People en Español: The Largest Selling Hispanic Magazine In The U.S. Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary – The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Armando Correa, Editor In Chief & Monique Manso, Vice-President, Brand Sales Director, People en Español

The Mr. Magazine™ Weekend Interview

“So, the printed magazine isn’t going away; it’s one element of everything else that we’re doing. And a very important element, because I’ll tell you, what Armando is being very humble about is that celebrities call him when they want to tell their baby stories, such as when they’re pregnant; or when they want to talk about divorces; illnesses that they’re battling. From the celebrity point of view, that magazine coverage is where they want their exclusives to appear.” Monique Manso

“In the beginning it was only the print. And then we created the website; the social media, we’re really growing in social media. We also have the 50 Most Beautiful Hispanics; the 25 Most Powerful Women, so we’re events, we’re print, we’re social media. People en Español is like a force right now in the Hispanic market.” Armando Correa

People en Español is the largest selling Hispanic magazine in the United States and it’s also celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. For a project that was only given, according to its Editor in Chief, Armando Correa, a five-year lifespan, the magazine isn’t doing too bad at all. Published 11 times a year, People en Español reaches an audience of 7 million every month with its editorial mix of Hispanic and popular entertainment, fashion and beauty trends, and compelling human-interest stories. The brand’s social media footprint includes 1,320,000 followers on Twitter, over 3,960,781 “Likes” on Facebook and 1,300,000 followers on Instagram. And its live event Festival, a two-day event that has become one of the most-anticipated celebrations of Hispanic culture in the country is in its fifth year and growing annually. So, for a five-year prediction, this 20-year vet of the magazine industry is proving that the printed page, combined with all of the digital and live components together can far exceed expectations.

I recently spoke with Armando Correa, editor in chief and Monique Manso, vice-president and brand sales director about People en Español’s past, present and future. Armando has been there since the beginning and his faith in the brand has never wavered. And Monique’s passion and love for the brand is highly contagious. It’s no wonder People en Español shows no signs of resting on its laurels, as it prepares to penetrate the Latin American market even more with new extensions of the brand like Chica and Ponte Bella, in-book inserts that appear to be growing and taking on a life of their own.

So, I hope that you enjoy this Mr. Magazine™ interview with two people who work diligently and very complementary together to keep their brand at the top of its game, Armando Correa, Editor in Chief & Monique Manso, Vice-President, Brand Sales Director, People en Español.

But first the sound-bites:

Armando Correa

On whether Armando Correa ever thought the magazine would be celebrating its 20th anniversary (Armando Correa): When I came to New York in 1997, they hired me as a senior writer and I moved from Miami to New York. I sold my house and I left a steady job at the Miami Herald, the Spanish edition, and the editor of People en Español at that time told me the job was only going to be for five years. And now we’re celebrating 20 years.

On whether they’re seeing a larger Hispanic market opening up or just competition as more and more new Hispanic titles are being launched each year (Monique Manso): I wouldn’t say that we’ve seen a huge boom in the marketplace, but I do believe that there are marketers that have never been really focused on the Hispanic community before that are now suddenly targeting them and looking for an eye toward growth. But our growth has been so organic over the past 20 years that Armando and his team have grown this audience by giving the reader what they want.

On what role the print component of People en Español plays in editorial decisions (Armando Correa): People en Español is a Spanish magazine for the entire Spanish community. We’re talking about people who are English dominant, Spanish dominant, bilingual, multicultural and multigenerational. And the Spanish dominance of this audience is the unifier. We’re talking about people who are the stock in Univision and Telemundo, watching soap operas in the Spanish market in primetime: 7, 8 and 9:00 p.m.

On what role the print component of People en Español plays in editorial decisions (Monique Manso): We act as, not only the unifier, but the curator, the funnel for all of that to come together in one place, where a Latino could certainly go to multiple locations to get this information; we’re the curator of everything under one umbrella; as I said whether it’s Univision, Telemundo, Hollywood, music, or Broadway.

