6939: Some Ethnic Publications Are Surviving.

From The Washington Post…

A Passion for the Printed Word Across Language and Culture

As Mainstream Publications Falter, Those Catering to Ethnic Groups Hang On

By Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post Staff Writer

Even as print media across the country shut down, an Indian entrepreneur in Virginia is planning a glitzy party next month to launch his glossy monthly magazine. Modeled after Washington Life, Washington Masala will cater to highly educated, affluent South Asians in the area.

“It’s a very niche market,” Rick Khosla said, sitting at a Starbucks in Capitol Hill this week with galleys of the 96-page inaugural issue. “That market has always been overlooked.”

Although much of the $100,000 for the first issue came from Khosla’s pocket, he expects the magazine to become self-sustaining within three months.

Is his a quixotic undertaking in an era of financial meltdowns, or is a publication catering to a specific ethnic group better positioned to survive the stormy economy?

It’s a little of both. Across the country, thousands of newspapers, magazines, and television and radio stations target specific immigrant groups. Many publish in languages other than English, and they address events in the homeland as well as acculturation issues that mainstream media organizations do not cover.

They have a hungry audience. A poll this spring by San Francisco-based New America Media shows that despite the economic downturn, consumption of ethnic media is growing. About 150 outlets operate in the Washington region.

“In some ways, it is both the best of times and the worst of times,” said Sandip Roy, an editor at New American Media, an association representing 2,000 ethnic news organizations. “They are definitely not immune to the pressure on media going on all over the place … but in terms of audience, the interest has never been higher.”

Ethnic media outlets have two big advantages, said Sandy Close, the association’s executive director. “They know their audience, and they know how to operate on a shoestring, so when the roof caves in, they know how to tighten their belts.”

But shoestrings can fray.

Dereje Desta, editor and publisher of Zethiopia, a seven-year-old newspaper targeting the Ethiopian community in the United States and especially the District, had been planning to increase production from once to twice a month. But since the recession, even monthly production is difficult to sustain. The paper, which publishes in English and Amharic, has shrunk, recently closed its U Street office and moved into Desta’s Fairfax County home.

The problem is not reader interest, he said, but advertising, which the paper relies on for 80 percent of its revenue. Ad revenue is down 60 percent this year.

“It’s very, very hard because all the restaurants, their income, all these things are hurt by the economy,” Desta said. “I’m worried if I can actually continue.”

Some ethnic news outlets are switching to online publication only, Desta said. “But the problem is you can’t make money on the Web site. The advertisers prefer the newspaper.”

The Korea Daily, with a daily circulation of 15,000 in the Washington area, has started printing on smaller paper, cut the number of pages and recently laid off some employees after ad revenue dropped 30 to 40 percent.

“Mostly the ads were from real estate and mortgage businesses,” but they are faltering, said Sungkyoon Park, editor of the Annandale-based paper.

Although interest is high among the 200,000 or so Korean-Americans in the Washington-Baltimore area, he said, one daily recently cut service to twice a week, and “no new media is starting in the Korean-American community.”

Khosla’s magazine will include news about Bollywood as well as profiles of successful local South Asians and tips on getting into local universities. Roy said such a publication could fill a hole in the South Asian market. “That kind of glossy magazine has not existed for the longest time,” he said. “People have wondered about this.”

Older South Asians in the United States rely heavily on ethnic papers and television for their news, said Deepa Iyer, executive director of Washington-based South Asian Americans Leading Together, a national organization that advocates for issues affecting South Asian communities.

Iyer, who has not seen a copy of Washington Masala, said she isn’t sure young, professional South Asians will be interested in such a publication.

“For people who are more affluent and educated, in their 20s and 30s, professionals, I wouldn’t say those people would tend to use ethnic media as their source of news,” she said.

Khosla, 41, owns an IT company and has no publishing experience but has visited plants in the United States and abroad to see how it is done. “You have to start somewhere, no? So I started.”

The magazine will have a 20,000 print run and sell for $4.95 after the first three free issues. Khosla’s business model is unusual on several fronts: Although most magazines like his rely heavily on advertising, he expects half his revenue to come from ads and half from newsstand sales. Also, unlike with many ethnic media outlets, most of his advertisers are national businesses, such as Charlie Palmer Steak, Sheraton hotels and Air India, which, he said, he charges “a quarter of the cost in The Washingtonian.”

With designers and some writers based in India, Washington Masala also has lower production costs. Writers in India are paid $13 an article; the highest rate paid to U.S.-based writers is $30. Khosla wrote some of the articles for the first issue.

That kind of personal involvement might give ethnic media an advantage in tough times, said Roy, the New America Media editor. “A lot of them really believe in what they’re doing. It’s not just a business opportunity.”

Desta, for example, said he is making almost no money right now. He hasn’t calculated exactly how much he’s spending, he said, “because if I’m going to face that figure, I’m going to quit.”

For Khosla, who is planning future Masalas in other major U.S. cities, the business seems secondary to the passion.

“I’m so sizzled with this thing I came up with,” he said. Looking over the design for the cover, he said: “You know what masala is, right? It’s like spice. So it’s the spice of life.”