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March 30, 2005
New Mag 'Bridgez' Gap Between Latinos and Hip-Hop
For its first issue, the bi-monthly mag will distribute 75,000 copies to newsstands in California, New Jersey, New York, Miami and Chicago. The brainchild of founders Charlie Nunez, 21, and Ariel Gonzalez, 22, the publication will cater to Latinos and center around fashion, urban music and graffiti. Bridgez was initially intended to target African American males, but Nunez and Gonzalez decided to give it a Latin twist after a test launch late last year.
Bridgez is backed by a $120,000 investment in private equity and sponsorship from CNI Productions -a private company that throws music industry parties. The Brooklyn-based mag nabbed big time clothing ads like Sean John, Republica and Azzure for its first issue. Roc-A-Fella Records and Reebok have signed on to advertise in upcoming issues.
"The same crowd that stands outside of a Daddy Yankee concert for hours in below-zero weather spending their whole weekly pay to see him, that is the crowd that will be consuming our product," Nunez revealed.
The magazine's launch coincides with Reggaeton's current rise. Universal Music Group recently launched Machete Music -a label set to exclusively release Latin music.
Posted by Igor at March 30, 2005 02:07 PM