Monique Manso

On whether they feel the curation aspect of what the magazine does can be done anywhere else other than in the printed edition (Monique Manso): The printed edition is only one place where we deliver that information. We deliver to people at peopleenespanol.com, and certainly through our social and mobile products. Socially, our editors here at People en Español have a huge audience, as well as peopleenespanol.com, and so print is only one place to tell a part of the story. But just like everybody else who is in the celebrity-entertainment news world, we’re doing all of our breaking news and our timely information digitally.

On whether he ever imagined that People en Español would receive the accolades that it has over the years and retain such longevity (Armando Correa): I was sure that People en Español would live longer than five years. I remember when we started the magazine; we had instead of the 50 Most Beautiful, the 25 Most Beautiful and half of them were from the general market, people like Julia Roberts. Right now we have the 50 Most Beautiful, all of them Hispanic. And you can go from Jennifer Lopez to all the talent from Univision and Telemundo. And next year for 2017, we’ll celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 50 Most Beautiful franchise and we’ll celebrate with a list of 100.

On a stumbling block that they face (Monique Manso): I don’t think it’s a stumbling block, but I think it’s watching the changes in our audience. I’m a first generation Latino born in the U.S. married to a Latino male, who is a foreign-born Latino, and I have twin boys who are Latino, born in the U.S., and Armando has a very similar story to my husband, if you compare him to my husband. My twins are eight-years-old and Armando has children ranging from 13 to 5 years old. And I think the real question on everybody’s mind is what are these kids who are playing soccer on soccer fields or Lacrosse in mixed communities whose jerseys read Gomez or Gorrea; how are they going to consume media? I don’t think it’s a black and white answer.

On whether they would have been able to do any of this without the People brand attached to their title (Monique Manso): I guess we’ll never know, because that’s all we’ve ever been. But the reality is that it’s a very powerful name. We have the huge benefit of being part of the People family and being part of the Time Inc. family.

On whether we’ll be seeing a larger portion of the newsstands carrying more Hispanic magazines with all of the political and media attention Latinos have received recently (Monique Manso): I don’t know. I think that the very early closure of Glam Belleza and Cosmo Latina was probably something that made people pause and wonder just what was the right recipe for success. I mean Hola!; again, a beautiful publication, but this isn’t their first time at the rodeo. They’ve tried this before and have been unsuccessful. So, I wouldn’t be so bold as to say that I could predict that there would be more magazines. I think the folks that we have to keep our eyes on are some of those millennial offerings that are out there and really trying to develop a completely new space in the Hispanic community.

On whether they feel there is a part of the audience that Time Inc. as a whole isn’t reaching or they have everyone covered (Monique Manso): I think right now we have them covered. You’re right; the Essence Festival is the largest celebration of African American culture and that just turned 21-years-old. It happens in New Orleans every Fourth of July. We have a huge live events business coming out of Sports Illustrated. We’ve got the market cornered on the empowerment of Latino women and then the cultural celebration with Festival. Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit is an amazing experience that just passed, and now they have something for the millennial which is coming up in San Diego.

On any thoughts or worries about the upcoming election (Armando Correa): We have 27 million Hispanics right now with the right to vote and I think if that entire 27 million Hispanics go and vote on November 8th, we will be deciding who will be the next president.

On anything they would like to add (Monique Manso): From my end, I’m just really proud of continuing to be the number one brand in this country for this community, and having the most affluent readers. As the Latino community becomes more successful, they become more empowered and more affluent; we continue to serve that community.

On anything they would like to add (Armando Correa): People en Español is the number one brand in the United States and I think for the next year we’re looking for more penetration with Latin Americans. We’re working on it and you’re going to see that soon.

On what someone would find them doing if they showed up unexpectedly one evening to either of their homes (Monique Manso): I have twin boys who are eight, so for me it’s all about spending quality time with them and making them feel special in the time that they have with me, whether it’s homework or watching a movie together. But if you caught me on a weekend, you’d also find me cooking, because it’s a real passion of mine and something very core to the Latino culture as well.

