Victor Cuenca, owner of Providence en Español, plans to introduce a glossy magazine next month to increase readership among young Latinos. The magazine, Click en Español, will focus on art and entertainment and use local models on its cover.

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy Bill Murphy

PROVIDENCE — After immigration agents charged into a textile plant in New Bedford in March, Victor H. Cuenca, the publisher of Providence en Español, rushed to witness an incident that was to occupy the cover of the Spanish-language weekly for the next three editions.

Three days later, however, Cuenca’s byline did not appear above either story on the raid that dominated the March 9 issue.

The newspaper printed 5,000 extra copies of that issue, but on the day of the raid, Cuenca did not even carry a notebook to the factory, delegating that duty to two staff writers, Marisabel Brito and Roberto Taboada, and a staff photographer.

In the early days of the tabloid, Cuenca did not have that luxury.

In August 1999, when he founded the newspaper, Cuenca served as publisher, writer and photographer. His wife, Vivian, edited his copy, and when the first editions came off the presses, he had to borrow a friend’s van to deliver them.

“It was pure, beautiful chaos,” said Carmella Beroth, the newspaper’s first employee and now its vice president of regional sales.

Although still a modest operation, Providence en Español has come a long way in eight years.

The headquarters has moved twice since it occupied a section of Cuenca’s North Providence home, where a walk-in closet moonlighted as the newsroom.

Last summer, the newspaper left its crowded office in a Seekonk industrial park and moved into a 3,000-square-foot space in an historical building on Eddy Street, with a carpeted conference room overlooking Westminster Street.

The newspaper prints 25,000 copies, and a 2003 review by Certified Audit of Circulations reported that 24,783 copies of the 40-page publication are scooped up every week, up from an estimated 50-percent return rate in its first year.

In all, the newspaper boasts of 70,000 regular readers, assuming that 3.6 people share every issue, taking turns scanning the local news stories and wire reports from Latin America every Friday.

In an industry that has suffered declining revenue and painful consolidations, Providence en Español says it has seen steadily rising ad sales.

It generated $234,000 in 2000, its first full year in operation. By 2005, the newspaper, distributed free in 600 locations, had more than $500,000 in revenue, according to Beroth.

This year, the weekly hopes to bring in $750,000, and its parent company, Hispanic Media Publishing Inc., is projecting its first $1-million year. (The company also acts as an ad agency for businesses trying to reach the Latino market.)

For two years, Providence en Español has hosted a booth at the Business Expo, pitching to potential advertisers from red couches set up beneath a TV screen flashing statistics about the growing Latino communities in Providence, Woonsocket and Central Falls.

As major metropolitan newspapers cut spending, Hispanic Media says it is pouring its profits into the company.

Next month, it plans to launch a glossy, color magazine to increase its readership among young Latinos. Focused on art and entertainment, its cover reserved for local models, Click en Español is designed to attract a new set of advertisers to the Latino market.

It will include restaurant reviews and features on fashion, technology and the club scene in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. There will be photographs of bikini-clad undergraduates (the first photo shoot featured a Rhode Island College student showing off her tan in Kennedy Plaza and along the river downtown), and profiles of successful local Latinos.

Some stories will appear in English, others in Spanish, in recognition of the growing bilingual Latino population.

Interspersed with those features, company officials say, will be enough ads from cell phone makers, clothing shops and salons to cover the production costs and guarantee a healthy profit. (The monthly magazine will sell for only $1, with proceeds kept by the shop owners peddling the publication.)

Cuenca has reason to be optimistic.

Latinos are the largest minority group in the country, and Spanish-language media, including newspapers, has been booming along with that population growth.

In 2005, revenue from Spanish-language media jumped 11 percent, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Last year, it grew another 9 percent, to $3.8 billion.

A database of 200 Spanish-language publications — maintained by the Newspaper Association of America and available at www.nichevoyager.com — has grown quickly over the past five years.

“It’s definitely taking off,” said Diane Hockenberry, the association’s director of audience development.

“The publications that service those populations have the opportunity to grow at pretty high rates,” according to Colby Atwood, a newspaper analyst and the president of Borrell Associates Inc., a research firm in Virginia. “Businesses are starting to see that those populations are viable targets, and it’s not just Hispanic businesses, but mainstream businesses as well.”

In Rhode Island, local businesses are adopting that strategy, too.

Latin nights have popped up at dance clubs, and department stores have begun translating their public announcements into Spanish.

Hispanic Media Publishing has been one of the main beneficiaries of the trend, which has also bolstered the visibility of the Hispanic Yellow Pages, the WPMZ 1110 AM radio station and RI Mix, a Spanish-language, online clearinghouse for arts and culture information.

“It’s finally happening, something we’ve been predicting,” said Juana Horton, chairwoman of the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce of Rhode Island. Providence en Español, she added, is “a pretty solid business.” (The newspaper is a member of the chamber.)

National and regional retailers are also eager to appeal to Latinos.

Providence en Español has sold ads to Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Shaw’s and Bank of America, and the company says it hopes many of those customers will also buy space in Click en Español.

“I used to have clients who wouldn’t give us the time of day just three years ago,” said Beroth, the regional sales manager. Today, she said, they realize “everybody’s dollar is green.”

Hispanic Media Publishing, however, faces challenges.

The company has been unable to secure any loans, Cuenca said, and so the new magazine will rely entirely on the Providence en Español staff and freelance writers.

The newspaper has only two full-time reporters and three ad salesmen.

To pay for the inaugural issue, Hispanic Media Publications had to delay publication for several weeks to accommodate two advertisers.

The company tells national advertisers that Providence is nearly one-third Latino, but some still insist that all Latinos live in California, Texas and Miami.

In recent years, two competitors — El Latino Expreso and El Planet Providence — have challenged Providence en Español’s market share.

“It’s really tough,” Cuenca said. “We’re constantly in need of cash.”

But pointing to ads from Nordstrom and downtown, high-end clothing boutiques in recent issues, Cuenca said the prospects for his young media company are bright.

“The mainstream news are decreasing their readership,” he said. “For Latino papers, it’s almost the opposite.”

bgedan@projo.com