...and the hits just keep on comin'

Two more awards this morning. The July 2005 issue, our first Top 500, placed 7th of 25 in the TABPI Best Single Issue category. Our Destinos travel supplement from the fall, Vol. 2 (most of you know it as the fancy vacation edition, with the glossy cover), won Honorable Mention for its cover design. There were north of 800 entries from all over the world this time around, so not bad at all, I'd say.

Kudos to the entire staff for their efforts on the Top 500, particularly to Latin Trade Research Director Gabriela Calderon, who literally just closed our second run at this brand-defining product, with much improvement I might add. Of course also to Latin Trade Creative Director Bryan Cooper for that amazing Destinos cover. Sometimes, when things get wacky around here, I just picture those rowboats on a Greek beach and, voilà, the blood pressure goes down.

Welcome Santiago Fittipaldi

We have, at last, a new Spanish Editor!

A Latin America specialist, Santiago Fittipaldi has been covering Latin American and Caribbean financial and business topics for more than twenty years as a journalist, researcher and analyst. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of LT E‰lite and LT Destinos magazines, as well as Spanish Editor of LATIN TRADE. Santiago joined LATIN TRADE earlier this year as editorial director for conferences, having held a similar position with LatinFinance magazine, both in Miami.

Beginning his journalism career as a foreign correspondent in the Dominican Republic for the "Voice of America", he has held editorial positions with the Economist Intelligence Unit in New York, where he was Assistant Editor of Latin American Publications, and with Thomson Financial in New York and Mexico City, where he was Editor of IFR Latin America magazine. He was also an Emerging Markets Research Analyst at Salomon Brothers in New York and a Latin America Business Information Research Analyst at McKinsey & Company in Miami. A New York City native, Santiago is a graduate of New York University (BA in Sociology and Latin American Studies; Phi Beta Kappa).

Please welcome him and feel free to e-mail him, especially if you are writing for us primarily in Spanish. You can always contact me, of course, for anything -- particularly for contracts, payments and general direction as regards magazine policy, ethics and any questions you might have about representing Latin Trade -- but it is Santiago who will be reviewing, assigning and editing all Spanish-language copy, as well as running our supplements, LT Elite and LT Destinos.

Scoop!

Don't call Latin Trade slow. I won't be hearin' it

Reuters June 15, 2006...

SAO PAULO - Despite rising costs and obstacles for foreign companies looking to enter Brazil's booming sugar and ethanol industry, analysts predicted more multinational would jump aboard after this week's play by Cargill Inc. for a mill in Sao Paulo state.

"Purchases are becoming more frequent and aggressive," said Julio Maria Borges, director of Job Economia consultancy, noting that Indian and Australian investors were now showing interest in Brazilian mills.

He noted that investment costs have risen in recent years due to greater competition between buyers and sharp rise in sugar and ethanol prices. Even so, US agribusiness giant Cargill on Monday bought a 63 percent stake in the Cevasa ethanol distillery, grabbing a share in the boom in the world's No. 1 sugar and ethanol producer.

Latin Trade Europe Correspondent Meghan Sapp, May 2006...

Sweet Deal

Brazilian companies send ethanol technology abroad to make money, and to improve life in poorer countries.

Brazilian sugar companies are spreading the gospel of ethanol—fuel made from sugar or corn—across the developing world, from the Caribbean to sub-Saharan Africa. Though ethanol has been used as a fuel in Brazil for more than three decades, demand for it only began to pick up after oil skyrocketed on the sudden awakening of the Chinese economy.

As famous names such as U.K. billionaire Richard Branson, Sun Microsystems Founder Vinod Khosla and Microsoft’s Bill Gates write checks into the hundreds of millions of dollars in the race for green fuels, Brazilian companies are already there, doing deals. “Brazil is doing everything it can do to help other countries,” says Paul Wrobel, commercial advisor on sugar and ethanol issues at the Brazilian embassy in London. “It is an intent of Brazil to make the Brazilian experience well known all over the world and make ethanol an international commodity. Brazil cannot be the only world supplier if demand picks up.”