On what someone would find them doing if they showed up unexpectedly one evening to either of their homes (Armando Correa): For me, taking care of the kids at night and during the weekends, and between 9:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., I write. I published my first fiction novel, and I’m still writing. That’s my therapy, some people meditate; I write.

On what keeps each of them up at night (Monique Manso): What keeps me up at night is how to best serve this community. If you’ve read the press recently, whether it’s around diversity in the workplace or Black Lives Matter; Corporate America, depending on how you look at it, can be struggling at times with how to be inclusive of our multicultural communities as a whole.

On what keeps each of them up at night (Armando Correa): I am very competitive and I am always trying to get all of the exclusives for the Hispanic market. Those exclusives have to be in People en Español. I’m fighting all of the time for all of the exclusives. People call me when they’re getting engaged or pregnant, and I want to know all of the exclusives, the biggest ones and the smallest ones.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Armando Correa, Editor in Chief & Monique Manso, Vice-President, Brand Sales Director, People en Español.

Samir Husni: Armando, did you ever in your wildest dreams think People en Español would be celebrating its 20th anniversary?

Armando Correa: When I came to New York in 1997, they hired me as a senior writer and I moved from Miami to New York. I sold my house and I left a steady job at the Miami Herald, the Spanish edition, and the editor of People en Español at that time told me the job was only going to be for five years. And now we’re celebrating 20 years.

Since the beginning I have believed in the market; I have believed in the project; and I have believed in Time Inc. and People en Español.

Samir Husni: This year alone we saw two new titles launching, Cara Mia from Argentina, and Hola! Made in USA; are you seeing a much bigger market for Hispanic magazines or are you just seeing more competition?

Armando Correa: It is a big market right now; we’re at 55 million Hispanics in the States. And we’re not exactly competing with Hola!

Monique Manso: No, we don’t view them as our competitor. I wouldn’t say that we’ve seen a huge boom in the marketplace, but I do believe that there are marketers that have never been really focused on the Hispanic community before that are now suddenly targeting them and looking for an eye toward growth. But our growth has been so organic over the past 20 years that Armando and his team have grown this audience by giving the reader what they want.

Hola! is one of the newest launches that you’re talking about, but two years ago we had Glam Belleza launch and Cosmo Latina, both of which folded and I think that they were beautiful products, but weren’t really studying their audience to see where that organic growth was coming from.

So, we play in a very different space; everything that we do at People en Español is through the filter of celebrity and entertainment. We are an entertainment news publication, we’re not a fashion magazine and we’re not a lifestyle publication; although we do incorporate some of that. So we do live in a unique space.

Samir Husni: Armando, in both celebrating 20 years and looking into the future, we know that the entire entertainment field has exploded, from TV to the Internet to social media. What role does a printed People en Español play in your editorial decisions of what to showcase in the magazine?

Armando Correa: People en Español is a Spanish magazine for the entire Spanish community. We’re talking about people who are English dominant, Spanish dominant, bilingual, multicultural and multigenerational. And the Spanish dominance of this audience is the unifier. We’re talking about people who are the stock in Univision and Telemundo, watching soap operas in the Spanish market in primetime: 7, 8 and 9:00 p.m.

Monique Manso: So, we’re the only place where they can get their Univision talent news and their Telemundo talent news and it could live side-by-side with stories from Hollywood and those celebrities that are coming, whether it’s the Eva Longoria’s of the world; the Salma Hayek’s, or the J Lo’s of the world. And that’s coupled with music that ranges from Mexican-regional to global pop, such as what Ricky Martin does.

