Our readers in south Florida will find an extra section inside this month's print issue -- a new monthly feature we're calling SF extra because it covers south Florida from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale to Miami.

Editor Mark Howard and I decided earlier this year that the region's extraordinary economic growth -- coupled with the fact that Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties make up 31% of the state's population -- deserved this extra coverage.

For now, there's only this one special section, and it will appear only in our south Florida regional edition and on newsstands in that region. It's available online for everyone at FloridaTrend.com, however. And we'd like it to be the model for enhanced regional sections for other parts of the state that the magazine will undertake if demand warrants.

Besides expanding business coverage in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, SF extra gives our advertisers an expanded opportunity to make contact with this important market. In our meetings around the U.S., especially in Atlanta, New York and Chicago, we hear that many consumer products and initiatives are being tested in hot markets like south Florida, particularly in Miami-Dade.

South Florida Associate Publisher Lori Jacoby has been busy building relationships with business leaders since opening our regional office in Plantation last July. "The dynamics here in south Florida create an interesting and thriving publishing climate, and we are in the process of expanding this office," Jacoby says.

Written and reported by Martha Brannigan, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who's now a freelancer in Coral Gables, SF extra builds on the coverage we already have in "Around the State" with insightful columns on real estate deals and projects, top south Florida executives, business issues, and meetings and events. To submit an item for consideration in SF extra, contact Martha Brannigan at Feedback@FloridaTrend.com.

I was privileged to sit on a panel of media executives at the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce's Hispanic Summit in March where I heard William Crenshaw, president of Publix, and Joe Lee, chairman of Darden Restaurants, talk about their companies' initiatives in serving Florida's growing Hispanic market. Their success in hiring minorities and reaching out to the Hispanic community stands as a model that all of us who want to stay a step ahead in business should follow.

Here at Florida Trend, we're working to do just that; for the first time since launching Florida Trend's NEXT, our teen magazine, we've printed Spanish translations. The translations are included in a special spring edition of NEXT Xtra, sponsored by the Florida Department of Education.

In past years, we've posted Spanish translations on the FloridaNEXT.com website, but this is the first time in print. Teachers and parents have told us that the translations give Spanish-speaking families access to valuable information to help their teens plan for the future. Copies of NEXT Xtra were distributed last month to more than 40,000 11th-grade Hispanic students and teachers in Florida's public high schools, along with nearly 160,000 copies in English.

Providing our readers with valuable information is always our goal here at Florida Trend, and our two "extras" this month take us another step in that direction.