Eduardo Sanchez Junco (67) died today at 4;30 am
He was the editor and president of HOLA, the magazine founded by his father.
HOLA is the most successful and well known Spanish magazine.
It was founded in Barcelona after the Spanish Civil War and started as a black & white weekly supplement of La Prensa, a boring evening newspaper.
The first issue sold 4000 copies.
Antonio Sanchez (dead in 1984) and his wife Mercedes Junco (she is 90) created the magazine (“la espuma de la vida” – the froth of life) with the old fashion system of “cut and paste” using pictures from international magazines in a time when only a few people could buy these publications.
HELLO, the English edition of HOLA was launched in 1989 and since then there are more than a dozen editions in many Latin American countries, and in Canada, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Turkey, Brazil, Greece…
The Spanish edition sells on average more than half million copies.
A low profile editor, Mr. Sanchez Junco has his office in the same building where he was living.
For many years his daily job was, cash and checkbook on hand, to buy the best freelance photographs.
He had always the “first option” of many exclusive stories and he paid very well, sometimes to publish or not to publish pictures that could be embarrassing for celebrities that correspond him with unique access.
The 20 secrets of HOLA were always:
1. Pictures are good.
2. Nice pictures are better.
3. Treat celebrities as partners, and treat them well.
4. Do “pink” not yellow journalism.
5. Weddings sell more than deaths.
6. Young more than old.
7. Prety than ugly.
8. And Kings and Queens more than anything else.
9. Show the houses, bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, gardens, swimming pools… of the rich.
10. Write long captions for each picture.
11. Avoid controversies.
12. Have a “cut-buy-and paste” newsroom.
13. Get a lot of advertising.
14. Print full color well.
15. In heavy glossy.
16. Make a lot of money.
17. Work hard.
18. Be quiet.
19. Keep the company in the family.
20. And remember that HOLA is a women’s magazine… bought ad read by the men.
His son, Eduardo Sanchez Perez, will be the next editor and publisher.
As INNOVATION’s Juan Caño wrote me today:
The grandfather did the Spanish HOLA.
The son made of HOLA an international magazine.
And now the grandson is making HOLA a multimedia global brand.
“Eduardo Sanchez Junco was to the magazine industry in Spain -says Juan Caño- what Vicente del Bosque is to the Spanish soccer. Both are example of low-profile and hard working people, and team players”