Publisher targets technology hungry parents with new Spanish language website

Posted by Elena del Valle on March 18, 2009

TecnoPadres.com - click to enlarge

Photos: AOL Latino

AOL is now in the publishing business. Earlier this year, the company established MediaGlow, a publishing business unit and plans to launch 30 websites this year. Latinos in the United States (and Latin America) are part of AOL’s target audience. As part of its efforts to reach Spanish dominant Hispanic women through a series of websites, AOL Latino recently launched TecnoPadres.com, a new website offering new technology information for parents. Company executives expect about 60 percent of the website’s audience to be Hispanic.

The idea is for the Spanish language website to become a resource for parents to learn and understand technology, especially in relation to their children and their online safety. The website, sponsored exclusively by Verizon Wireless, is part of part of AOL Latino’s women’s lifestyle network Tu Vida y Más.

Miguel Ferrer, director, AOL Latino

“TecnoPadres.com will be a valuable resource for parents to learn how to keep their children safer online and to understand and relate to the technology that is increasingly shaping their children’s lives,” said Miguel Ferrer, director of AOL Latino. “TecnoPadres is an important new venture for AOL Latino, not only because the Latino parent market is largely untapped but also because it shows we continue to be forward thinking when it comes to showing leadership within the Latino category.”

The site features regular updates of content from several bloggers including translated content from The Online Mom, a content partner; as well as articles by TecnoDad, Carlos Cano, Laura Rendon, Sarah Klein, Barry Myers and TecnoBlogger. Topics planned include social networking sites like Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and mobile devices including cell phones and game units.

The Nuevo Esta Semana (New This Week) section will highlight staff picks of the newest and most relevant weekly features in websites, helpful tips and games. There are also plans in place for company produced videos visitors can watch, along with pre-roll commercials, on an embedded video player.

In the works is a video on how parents can set parental controls. Online safety for children is a topic AOL has addressed in the past in other forums. In September 2008, AOL launched SafetyClicks.com, offering online safety education. It recently introduced an updated version of its free, downloadable parental controls software for parents who want to supervise their children’s activities online.

AOL Latino, a bilingual portal for U.S. Hispanics, offers U.S. and Latin American news, financial tools, music and entertainment, personal finance, sports, fashion and beauty content as well as fee free email and instant messages. The website had 1.6 million unique visitors according to January 2009 comScore Media Metrix data, ranking it as one of the top three bilingual portals for Hispanics.

MediaGlow is designed to centralize AOL’s programming efforts, AOL.com and its content verticals, dozens of niche sites, and studios in Los Angeles and New York City. MediaGlow operates more than 70 sites and attracts more than 70 million unique visitors each month, according to comScore Media Metrix. MediaGlow, Platform-A for ad sales, and People Networks for social media efforts are AOL’s three strongest business divisions.