HispanicBusiness

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Meximerica Media, a U.S.-based publishing company, today announced that RUMBO de Austin, its fourth Spanish- language newspaper, will start publication on November 22. After the successful launch of RUMBO de San Antonio, RUMBO de Houston and RUMBO del Valle, Meximerica Media consolidates its rollout into Texas with the launch of RUMBO de Austin.

RUMBO (pronounced room-bo), comes from the Spanish word often associated with the Latin American phrase meaning "heading north" and, by implication, heading to move up in life. RUMBO is a complete full-color, tabloid-size Spanish-language daily newspaper, primarily aimed at Hispanic men and women between the ages of 21 and 54. The paper has its own staff of reporters covering local and community news of particular interest to its readers, including education, personal finance, and health. It also offers in-depth national, international, sports and entertainment news coverage, with particular emphasis on Mexico and Latin America.

"We are proud to introduce RUMBO de Austin to a city with a growing Spanish-speaking population," said Antonio Ruiz Camacho, Managing Editor of RUMBO de Austin. "We recognize the importance of Austin's Latino population and are confident that our high-quality journalism standards will enable us to continue publishing a newspaper that is interesting and relevant to the needs of this fast-growing community."

RUMBO de Austin will cost 25 cents and will start distribution at some 650 points-of-sale throughout the city, including supermarkets, convenience stores, stores, restaurants and red coin boxes. RUMBO's launch in Texas is being supported by an aggressive $3.8-million marketing campaign to attract readers. This five-month campaign in 2004 includes TV, radio, billboards, face-to-face sampling and household sampling. "Our highly experienced management, advertising, editorial and marketing teams are poised to serve the largest and most rapidly-growing minority market in the United States by representing the interests, lifestyle, and culture of our readers unlike any other Spanish or English newspaper in circulation today," Edward Schumacher Matos, CEO and Editorial Director of Meximerica Media.

Meximerica Media is funded by Recoletos Grupo de Comunicacion S.A. (MCE: REC.MC), a Spain-based company whose principal shareholder is Pearson Plc. , the international media company. Recoletos funded the first four RUMBO newspapers with an initial tranche of $16.5 million for this year. Meximerica will consider expanding outside of Texas in 2005. "We are thrilled to be involved in this venture to advance the quality of news for the growing Hispanic population comprised of more than 39 million Latinos in the United States," said Jaime Castellanos, Chairman and CEO of Recoletos. "Our investment in Meximerica enables us to build on our established presence in Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Chile and now expand into the dynamic U.S. market."

Based on Meximerica's scalable model and advanced publishing technology, RUMBO offers advertisers the opportunity to reach a critical mass of readers in four different markets with just one buy. "We offer a regional formula so our advertisers can communicate with several markets at the same time. The launch of RUMBO de Austin will enable them to reach more than 3.3 million Latinos in Austin, the Rio Grande Valley, Houston and San Antonio, which together count with at least $44.3 billion purchasing power," said Andrew Olivera, Managing Director of RUMBO de Austin.

Additionally, RUMBO has a modular make-up characteristic, which means that advertising space is available in increments of a page rather than the commonly known column-inch concept, simplifying the ad submission and production processes for the advertiser and allowing him or her to choose from nine different ad sizes, ranging all the way from a full page to a 1/8 page.

According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, in 2000 Austin had a Hispanic population of around 350,000 people, 73 percent of whom prefer to speak Spanish at home. 75% of the Hispanic adults are first generation immigrants, whose first and strongest language is Spanish.

"The Austin business community will find in RUMBO de Austin a unique communication vehicle that will create opportunity links between businesses and the Latino market. RUMBO de Austin will distinguish itself as an attractive full-color alternative for providing daily news and useful information to the Hispanic reader," said Chief Operating Officer and Head of Advertising, Jonathan Thompson. "Furthermore, the tabloid-size of RUMBO makes it easier to read and it is the preferred style among readers."

ABOUT MEXIMERICA MEDIA

Meximerica Media is a U.S.-based publishing company and the creator of RUMBO, a network of Spanish-language daily newspapers targeted at the underserved Hispanic-American population throughout the United States. The company was formed last year by a group of media professionals with extensive experience in the relevant editorial, publishing, commercial, and financial fields and was acquired on April 15, 2004 by Recoletos Grupo de Comunicacion S.A. (MCE: REC.MC). Meximerica is headquartered in San Antonio, site of RUMBO's first launch on July 26, followed by the launch in Houston on August 30, the Rio Grande Valley on October 11 and Austin on November 22. More information about the company is available at http://www.meximerica.com/ and http://www.diariosrumbo.com/.

ABOUT RECOLETOS GRUPO DE COMUNICACION S.A.

Recoletos Grupo de Comunicacion is a large multimedia group, focused on specialized contents in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking markets. Based in Madrid, Recoletos publishes the leading business newspapers and magazines in Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Chile, as well as Marca, one of the world's biggest-selling sports dailies, which has seven local editions in Spain, and Telva, the most profitable Spanish women's fashion magazine. Recoletos also operates special content radio and TV channels in Spain and a growing network of websites. It is at the front edge of wireless news distribution, and it has a global client list for its business, sports, beauty, health, and youth contents. Recoletos is listed on the Madrid stock market and its principal shareholder is Pearson Plc .

ABOUT PEARSON PLC

An international media company, Pearson Plc's businesses are Pearson Education, the world's largest learning company, the Financial Times Group, one of the world's leading business information companies, and the Penguin Group, one of the world's premier English language publishers.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Gretel Perera GCI Group 512-542-2841 gperera@gcigroup.com Giovanna Rueda Meximerica Media 210-581-3550 giovanna.rueda@meximerica.com giovanna.rueda@diariosrumbo.comMeximerica Media

Web site: http://www.meximerica.com/http://www.diariosrumbo.com/