We act as, not only the unifier, but the curator, the funnel for all of that to come together in one place, where a Latino could certainly go to multiple locations to get this information; we’re the curator of everything under one umbrella; as I said whether it’s Univision, Telemundo, Hollywood, music, or Broadway. You’ll see all of the coverage we’ve just done of Lin-Manuel Miranda, and that all comes with a very different point of view, because the editors of People en Español aren’t just telling the stories that a Hollywood Reporter can tell; their doing it with the DNA of the Hispanic community. So, our readers expect to see a very different side; a very personal side; a very culturally-relevant side of those stories that they wouldn’t get anywhere else.

Armando Correa: People en Español is defined by the access we have to the celebrities. We open the conversation with the celebrities and the audience trusts us.

Samir Husni: Do you think the printed magazine can be replaced when it comes to delivering that curation aspect, or do you feel that as long as we have that audience we will continue to have the printed edition of People en Español?

Monique Manso: The printed edition is only one place where we deliver that information. We deliver to people at peopleenespanol.com, and certainly through our social and mobile products. Socially, our editors here at People en Español have a huge audience, as well as peopleenespanol.com, and so print is only one place to tell a part of the story. But just like everybody else who is in the celebrity-entertainment news world, we’re doing all of our breaking news and our timely information digitally.

We also launched a product a few years ago in-book called Chica, which is an English-language insert and we did that because in studying our audience we realized that about 30 percent of our audience were millennials, so when Armando went on the road with the editors to talk to the audience about the redesign, he heard more and more from this millennial audience not to change a thing about their magazine; don’t change a thing about peopleenespanol.com, but they wanted more content, which would appeal to all of the aspects of their millennial lifestyle. And so we launched Chica in-book, but what you will see happen over the course of the next several months is you’ll see it really evolve into a much bigger digital play that will be predominantly English, in some cases bilingual.

The same will happen with another part of our brand called Ponte Bella, which is becoming more and more successful with that millennial audience online. So, the printed magazine isn’t going away; it’s one element of everything else that we’re doing. And a very important element, because I’ll tell you, what Armando is being very humble about is that celebrities call him when they want to tell their baby stories, such as when they’re pregnant; or when they want to talk about divorces; illnesses that they’re battling. From the celebrity point of view, that magazine coverage is where they want their exclusives to appear.

Armando Correa: In the beginning it was only the print. And then we created the website; the social media, we’re really growing in social media. We also have the 50 Most Beautiful Hispanics; the 25 Most Powerful Women, so we’re events, we’re print, we’re social media. People en Español is like a force right now in the Hispanic market.

Samir Husni: Armando, when you left your full-time job at the Miami Herald and People en Español told you it was only going to be a five-year project, did you ever dream that, one; you would be selected by myself and min as one of the hottest launches of the last 30 years, and two; that you would not only be celebrating 20 years, but looking forward to the next 20?

Armando Correa: I was sure that People en Español would live longer than five years. I remember when we started the magazine; we had instead of the 50 Most Beautiful, the 25 Most Beautiful and half of them were from the general market, people like Julia Roberts. Right now we have the 50 Most Beautiful, all of them Hispanic. And you can go from Jennifer Lopez to all the talent from Univision and Telemundo. And next year for 2017, we’ll celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 50 Most Beautiful franchise and we’ll celebrate with a list of 100.

Samir Husni: What do you see as a major stumbling block that you’ll have to face and how will you overcome it?

Monique Manso: I don’t think it’s a stumbling block, but I think it’s watching the changes in our audience. I’m a first generation Latino born in the U.S. married to a Latino male, who is a foreign-born Latino, and I have twin boys who are Latino, born in the U.S., and Armando has a very similar story to my husband, if you compare him to my husband. My twins are eight-years-old and Armando has children ranging from 13 to 5 years old.

And I think the real question on everybody’s mind is what are these kids who are playing soccer on soccer fields or Lacrosse in mixed communities whose jerseys read Gomez or Gorrea; how are they going to consume media? I don’t think it’s a black and white answer. I believe we’re still living in a time where the average age of these young women who are reading our magazine and migrating to the U.S. came when they were 13, if they were foreign born. So, a lot of their DNA; a lot of who they were became already established, and they’re fully bilingual and they’re still really immersed in living in two cultures.

