Call them cultural ambassadors. Revolutionary activists. The many hours and few dollars they collect for their labors of love provide clues to the commitment and pride they carry for their people.
They are the owners of media. They are people of color. They enrich and empower the major and minor communities, sometimes servicing a blatant void single-handedly.Like Willie Johnson, of Salt Lake's own Urban Gazette, for example. Johnson, a black who moved to Utah 28 years ago, says he has enjoyed living in the state because of the professional opportunities and congenial social climate. The South Carolina native began publishing The Urban Gazette five years ago to spread the word about black businesses and African-Americancq cultural events. The Urban Gazette has a monthly circulation of 5,000.
"With the media being the way it is and our voice not being on the air (radio and television), the only way to get the word out is using this paper. If the community would utilize it, a lot could be done," Johnson said.
In its first incarnation, the Gazette was known as Rhythm of the City News. Rhythm News was conceived chiefly to augment Johnson's soul music programming at KZQQ AM. It later evolved to its current format, a 12-page, tabloid-size newspaper with an eye to current events, provocative looks at controversial cultural issues, health news, recipes and a popular advice column. Johnson's staff, however, consists solely of himself, with regular contributions from two columnists. Because of the heavy load and insufficient advertising, Johnson hasn't published an issue in two months. He is currently busy assembling what he hopes will be The Urban Gazette's May 1996 issue.
"Everybody wants their stuff in, but no one wants to pay," Johnson says of his battle to secure enough advertising to publish on a regular basis. "We know for a fact that if someone wants to reach the black community, we have the vehicle to do it.'
The Gomez family seems to have an easier time publishing America Latina magazine. The staff of three brothers and a patriarch helps a lot. Their overall demographic representation may also have something to do with it.
Latinos are Utah's most populous ethnic group. The latest estimates from the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget say Latinos make up 6.4 percent of the overall population. Blacks, by contrast, have the smallest numbers: 0.7 percent. Asian-Pacific Islanders comprise 2.4 percent of Utah's population and American Indians make up a slim 1.4 percent.
Of the state's 29 counties, Salt Lake has the greatest concentration of ethnic minorities by far. People of color are more than three times as likely to live in Salt Lake County than any other Utah county. These numbers reflect 1994 state demographics. The Governor's Office of Planning and Budget based the new estimates on U.S. census data, state General Population Characteristics and records from the Utah Office of Education Enrollment Database.
Steve Gomez, publisher and art director for America Latina ("Latin America"), Utah's only bilingual magazine, said the idea for his family's two-year-old business venture was born because of the low-grade publications offered the Latino community - and their emphasis on Mexican-Americans. The Gomez family, natives of Colombia, have lived in Utah for nearly 20 years.
"There was one good one and five or six bad ones. We wanted something for all Hispanics to be proud of," Gomez said.
America Latina quickly put the one "good one," five-year-old Intermountain Hispanic magazine, out of business.
"It was literally eaten alive," Gomez said. "They were not minority owned. They were out of touch. They had no idea what the bilingual community was looking for."
Gomez and company did know. They packaged a slick, full-color magazine chock-full of news feature departments. The national and international cover stories, offerings on geography, travel, who's who in the Latino community and "Modern Woman" section worked. And although the magazine has a circulation of 10,000 in Utah, which Gomez said translates to an estimated 40-50,000 readers - some as far away as Connecticut and Argentina - are keeping an eye on America Latina. The Gomezes hope to go regional sometime in late summer or early fall. They're also planning a Highlights-type magazine for Latino children. The magazine should premier in early 1997.
Unlike Johnson, the Gomez family is able to draw on a a ready staff of professional and non-professional freelance writers, both locally and abroad. America Latina has no staff writers. Johnson, on the other hand, finds the lack of a ready labor force one of his biggest challenges.
"No one (in the black community) seems to want to take the time to write. White college students (in journalism) get uncomfortable covering all-black events after a while," Johnson said. So he runs a mostly one-man show, writing, shooting photos, designing layout at Salt Lake Community College and even working as a member of his three-person distribution staff.
At Eastern Trends, publisher Marina Leung doesn't mind the long hours she puts in gathering news for the Chinese community from local newspapers and magazines. Leung, a former "bored housewife," draws on her editor and occasional freelance writers to publish the 12-page biweekly newspaper.
"We are not professionals, but we are doing it because we have the desire. We are doing it for someone who needs it," Leung said. "The news is not new (in Eastern Trends) because we are a biweekly. We use a lot of our spare time to get the paper out."
Leung is a native of Hong Kong. She lived in Utah two years before starting Eastern Trends, a paper written mostly in Chinese, one and a half years ago. Eastern Trends is Leung's answer to the void created when the Salt Lake Chinese Post closed shop in 1994. Friends coaxed her into the business. Leung had worked at the Post, Salt Lake City's first Chinese-language paper, as an office manager and typesetter.
"No one can do this but a rich man, but they don't have spare time," Leung says simply when asked about her start. She also draws on the influx of Chinese to the Salt Lake Valley as motivation to become a publisher. "Chinese feel closer when they read their own language. Elders know nothing about the news because they can't read English and their children are too busy to explain it to them. They have this paper so they know what is happening in their communities."
