The idea From ¡HOLA! to HELLO! On 8 September 1944, the first issue of ¡HOLA! magazine hit the newsstands. Antonio Sánchez and his wife, Mercedes Junco, founded a publi- cation in Spain that revolutionised the way en- tertainment news was covered. With its various editions and interviews with celebrities from five continents, the magazine has achieved world- wide recognition. Antonio Sánchez Gómez (1911–1984) ed- ited newspapers throughout Spain until, based in Barcelona and at the helm of La Prensa, he launched a magazine specialising in society, fash- ion, beauty and lifestyle. Together with his wife, Mercedes Junco Calderón (1920–2019), he cre- ated ¡HOLA!, which initially included the sub- title “weekly magazine of pleasantries”. Initially published inblack and whitecl, o- our photographs made their way into the pages of ¡HOLA! in 1962. Its formula caught on with the public and its circulation and distribution grew rapidly: while its circulation was 25,000 copies in 1954, by the early 1960s it had reached 250,000 copies per week. Antonio Sánchez and Mercedes guages. The brand’s global expansion began International perspective Junco wanted to use ¡HOLA! to in 2004 with the launch of HELLO! RUSSIA and create a new type of journalism, from there it has spread to all five continents. In 1988, the friendly greeting in Spanish would positive and visual, that would In addition to ¡HOLA!, the Madrid headquar- be translated into the most international lan- transport readers in the 1940s guage, English. The international growth and de- to worlds that were inaccessible ters coordinates all the editions of HELLO! velopment of ¡HOLA! has a name and surname: to them. This is what ¡HOLA! UK, ¡HOLA! MEXICO and ¡HOLA! USA. The magazine calls “the froth of life”.group also publishes the magazines ¡HOLA! Eduardo Sánchez Junco. The son of the founding Their son, Eduardo Sánchez MADRID and ¡HOLA! BARCELONA, as well couple, he inherited the family business and pro- Junco, took over and expanded as Fashion, Living and Brides in several coun- pelled the publication to become the reference the publishing group before point it is today. Sánchez Junco revolutionised passing the baton to Eduardo tries outside Spain. rs by introducing new ways of Sánchez a decade ago. More than 60 million users worldwide in- the magazine’s cove teract with ¡HOLA! and HELLO! across all presenting information, with large photo shoots platforms. and exclusive access to the world’s most impor- A decade ago, ¡HOLA! also entered the audio- tant celebrities, andby promotingtheint erna- visual field and launched ¡HOLA! TV, a cable tional expansion of ¡HOLA! with the launch of HELLO! in the United Kingdom, through which television channel that reaches more than 23 Lady Di became an iconic figure. million households in Latin America and the United States. It also launched ¡HOLA! Media, In figures an audiovisual production unit that creates a wide range of content, from short videos on cur- Today, HOLA! is published in more than sev- rent affairs to documentaries about royalty and enteen countries and in eight different lan- prominent figures in the news. 62