I don’t think this is a trip through the rose garden, but I do think that if anybody has proven themselves in the way that they can keep a finger on the pulse of what their audience wants, it’s this editorial team. And so they’re continuing to do that.

Twenty years ago, Armando’s predecessor may have rolled over and said are you crazy? I would never put an English language insert in my magazine, and here’s Armando 18 years later not only putting an English language insert in, but also developing an extension of the brand online in English and bilingual to give more content. And I think that over time we’ll continue to measure the appetite for that. I don’t think it’s one size fits all, because we’re never going to alienate our core audience, and even the youngest millennial, the 18 to the 24-year-olds, have said to us that Spanish makes them feel an emotional connection.

And the stories that we tell are emotional stories, whether it’s the birth of a new baby; a divorce; a human success story; these are all very emotional stories and there’s something attached to them that we appeal to.

Armando Correa: I remember when I talked to Benjamin Bratt during the ‘90s at the beginning of the magazine, he told me that when his mom came from Peru in the ‘60s and ‘70s, they tried to be integrated in the United States, but it was completely different than it is right now. And she said to him that he had to have an American name and he had to forget Spanish; he had to be fully integrated in this society if he wanted to be respected in the U.S.

Today, my children speak Spanish; Monique’s children speak Spanish, because now Hispanics are a force in the United States. We’re 55 million and we can keep our culture and be integrated in this society.

Monique Manso: The other thing that I wanted to talk about, and it’s sort of couched in a franchise that we’re focused on and developing is our 25 Most Influential Women franchise. This is a piece that started in-book in the magazine, where every editor of People en Español would celebrate the 25 Most Influential Women and year after year we’d look at very similar celebrities and entertainers, musical acts, etc. As time has gone on, we realized that our readers are incredibly focused on their careers. Never before in the history of Hispanic women have they been this successful and they’re really starting to shape the labor force for two reasons, one is pure volume; numbers and growth in this country, and the other is because they don’t come from the kind of financial stability that allows them to drop out of the labor force, so life-changes like babies and marriage or having to care for an elderly parent or parents; those two things, coupled with their success is really helping them to shape the labor force.

But interestingly, what we’ve learned after much research is that they don’t feel completely at home in their own homes because they may be more successful than anybody in their family and they don’t feel completely in place at work because of gender biases and racial biases, not malicious, just very subtle, and they feel like they don’t bring their true selves to work. So, again, that’s an example of how we show them (our readers) that success story.

And now with the 25 Most Influential franchise, we’re actually creating workshops and consumer-facing experiences where we bring females to speak about careers and entrepreneurship and empowerment. And many of these celebrities who show them another side of themselves as businesspeople, not just as the beautiful woman they see on the screen.

So, again, those are very emotional connections for women who are living in a predominantly English-language society at work during the day, but come home to a very culturally centered, relevant home.

Samir Husni: Would you be able to do any of this without the People brand attached to the title of the magazine?

Monique Manso: I guess we’ll never know, because that’s all we’ve ever been. But the reality is that it’s a very powerful name. We have the huge benefit of being part of the People family and being part of the Time Inc. family. When you look at Hispanics across all of Time Inc. by the way, just before you get to our third party partners and before you layer in the data-driven offerings that we have now through our new acquisition, Viant, we’re over 14 million Hispanics, so when you look at the Hispanic audience and at People magazine, Real Simple, In Style and Health; and at People en Español and many others here at Time Inc., you tie it altogether; we’ve go the largest Hispanic audience out there, bigger than Univision and Telemundo, and certainly bigger than any traditional Hispanic competitor in the field.