Congratulations Meghan!

Need stories...

Want to pitch Latin Trade? Here's what we'll need in the coming weeks and months:

September
Finance issue of the year. If you see a major trend, especially one that is crossing borders, right now is the time to pitch. Our issue will feature the top 100 banks, insurers, brokerages and pension funds. All of these sectors are ripe. Avoid please single-country pitches (Argentine banks and what they want) and focus on the region (why pension funds have too much money, or whatever).

October
Forecast, Asia Outlook and MBA issue. We'll be back to assigning soon sector forecasts as we did last year. If you see an interesting trend in a sector you cover heavily (mining, autos, retail, etc.), please let me know. Part of the story will hinge on getting a reliable forecast of that sector from a third-party. If you know of one, that would be good to hear about too.

I'm keen to assign the Asia item to one or two people here (probably Brazil or Mexico or both) and pick up a file from Asia. If you know good people in Beijing, Hong Kong or another major Asian trade capital, please advise.

As for MBA, we're looking for trends in education, not single-school stories like last time. The survey will change a lot, but it's not linked to the reporting. If you see executives or schools doing novel things in your country, please pitch now.

October is also the last LT Elite issue of the year. Please contact Forrest Jones if you have high-net-worth personal finance story ideas.

November and going forward...
Feature wise, we start winding down as of November until January (info tech, estate planning and executive ed) but we'll still need a regular run of Currents, Connection, Trade Lanes and Destinations stories to keep us sane here in Miami. Get your pitches to me, Forrest Jones or Carlos Adese as soon as you can manage.

The new LatinTrade.com

Some of you may have already noticed that there is a new Web site. It's in what they call "soft launch" mode while we work out language and technical details, but this is the replacement site.

Lots of interesting new features for our plan going forward, but the most salient aspect for correspondents is likely the fact that you cannot see the content anymore without a $79.95 annual subscription.

Don't panic.

I have sent our correspondents list to circulation to create comp accounts for our regular writers. Give me a week or so to get this to you. If in a couple of weeks you do not get a password from me or from our circ dept, please let me know and I'll get it sorted out for you.

In short, there's no more free Latin Trade online. You can register for our new e-mail newsletters at no cost, but the actual Web content will no longer be free. It's a quirk of the media business: If you are a Condé Nast or Time Warner title with 3 million subs, you can give away anything you want and make it back on ad rates (usually, maybe, no guarantees). If you're us, at 85K paid, you have to charge, and that includes the Web.

In the end, you lose no serious readers ($109 is nothing to our target, the C-level exec dealing with Latin America) and you gain more data on who is reading what, how and why. That you can take back to advertisers, along with circulation audits and such, and it bolsters your case on the selling side.

That's the theory, anyway. All media -- even TV and Hollywood -- is going through a similar flux as readers segment into tiny little patches of special interest, Tivo and iPods allow people to "time shift" their information and the newshole, what is we do, gets smaller and more pointed as a result. If that means better information to the readers that want it, everyone wins. But it does imply change at the technological and the journalistic levels, and we're going through it like any other outlet.

And the winners (so far) are (drumroll please...)

Great news! Latin Trade has so far won two ASBPE awards!

Jorge Fernando Garretón, Paulo Prada and News Editor Forrest Jones were recognized for "A Royal Mess," the story they collaborated on for the June 2005 issue on how rising mineral and oil prices are causing governments across the region to rewrite their rules on what foreign companies must pay to extract commodities.

Jack "Silicon Jack" Epstein was recognized (his fourth award in five years) for the May and October columns. We're considering getting an extra wall added to his cubicle at the San Francisco Chronicle just for plaques.

That's 18 awards in five years. Congratulations to all of the editorial, design and research folks for a job well done, as well as to our valuable correspondents. Next year, we'll be entering Web site competitions, in addition to trying to expand our entries.

We may well win in more categories and perhaps under different awards programs. We'll know more in the coming two months about any pending ASBPE recognitions.

Great job!