Eastern Trends covers news of Hong Kong, China's provinces and even Thailand - in addition to local Utah news. With a small circulation of 3,000, Eastern Trends can be found in restaurants and groceries as far away as Provo, Logan, Ogden, Denver and Idaho. Leung says Eastern Trends finds readers from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds. At one time the paper tried outreach in the Japanese and Filipino communities. "It was too hard to do it in both languages," Lueng said.
Print media is the easiest of start-up mediums. People of color who own U.S. media outlets tend to be middle- to upper-middle class. Usually, they find it easier to publish a newspaper than to start a radio or television station. KMGR AM-1230 and KSVN AM-730, however, are two minority-owned radio stations along the Wasatch Front. Salt Lake County's KMGR, owned by Eddy Serrato, a Mexican-American, has been on the air one and a half years. KSVN, based in West Haven, Weber County, has been under Rolando Collantes' ownership since 1986. Collantes, also a Mexican-American, owns low-frequency Spanish-language television stations Channel 21 and Channel 66 in Ogden.
Because all media are advertising-driven, a lack of advertising will make or break a newspaper, radio station or television station.
Gomez, of America Latina, says the biggest obstacle his family faced in launching their bimonthly magazine was allaying the fears local business people harbored for advertising in upstart publications. He said an upstart publication published by minorities - for minorities - has two initial strikes against it.
"Business in Utah is very tough. If you deal with them once and they don't like you, you're out," Gomez said. "Earning the trust of the business community in Utah was a challenge."
Some of America Latina's potential advertisers had been "burned" by less professional minority-owned magazines and newspapers in the past. Gomez and his brothers Paul and Ronald, who respectively direct marketing and advertising sales, found the lack of trust disheartening but not defeating.
"They wanted to give us a one-time thing, not a two or three-year contract. We had the commitment and ability to do the job. It was difficult to swallow the repeated letdowns," Gomez said.
Taniela Fiefia, former publisher of the Tonga News, found himself financing his paper's 2,000-copy circulation for most of its five-month tenure. The biweekly folded in December 1995 for a lack of funds. Fiefia's paper sold for $1.
"The biggest challenge was circulation. If you sell it, circulation will be small," Fiefia said. "We started out selling it for $2, the same price as papers sent in from the (Pacific) islands. I changed it to $1 after the first issue so it would sell."
Like Johnson, the Urban Gazette publisher, Fiefia found himself doing all the work at Tonga News. Fiefia's saving grace was the accolades he received from the Pacific Island community, which is "starving for information," and the schools and other government agencies "who saw the need for it." Fiefia, a former guest columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, hopes to bring Tonga News back. He's established no time line yet for doing so.
Johnson says he would like to continue publishing Urban Gazette "long enough to get someone else to come in and run with it." However, he fears the black community monthly could go the same route as the half-dozen soul music shows he's produced on a half-dozen radio stations from Ogden to South Jordan.
Johnson's first love is radio. The 40-something South Carolina-native has been a licensed broadcaster for 22 years. Johnson's dream is to own a radio station and broadcast all genres of soul music 24 hours a day. But the market for radio stations commands a hefty $1 million price tag - which Johnson, unfortunately, doesn't have.
Things look much brighter for the Gomez family. Gomez says his family's goal is to be one of the biggest sponsors of the 2002 Winter Olympics. After winning awards from the Governor's Office of Hispanic Affairs and the Folio Foundation (for cover graphics), America Latina is now taking "baby steps" toward going national. Right now, the magazine serves an estimated 1,000 subscribers, 350 of whom live out of state.
"Our goal is to show (Utahns) the $2 billion consumer potential in the Latino population. We're making a small dent in the opinion of Hispanics in the state," Gomez said.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Minority voices
America Latina
Owners: Steve, Manuel, Paulo, Ronald Gomez.
Where distributed: Smith's Food and Drug, Barnes & Noble Bookstore, local newstands, most area supermarkets throughout Utah.
Cost: $2.50.
Eastern Trends
Owner: Marina Leung, Eric Chien, Richard Cheung, Peter Au, Kuang Y. Lee.
Where distributed: Chinese groceries, restaurants and public libraries in metropolitan Salt Lake City, Provo, Ogden, Logan.
Free
La An Orcha
Owner: Sergio Armenta.
Where distributed: Local Mexican restaurants.
The Urban Gazette
Owner: Willie J. Johnson.
Where distributed: Black-owned salons, churches, businesses throughout metropolitan Salt Lake City, Ogden.
Tonga News
Owner: Taniela Fiefia.
Where distributed: Defunct.
KSVN AM-730
Owner: Rolando Collantes.
Programming: All Spanish.
Where heard: Salt Lake and Weber counties.
KMGR AM-1230
Owner: Eddy Serrato.
Programming: All Spanish.
Where heard: Salt Lake, Davis, Weber counties.
Channel 21
Owner: Rolando Collantes.
Programming: All Spanish.
Where seen: Salt Lake City, Ogden.
Channel 66
Owner: Rolando Collantes.
Programming: All Spanish.
Where seen: Salt Lake City, Ogden.