There are a lot of benefits in being a part of the Time Inc. family. We were born out of the People name; I’m sure you know the history and the story, Samir. During the tragic death of Selena, People covered the story and actually put Selena on the cover and that was way before my time here, but Armando still remembers the numbers. It sold over a million copies and everyone realized that this was an audience that was important. And that was way before the news that we saw in the last census.

Armando Correa: When they created People en Español, at the same time they created Teen People, but Teen People is gone and 18 years later we’re here celebrating our 20th anniversary. And Teen People grew faster than us. I remember we started with 120,000, and they went from 100,000 to 250,000, from 250,000 to a half million. And then, unfortunately, they disappeared a year later.

Samir Husni: I think they hit 1.6 million before they died.

Armando Correa: Exactly.

Samir Husni: Today, there is a lot of attention toward the Latino audience, whether it’s from the political right, left, or from the media; do you expect to see more magazines coming to the marketplace that will be integrated with all of the general interest magazines on the newsstand? Are we going see a bigger chunk of the newsstands carrying Hispanic-focused magazines?

Monique Manso: I don’t know. I think that the very early closure of Glam Belleza and Cosmo Latina was probably something that made people pause and wonder just what was the right recipe for success. I mean Hola!; again, a beautiful publication, but this isn’t their first time at the rodeo. They’ve tried this before and have been unsuccessful. So, I’m skeptical as well as to whether or not it’s going to happen. It’s also imported. There is no original content in Hola! Latinos are not stupid, so to give them a European-based publication with repurposed content that they can find on the web time and time again before it even hits the newsstand, I don’t think is the right way to go either.

So, I wouldn’t be so bold as to say that I could predict that there would be more magazines. I think the folks that we have to keep our eyes on are some of those millennial offerings that are out there and really trying to develop a completely new space in the Hispanic community. And they’re starting small, but with very good products and quite frankly, those are the kinds of folks that Armando and I are most interested in partnering with, because the other stuff; we have that down pat, right? Many people come to us looking for the scale that they can’t get on their own and we’re looking for ways to continue to develop new offerings, so I’m more focused on those kinds of spaces.

Armando Correa: And all these new products, they are concentrating on part of the market; we’re seeing the market as a whole.

Monique Manso: We’re branching out a lot in the digital space; as I said, with Ponte Bella and definitely Chica, keep your eye on those two, for sure. The other place is in the live events space. I told you about the 25 Most Influential Women experience, which I believe in addition to this consumer facing day of empowerment, careerism and professionalism can become so much more through E-learning series, networking events, speakers, bureaus and things like that.

And then in Hispanic Heritage month, we’ve created, quite frankly, the only one of its kind and the largest of its kind; a curated content experience with our Festival. So, there are amazing cultural events out there, such as Fiesta Broadway, and they are all phenomenal sampling opportunities. There are also amazing musical experiences out there, whether it’s the iHeartRadio Tour, etc., and those are all just concert experiences, but are phenomenal.

But what we’ve done is really bring together an entire experience during Hispanic heritage month that not only entertains, even though we’re People en Español, but in addition to entertaining, we inspire and inform and motivate. So, you’ll see us develop that more and more over time. It’s two full days of activities and we just celebrated our fifth year of this experience. So, five years later, again, many of our competitors have tried to launch live events’ experiences and they haven’t made it past year one or two. We bring the best and the brightest of Hollywood and Hispanic television, so whether it’s Wilmer Valderramam, who was there to inspire and motivate people to vote, to the most popular Univision and Telemundo talent; really, this live event experience is something that we continue to grow and that generates even more digital and social media content. And that’s really the space that we’re focused on.

Samir Husni: When we look at Time Inc. as a whole; the Essence Jazz Festival is one of the largest in the world, in terms of live events that’s hosted by a brand. And then you are doing live events and Time and Fortune are doing something on an international basis. From your experience and your work at Time Inc., is there any segment of the audience that you’re not reaching? Or do you feel you have it all covered?

