Utah's largest Hispanic publication celebrates first year, rapid growth

SALT LAKE CITY — In less than one year, El Observador de Utah has become the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the state, reaching over 60,000 readers a week.

The newspaper, which began on Feb. 9, 2010, is one of the few news sources that Salt Lake's burgeoning Hispanic population, said Patricia Quijano Dark, editor of the newspaper. About 20 percent of Utah's population is Hispanic and serious media largely ignores that population, Dark said. (El Observador de Utah is owned by Deseret Management Corporation, the parent company of the Deseret News).

"With all the controversy of immigration reform, it's more and more important for people to be informed," Dark said. "Hispanics can no longer be a silent minority. But to make decisions, you need to be informed."

Over the past two decades Utah's Hispanic population has quadrupled, going from 84,600 in 1990 to 345,000 in 2010, according to Pam Perlich, a senior research economist at the University of Utah. "This is a permanent demographic change to Utah," Perlich said, adding that Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group in the state.

They are also wielding more economic influence, says Kirk McMullin, Deseret News Marketing Director. McMullin estimates that the buying power of Utah's Hispanic community has reached $6.5 billion annually.

When Mark Willes, CEO of DMC, and Jim Wall, now president and CEO of the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce, hired Dark to launch El Observador, they gathered focus groups of about 20 Hispanics from different areas in Salt Lake to discover what the community wanted most in a media source.

They found that most wanted a professional Spanish-language newspaper with trusted voices of experienced journalists who could provide a reliable news source, which is something they were not getting, Dark said.

Francisco Sotelo, executive director of Utah's Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said that in the past year El Observador has provided a well-rounded source of information that helps its readers understand relevant issues.

"They bring this freshness that we didn't have before," Sotelo said. "There's an emphasis on education. You can read about our economic state, you can read about politics. They have the stories and news as it happens."

Sotelo has seen a positive response to the newspaper in his community and has noticed that people are more aware of what is happening in the state and the nation economically, politically and socially due to the paper.