El Latino, a San Diego-based Spanish-language newspaper operated by Fanny Miller for the past 33 years, has opened a 2,500-square-foot retail storefront in Chula Vista where women can rent space and sell jewelry, art, hats, clothing and health products on consignment.
The store at 1105 Broadway, Suite 206, is called Celebrando Latinas Boutique, named after the annual Celebrando Latinas, a conference for Latina women El Latino has presented since 2010. The store opened in late February.
“Think of the store as a business incubator for women to show their products,” Miller told Times of San Diego. “Celebrando Latinas Boutique is a new concept of collective sales that will allow micro-entrepreneurs to have a space to promote their products to the community. We are extremely excited to offer this model of shared space for entrepreneur products.”
In addition to retail sales, financial education workshops will be held at the store. The workshops, provided by the nonprofit National Association for Hispanic Empowerment Network, are designed to support the development and sustainability of Latinas and the business community, said Miller.
“The education part is most important,” said Miller, who founded El Latino in 1988. “When I started the newspaper at age 21, I had no experience, no formal education and no money. I’ve gone through a lot of challenges in running a business and I want to help these ladies do better.”
With a weekly circulation of about 77,000, El Latino is considered the state’s largest Spanish-language newspaper owned by a Hispanic woman. Miller also publishes Celebrando Latinas, a magazine published six times annually.
Fallbrook Newspaper Publisher Named Woman of the Year by State Senator
Julie Reeder, president and publisher of Reeder Media and Village News, has been named the 2021 Woman of the Year in State Senate District 38 by Senator Brian Jones (R-Santee).
Reeder’s company publishes three newspapers, including the Fallbrook-Bonsall Village News, Temecula-Murrieta Valley News and Anza Valley Outlook, as well as three annual magazines, including the Greater Fallbrook Area Sourcebook, Greater Southwest Valley Sourcebook and Greater Southwest Riverside County Cancer Resource Guide. Combined, these publications have more than 300,000 monthly readers. The publications also operate websites with news content.
“It’s an honor and I appreciate our legislators for recognizing Fallbrook,” said Reeder, who has lived in the Fallbrook-Bonsall area since 1988.
“It’s a great honor every year to be able to recognize during Women’s History Month the Woman of the Year for District 38,” said Jones, who presented Reeder with her award during his virtual town hall meeting in March.
“This is a very well-deserved recognition,” Jones said in a statement. “Julie is a very dynamic and inspirational business owner and community leader. Her award-winning work as a publisher and editor of several publications in our region is well respected and greatly appreciated. Through her business and charitable efforts, Julie has assisted many families and individuals in our community.”
A spokesperson for Jones’ office said recognition for Women of the Year honorees statewide traditionally includes a ceremony on the floor of the Senate chambers in Sacramento, which is unlikely this year because the Capitol Building is closed to the public due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The first issue of the Fallbrook-Bonsall Village News was published Dec. 18, 1997. Reeder founded the Village News after Fallbrook’s previous weekly paper was consolidated into a zone of the North County Times newspaper.
She founded the Temecula-Murrieta Valley News in October 2000 after the Riverside Press Enterprise, a daily newspaper, purchased several community papers in the Valley and assimilated them into the daily paper.
Reeder started the annual Sourcebook directory for Fallbrook-Bonsall in 2002. In 2008, Village News purchased the Anza Valley Outlook from the previous owner following his retirement.
“Independent local news is super important,” Reeder said. “I love doing the magazines, website work, and digital marketing, but it’s all to support independent news and the community, which is our passion.”
Fallbrook is part of the 38th Senate District along with Bonsall, Fallbrook, Borrego Springs, San Marcos, Escondido, Valley Center, Poway, Rancho Santa Fe and parts of San Diego, plus the East County communities of Santee, Alpine, Lemon Grove, El Cajon, La Mesa, Lakeside, Rancho San Diego, Ramona and Julian.
Marketing Exec Named Promises2Kids Board Chair
Stephanie Brown, VP of marketing and public relations for the Manchester Financial Group, has been named board chair for Promises2Kids, a San Diego nonprofit that assists more than 3,000 current and former foster youth with opportunities and guidance.
Brown, former senior director of marketing and public relations for The San Diego Union-Tribune, experienced five divorces and lived in five different homes between ages 3 and 28, according to her Promises2Kids website bio.
“I can relate to living out of a suitcase and in many living environments, having multiple moms, dads and siblings,” Brown said. “I had a feeling of homelessness at times as the house would feel empty after each divorce. This is why I relate so passionately to foster children who have to experience multiple parents, siblings and homes.”
Brown, with Manchester Financial Group since 2015, earned a bachelor’s degree in business marketing from the University of Notre Dame and played professional softball for the Chicago Bandits.
Promises2 Kids also announced the addition of Mia Park, editor in chief of Ranch & Coast Magazine, to its board.
Park graduated from the University of California Los Angeles and helped launch the career of Grammy award-winner Switchfoot, serving as the San Diego-based Christian rock band’s day-to-day manager and founding director of Switchfoot’s annual charitable event, the BRO-AM, a surf contest and concert, for 11 years. She has worked at Ranch & Coast since 2005.
LA Times’ Steve Padilla Offers Writing Tips at Press Club Webinar
Steve Padilla, editor of the Los Angeles Times’ Column One feature, will share his favorite writing tips at the San Diego Press Club’s next “Write Better Right Now,” a one-hour, writing webinar from 6 to 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 20. The free webinar, held over the Zoom video-conferencing platform, is open to the public.
Padilla will share his best writing tips he’s learned during his 39-year career, followed by a question-and-answer time. Moderator on April 20 will be Luis Cruz, community and public relations director, The San Diego Union-Tribune and The San Diego Union-Tribune en Español.
Drawing upon a variety of sources, ranging from Harry Potter to Shakespeare, Padilla will present a sentence-level workshop with practical tips on, among other things, anecdotes, endings, verbs and structure. The tricks Padilla will share are not designed for bad writers or beginners; rather, they’re the ones he uses every day and useful for dailies as well as long-form narratives.
Padilla joined the Times in 1987 as a police reporter but soon moved on to editing. He helped guide the Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of a botched bank robbery in North Hollywood in 1997. He’s edited local news and, before overseeing Column One, was enterprise editor on the foreign-national desk. He also serves as a writing coach and devotes his Twitter feed (@StevePadilla2) to writing technique.
Before joining the Times, Padilla was a reporter with The San Diego Union, a morning daily newspaper that merged in 1992 with the Evening Tribune, a San Diego afternoon daily newspaper. Padilla also has served as editor of Hispanic Link Weekly Report, a national newsletter on Latino affairs.
The April 20 webinar will be recorded and a web link will appear on the Press Club website for viewing at a later date. To register, visit www.sdpressclub.org. The “Write Better Right Now” webinar is part of an ongoing Press Club “Nuts and Bolts” series featuring veteran journalists sharing their favorite writing tips they’ve learned during their careers.
Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.