Monique Manso: I think right now we have them covered. You’re right; the Essence Festival is the largest celebration of African American culture and that just turned 21-years-old. It happens in New Orleans every Fourth of July. We have a huge live events business coming out of Sports Illustrated. We’ve got the market cornered on the empowerment of Latino women and then the cultural celebration with Festival. Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit is an amazing experience that just passed, and now they have something for the millennial which is coming up in San Diego.

And then People is launching the Pro Beauty Tour and that will be focused on beauty, beauty, beauty. And EW has launched Pop Fest, which is all about pop culture. So, I think we’re pretty covered right now. I’m sure we’ll think of more. With Tasty we just did a breakfast event; it’s one of our new digital launches. Everything from epicurean to empowerment to sports to the Latino community to the African American community; we’ve got it all. And it’s becoming a real growing business for us.

Samir Husni: As we head toward electing a new president, any thoughts or worries about the upcoming election?

Armando Correa: We have 27 million Hispanics right now with the right to vote and I think if that entire 27 million Hispanics go and vote on November 8th, we will be deciding who will be the next president.

Monique Manso: Those Hispanics who don’t understand their rights or feel empowered to vote or feel as though their vote doesn’t matter; that’s the most important thing for us. It’s why we made it such a crucial part of our message during Festival on October 15th and 16th, because we feel the responsibility to use our power to convene; the power that Armando has to convene Latinos in such large numbers either through the printed page, through social media, or through digital. It’s our responsibility to use that power to convene to make them all understand how important their vote is.

Samir Husni: Is there anything that either of you would like to add?

Monique Manso: From my end, I’m just really proud of continuing to be the number one brand in this country for this community, and having the most affluent readers. As the Latino community becomes more successful, they become more empowered and more affluent; we continue to serve that community. We’ve got more moms, more homeowners, more millennials, than any of our competitors out there and I would just say that the listening tool that our editors have used has led to our success, and I think you’ll just continue to see us listen.

Armando Correa: People en Español is the number one brand in the United States and I think for the next year we’re looking for more penetration with Latin Americans. We’re working on it and you’re going to see that soon.

Samir Husni: If I showed up unexpectedly one evening to your home what would I find you doing; reading a magazine; reading your iPad; watching television; having a glass of wine; or something else?

Monique Manso: I have twin boys who are eight, so for me it’s all about spending quality time with them and making them feel special in the time that they have with me, whether it’s homework or watching a movie together. But if you caught me on a weekend, you’d also find me cooking, because it’s a real passion of mine and something very core to the Latino culture as well. That’s me, but Armando just released a book, so I’m sure you’ll catch him writing. (Laughs)

Armando Correa: For me, taking care of the kids at night and during the weekends, and between 9:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., I write. I published my first fiction novel, and I’m still writing. That’s my therapy, some people meditate; I write.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Monique Manso: What keeps me up at night is how to best serve this community. If you’ve read the press recently, whether it’s around diversity in the workplace or Black Lives Matter; Corporate America, depending on how you look at it, can be struggling at times with how to be inclusive of our multicultural communities as a whole.

And so I think it’s really important that people in roles such as mine, which is the brand lead for People en Español and in such an important company like Time Inc., really sort of wave the baton loudly and proudly in front of everybody to ask, are we listening; are we including? And if we are to speak on behalf of our marketers to the community out there who is shopping for the products of our partners and who is watching their movies and driving their cars; let’s make sure that our inner organization looks like the external.

Armando Correa: I am very competitive and I am always trying to get all of the exclusives for the Hispanic market. Those exclusives have to be in People en Español. I’m fighting all of the time for all of the exclusives. People call me when they’re getting engaged or pregnant, and I want to know all of the exclusives, the biggest ones and the smallest ones.

Monique Manso: Yes, he’s about breaking the story fast and making sure that we’re the only ones to break it.

Armando Correa: And that’s my fight every night. At the same time, we run a business and I want to be in budget and those are some of the things that keep me up at night.

Samir Husni: Thank you.