The Huffington Post to Expand Global Presence with 16th Edition, HuffPost Mexico
HuffPost and Grupo Imagen Multimedia Announce Partnership to Launch HuffPost Mexico in September 2016
Mexico City (June 7, 2016) -- In the lead up to the presidential election, The Huffington Post and Grupo Imagen Multimedia announced today a partnership to launch HuffPost Mexico, the Mexican version of The Huffington Post. The Spanish language site will launch in September 2016 and will offer local and international content including news, entertainment, lifestyle, technology, science and local voices to the region. The Huffington Post and Grupo Imagen Multimedia will build a team of editors and reporters based in Mexico City.
The partnership combines the strengths of The Huffington Post, a leading global source of breaking news, video, features, and entertainment, as well as a highly engaged global community for opinion and conversation, with Grupo Imagen Multimedia, one of the top news content developers in the Mexican media landscape.
The Huffington Post launched its first international edition in May 2011. In just five years, the site has expanded into 15 markets across six continents, with more than half of its audience coming from outside of the U.S. HuffPost Mexico will be the 16th edition in HuffPost’s growing global presence. HuffPost has more than 300 editors located in nearly 20 countries outside the U.S and continues to expand its global presence.
Over the last decade, Grupo Imagen Multimedia has established itself in Mexico as a multimedia leader in news content development for broadcast, radio, print and digital media. The strength of the group has led it to have a monthly average of 30 million unique users in its digital content platforms for news, entertainment and lifestyle.
The announcement was made by Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post; Jared Grusd, CEO of The Huffington Post; Heberto Taracena, Director of the Digital Media Division of Grupo Imagen Multimedia; and Pascal Beltran del Rio, Editorial Director of the newspaper Excelsior.
"I'm thrilled that two months before this very important U.S. election, in which xenophobic proposals are being made to fuel hostility and suspicion toward Mexico, that The Huffington Post and Grupo Imagen are coming together to launch HuffPost Mexico," said Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post. "Mexico is the largest Spanish speaking country in North America and we're looking forward to using all the tools at our disposal to tell Mexico’s most important stories and to provide a platform to help Mexicans tell their stories themselves. At a time when Donald Trump is running on a platform that includes putting up a wall between the U.S. and Mexico while calling Mexicans "killers and rapists" and challenging the integrity of an American judge because of his Mexican descent, it’s more important than ever to open up the conversation, nurture the longstanding ties between our two countries and counter this false and dangerous narrative. We’ll do this by not only reporting on Mexico’s challenges, but also focusing on all the ways Mexicans are responding to them, overcoming great odds, and working toward solutions with ingenuity and compassion."
“The communication platforms that Mexicans have at hand seem increasingly inadequate; larger spaces that allow people to establish a dialogue to understand, discuss and seek solutions on everything that happens are needed more and more each day,” said Heberto Taracena, Director of the Digital Media Division for Grupo Imagen Multimedia. “Grupo Imagen Multimedia is clear about this need and that is why in recent years it has dedicated important investments to creating new opportunities, such as a new national open digital TV channel, whose tender was won last year, and the partnership with The Huffington Post. Thus, the group's growth goes hand in hand with the evolution of the audiences.”
"HuffPost's presence in Mexico is a milestone for our global expansion," said Jared Grusd, CEO of The Huffington Post. "Mexico has one of the top ten largest internet populations in the world, with 80% of that audience on social media and 75% consuming video online. We’re excited to engage with this audience as it continues to grow. Grupo Imagen’s unique capabilities across print -- including their newspaper Excelsior, Mexico’s second oldest paper -- digital, radio and TV will offer profound ways to reach and impact the region."
“Mexicans today are not satisfied with the information getting to them," said Pascal Beltran del Rio, Editorial Director of the newspaper Excelsior. "They have beliefs, opinions, seek action, because they acknowledge the responsibility of each in the future of the country. We are no longer waiting for others to do things for us. Therefore, the media platforms have an obligation to become facilitators and not decision makers; they must connect with the audience through horizontal dialogue, where all opinions count and all ideas have a conversational value. So the editorial profile of The Huffington Post and the strength of Grupo Imagen Multimedia will bring this way of getting closer to Mexican audiences, an opportunity for local voices that want to tell their own version of history.”
About The Huffington Post The Huffington Post is a Pulitzer Prize-winning source of breaking news, video, features, and entertainment, as well as a highly engaged global community for opinion and conversation. The platform has 100,000 bloggers -- from politicians, students and celebrities to academics, parents and policy experts -- who contribute in real-time on the subjects about which they are most passionate. The Huffington Post is committed to covering our core editorial pillars -- news and politics, wellness, and solutions to the world's biggest problems -- and using every available tool and platform, including virtual reality and immersive storytelling, to inform, inspire, entertain and empower. The Huffington Post has editions in the UK, Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Maghreb, Germany, Brazil, South Korea, Greece, India, Australia and the Arab world, and is part of AOL Inc.
About Grupo Imagen Multimedia Grupo Imagen multimedia is part of Grupo Empresarial Angeles, leaded by Lic. Olegario Vazquez Aldir; a 100% Mexican corporation that successfully participates, generating value and growth for México in four sectors: health, tourism, finance and mass media. Nowadays the group is in the process to launch a new digital open TV channel won in a public tender in 2015. Currently, Grupo Imagen Multimedia has more than 21 radio stations in all over the country, 2 TV channels, a newspaper and 18 content sites.
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