Immigrant wants to introduce Texas to Eastern Europeans.

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Immigrant wants to introduce the state to Eastern Europeans who move here through her free Russian-language newspaper

From Texas, with love

By ANASTASIA USTINOVA

2007 Houston Chronicle

When Sophia Grinblat decided to launch a free Russian-language newspaper, friends and family warned that she would never make it because there were not enough immigrant entrepreneurs to buy the ads needed to keep it going.

Today, the 5,000-circulation biweekly newspaper called Our Texas is distributed across the state. Grinblat says for the past three years her ad revenues have doubled with advertisers such as Da Camera and Houston Grand Opera regularly promoting their events to the Eastern European community.

"We see more and more American businesses interested in us," Grinblat said. "We could convince them that the Russian community likes to go out and spend money."

Our Texas, the only Russian-language newspaper of more than 200 ethnic publications statewide, has generated interest among local businesses, which see an opportunity to connect with Grinblat's audience.

Grinblat, founder and executive director of the Russian Cultural Center, said she started the newspaper because she believed there were a significant number of potential readers in Houston, even though there is little data available on the number of immigrants from Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine and other countries of the former Eastern Bloc.

The American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, estimates that by 2004 there were more than 13,000 Eastern Europeans residing here, while the community's leaders put that number as high as 100,000.

Grinblat said many businesses see the publication as a way to reach the niche market of professionals who often have graduate degrees, speak fluent English and are interested in cultural events.

"This community is very different from New York and other cities. It's more professional," said Stephen Klineberg, a Rice University sociologist who studies local immigrant groups.

"European immigrants come with a higher level of education. ... They move into high-level occupations."

The fact that the Slavic names stand out in Houston helps the paper convince advertisers that their ads are reaching Our Texas readers.

"It's kind of refreshing to see. It is very easy to measure the impact," said Leo Boucher, marketing and communications director for Da Camera, which regularly promotes its events in Our Texas.

"People with Russian names start calling, and it's quite obvious where they get the information," he added.

Creating a bond

Niche marketing in ethnic publications helps businesses to create a special bond with the consumer, said Betsy Gelb, professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at the University of Houston's Bauer College of Business.

"It's tremendously important because they are saying to the community not to just 'pay attention to me,' but, 'you are important; you are recognized,' " Gelb said.

Heather Pray, marketing manager at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which is advertising its French masterpieces exhibit from the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, said the museum's marketing department is trying to reach diverse audiences in Houston.

"Each time we have an exhibit, we are trying to reach different communities, and we've never advertised in Our Texas before," Pray said.

'It's flattering'

Nelly Kagan, an engineer who came to Houston more than 15 years ago from Minsk, Belarus, said she pays attention to the American businesses advertising in the paper.

"It's flattering" that they recognize the community, she said. "But I never thought that I should be viewed as part of some kind of a marketing target group."

Like many readers of her newspaper, Grinblat, a former engineer, arrived in Houston in the 1990s during a wave of immigration to the U.S.

She started the newspaper in 2000 as a hobby. But over the years, it became a full-time enterprise with enough revenue to support her financially as well as three paid staffers who handle reporting, ad sales and marketing.

Businesses with highly specialized services or products often start as a hobby and may grow into a full business as long as they are able to reach the consumer, said James Evans, the director of the University of Houston's Small Business Development Center.

"It all depends if you have a product that the target market wants," Evans said.

"Even though the target market for this newspaper is small, there is a demand for it."

Finding and keeping advertisers was a challenge for the publication, Grinblat said.

Eastern Europeans, who poured into Houston in the 1980s and throughout the 1990s to work for NASA, the Medical Center or oil companies, were less likely to start their own businesses.

But because of ups and downs of the local economy, some workers went off on their own, and over time Houston saw more ethnic grocery stores, restaurants and other small businesses serving the Slavic community, Grinblat said.

The newspaper publishes local news and features as well as editorials by immigrant writers, and she estimates more than 1,700 clients have advertised in Our Texas.

"We really wanted to make people feel welcome in Texas," Grinblat said. "The main purpose of the paper was to talk about the history, news and cultural life of Texas from the point of view of a person who has experience living in Eastern Europe."

Funding another project

Our Texas is also helping to fund another project that Grinblat hopes will introduce Houstonians to their Slavic neighbors.

The nonprofit Russian Cultural Center, which recently moved to a location on Bissonnet, organizes art exhibits, concerts and movie screenings, often bringing contemporary artists and musicians from Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union.

"When Americans think Russia, they immediately think vodka and the ballet Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky," Grinblat said. "It's much more complicated than that, and I want the Russian Cultural Center to represent that."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4565243.html