The Recording Academy and The Latin Recording Academy Joint Statement Regarding Israel "Cachao" López

March 22, 2008

"Cuban American bassist and composer Israel "Cachao" López was one of the most important figures in Latin music. A GRAMMY® winner and two-time Latin GRAMMY® winner, he is credited with creating mambo music and bringing it to popularity.

His larger-than-life spirit revealed itself every time he performed and his unadulterated love and passion for music was evident as he remained active until very recently. The music industry has lost a true pioneer, but his contributions to Latin music are everlasting.

His sense of humor and beatific smile will be sorely missed, and our deepest sympathies go out to all who knew and loved him and his music."

Neil Portnow Gabriel Abaroa President/CEO President
The Recording Academy® The Latin Recording Academy®

Suorce: The Recording Academy

Israel+Cachao+López
Grammy
Latin+Grammy
Mambo
Music
Latin+Music

Univision Special 'TV Digital: ¿Cuánto Sabes?' to Inform Viewers about Upcoming Switch to Digital Television

The Univision Television Network announced its second digital television special, "TV Digital: ¿Cuánto Sabes?" (Digital TV: How Much Do You Know?), informing viewers of the various aspects of the transition to digital television in 2009 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The half-hour special will air on Saturday, March 22, at 4:30 pm ET/PT (3:30 pm Central).

Hosted by network personalities Fernando Arau, host of Univision's number one morning talk, news and entertainment program and Carmen Dominicci, award-winning reporter of the network's weekly primetime magazine show "Aquí y Ahora", the special will review in simple and easy to understand terminology the difference between the current analog and upcoming digital systems.

The show will also feature Univision personalities including Carlos Calderon, host of Galavisión Television Network's hit interactive-music show "Acceso Máximo" (All Access), Tony Dandrades, entertainment reporter for Univision's top-rated news magazine "Primer Impacto (First Impact) and Marta "Martica" Rodriguez, popular personality on Univision's entertainment news and gossip fest "El Gordo y La Flaca" (The Scoop and The Skinny), who will explain the benefits of digital broadcasting, the importance of applying for a digital-to-analog converter box coupon and demonstrate, step-by-step, how to properly install a converter box.

Also appearing in the special are Spanish-language television icon and host of Univision's hit talk show "Cristina", Cristina Saralegui, who will be interviewing Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition; their discussion will focus on the importance of the digital conversion and who will be affected by this change.

In October 2007 Univision launched a massive multi-platform campaign to educate the country's Hispanic population on the upcoming congressionally mandated transition from analog to digital television broadcasting (DTV). According to a study released by Nielsen in February, nearly 17 percent of Hispanic households could be left without full power television service if the transition happened today.

"Univision, as the first broadcaster to implement a comprehensive, multi-platform DTV education campaign, has taken a leadership role in the DTV education efforts to ensure that all Hispanics in the U.S. and Puerto Rico are appropriately informed about this complex and important issue," said Cesar Conde, executive vice president and chief strategy officer, Univision Communications Inc. "These efforts are part of our ongoing commitment to inform and empower the Hispanic community."

Source: PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE

Univision TV+Digital Viewers Television Marketing Hispanic

Microsoft Responds to Rise in Hispanic Small-Business Ownership

REDMOND, Wash., March 18 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- Meeting the needs of a diverse marketplace, Microsoft Corp. has launched a bilingual Spanish-English version of Office Accounting Express 2008 and Office Accounting Professional 2008 in the United States, providing bilingual functionality for the growing Hispanic small-business community. Over the next 10 years, Hispanic-owned businesses will be the fastest-growing component of the business end-user market in the United States, and their rate of growth is projected to be almost three times that of overall U.S. firms.(1)

"Small businesses recognize that managing their finances is a vital task that can be overwhelming," said Jose Pinero, director of Diversity and Multicultural Marketing for Microsoft. "Products such as Office Accounting 2008 help small businesses by offering easy, affordable and comprehensive solutions to effectively perform everyday financial tasks in both Spanish and English."

Office Accounting Express 2008 in Spanish is completely free and is designed to help sole proprietors, startups and home-based businesses manage everyday financial tasks such as tracking income and expenses, sending quotes and invoices, and running reports. The software integrates with additional third-party services, which will enable businesses to harness the power of the Internet to sell products online on eBay, send invoices and receive payments electronically, process payroll, run credit reports, work with their accountant, and more -- all from within their accounting application.

"We operate everything with Office Accounting Express," said Arturo Vela, owner of Visible Salon, a company dedicated to the sales and marketing of beauty products. "We make payments to salons and invoice the distributor in New York; we control our warehouse inventory and manage our balance sheet. It's impressive that Microsoft offers this software for no cost at all."

Office Accounting Professional is an even more robust solution for more established businesses and is available for an estimated retail price of $199.95 (U.S.).(2) Both editions are available for download in English (http://www.ideawins.com) and Spanish (http://www.ideawins.com/espanol) in the United States.

According to recent studies, by 2010, there are expected to be 3.2 million Hispanic firms generating $465 billion in revenues.(3) Hispanic-owned firms are continuing to grow at higher rates than the average U.S. firms, and they are expecting higher growth in revenue and labor force than non-Hispanic firms.(4) Demographic trends point to an even greater Hispanic business presence in the future.

"We know that the U.S. small-business market is very diverse, and we want to make sure that Office Accounting 2008 meets the needs of all small businesses in the U.S. That is why we now offer the product in Spanish to help the over 2 million Hispanic small businesses based in the U.S.,"(5) Pinero said.

More than 2 million people downloaded Office Accounting 2007 last year, and the feedback provided by these customers helped influence the 2008 version. Office Accounting 2008 offers many innovative features to help manage a small business:

-- Easy to learn and use
-- Works just like Word, Excel and Outlook
-- Get started in minutes with wizards that import data
-- Sell on eBay in minutes directly from Office Accounting

-- Save time managing everyday tasks
-- Share and reuse data across Word, Excel and Outlook
-- Manage customers and vendors, employees and inventory
-- Pay bills, track expenses, send invoices and bank online

-- Get a complete view of the business
-- Run customizable reports to keep track of business development
-- See all important data in one glance with the Digital Dashboard
-- Get reminders of important deadlines, pending bills and overdue invoices


(1) Latino-Business Barometer United States, 2005, RDA Global
(2) Estimated retail price. Prices vary by reseller.
(3) Small Business Administration, HispanTelligence, 2004
(4) Latino-Business Barometer United States, 2005, RDA Global
(5) U.S. Census Bureau, 2005

Soure: PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE

Microsoft Bilingual Spanish Multicultural+marketing Marketing Hispanic Technology