executive Chen said. “But I want to remind you that the projections of great increases in Asian population is made up mostly of new immigrants.”

One key in whether the community blends, those involved in the ethnic press said, depends on whether the mainstream media begins doing more to cover the ethnic communities, something that is difficult and not necessarily immediately profitable.

“We recently helped do a concert here for the Apo Hiking Society, a band which is like the Beatles of the Philippines,” Stoner said. “They sold out Carnegie Hall and here they sold out the Shrine Auditorium. A thousand people were left standing outside, couldn’t get in. There wasn’t any word of it in the mainstream press.”