Danay’s Musings

Manuel Mazzanti to spearhead marketing activities for starMedia in Latin America and the U.S.

MIAMI, April 22 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — starMedia today announced that it has expanded its management team with the appointment of Manuel Mazzanti as Regional Marketing Director. Mazzanti, one of the industry’s most experienced marketers, joins starMedia from Yahoo! where he was responsible for marketing and public relations for Yahoo! Hispanic Americas.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070613/CLW103LOGO )

Mazzanti will be responsible for overseeing all starMedia’s marketing activities including market research, branding, public relations, product and campaign launches. The appointment marks further growth for starMedia, as the company continues its investment following the recent openings of new offices in Colombia, Chile and Argentina.

“I’m thrilled to join starMedia, where I will have the challenge to lead a growing marketing team that will allow us not only accelerate the pace of the activities, reinforcing starMedia’s leadership, but also to better serve both our audience and advertisers through one of the best online platforms in the region,” said Mazzanti.

Mazzanti has worked in the technology, internet, and telecommunications fields throughout Latin America for more than 15 years. Before joining Yahoo! in 2005, he owned a broadband company in Mexico. Prior to that he held senior marketing positions at Diveo Mexico, a leading outsourcing provider for mission critical IT systems, OptiGlobe Mexico, a leading Data Center services company in Latin America, Iridium South America and SkyTel Argentina.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mazzanti holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the Social and Business Sciences University (UCES) of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

About starMedia
starMedia is a free-to-web global portal connecting more than 24 million Spanish-speakers through the Internet as well as providing them with the most relevant and extensive information and services. starMedia has local operations in Colombia, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Chile and throughout the United States (Los Angeles, Miami and New York); and, is wholly owned by Orange (http://www.orange.es ), a subsidiary of the France Telecom Group (NYSE: FTE).

SOURCE starMedia

Ideas are great, and coming up with them is really fun. There is nothing I love more than an exciting brainstorming session. However, you must set aside time to put in the work that will bring those ideas to fruition. I find that this is where many fall off the wagon, they are inspired and full of great ideas, but they do not put in the time to make them happen.

Web portal Terra USA has partnered with media company Interactive One on a three-year initiative to cross-market and cross-sell their respective audiences.

Terra will manage all ad sales and share exclusive content with MiGente.com — the Hispanic-American social network owned by Interactive One parent company Radio One. MiGente.com claims an audience of about 3.2 million U.S. users.

by Gavin O’Malley

Along with catering to core audiences, Terra is “providing advertisers with the opportunity to effectively access the second- and third-generation of bilingual U.S. Hispanics,” said Fernando Rodríguez, CEO for Terra USA.

Interactive One was launched two years ago by Radio One to complement its existing portfolio of media companies, which reach a mainly African-American audience.

Just last month, the interactive division named former Napster chief technology officer, David Wolfe, as its new chief product and operating officer.

While the Terra partnership was in the works prior to Wolfe’s appointment, he has been tasked with creating “innovative Web products,” and driving the strategy of the company’s portfolio, which also includes the social-networking site BlackPlanet, news site NewsOne, and the entertainment site Urban Daily.

Terra Latin America, the parent of Terra USA, claims roughly 60 million unique monthly visitors worldwide.

source: MediaPost

By Laurel Wentz

Published: March 30, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Mired in debt and falling ad sales, Univision Communications posted a 7.8% drop in net revenue, to $502.1 million, for the fourth quarter of 2008 and a net loss of $1.99 billion, compared with a net loss of $201.5 million for the same period in 2007.

For the full year, the Spanish-language media company reported a 2.5% decline in 2008 net revenue to $2 million. Univision’s full-year net loss for 2008 was $5.1 billion, compared with $314.9 million in 2007.

For Univision, the recession is not only slashing ad revenue but also making it harder for the company to pay back the enormous debt load it took on when a consortium of investors bought Univision for $12.3 billion in 2007 at the height of the highly leveraged private-equity boom.

On a conference call to discuss the company’s results with analysts, Andrew Hobson, Univision’s chief financial officer, said several times that the company had made a $385 million debt repayment today. At the end of 2008, Univision’s long-term debt stood at just more than $10 billion.

Accounting for the loss
The 2008 net loss came largely from impairments the company took on assets and $610.8 million from settling a lawsuit in January 2009 with Univision’s main program provider, Mexican media giant Grupo Televisa. Most of the charge for the settlement relates to the free airtime Univision will provide Televisa for the next nine years, until the long-term programming agreement between the two companies ends in 2017. Other charges included investment losses of $162.9 million and restructuring charges of $45 million, including the most recent round of layoffs, in early 2009, when the post of chief marketing officer was eliminated.

Asked about the first quarter, which ends today, Mr. Hobson said, “The first quarter has been tough, and we expect the year to be tough, with weakness to be driven by auto and retail.”

Auto advertising was Univision’s biggest-spending category last year but had fallen to fourth by the last quarter of 2008, trailing retail, telecommunications and consumer package goods, he said. In the fourth quarter, Univision’s car advertising fell 41%, he said.

“In some of our markets, as many as 40% of local dealers have closed down,” he said.

In retail, among the best-performing categories in the fourth quarter, advertisers spent 3% more, and telecommunications and fast-food restaurants, the fifth-biggest-spending category, were both up 8%, Mr. Hobson said.

Getting ready for round two
Round two of the battle between Univision and Televisa will begin later this month. The two companies are still squabbling over who should get the U.S. digital-media rights to the Televisa programming Univision airs in the U.S. Since digital media didn’t really exist when the long-term programming agreement was signed in the 1990s, both companies claim the rights should belong to them. Unless they can resolve the issue out of court in the next three weeks, a trial will start April 21 in a Los Angeles court in front of the same judge, Philip Gutierrez, who presided over the January court case that was settled in mid-trial.

During the call with analysts, Univision’s chief operating officer, Ray Rodriguez, emphasized that Univision continues to add viewers, unlike the English-language TV networks.

“Univision was the only network to grow among adults 18 to 49 during the fourth quarter,” he said. For the first time, Univision became the fourth network among the 18-to-34 segment in 2007, ahead of CBS, he said.

“We’ve been told by advertisers that the Hispanic population is one of the few bright spots, and we continue to see growth in viewership,” he said.