The shuttering of Chicago’s venerable Hoy newspaper and The New York Times en Español raises doubts about the sustainability of Spanish-language outlets. But with a potentially huge audience base and new digital formats, news in Spanish remains an attractive option.

Listen to Graciela Mochkovsky discuss the issue with Michel Martin on NPR’s “All Things Considered”

By Andrea Arzaba

Spanish-language media in the U.S. serve one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country. But like non-Hispanic media, many Spanish news outlets are struggling to find a solid financial footing in a marketplace marked by sharp contrasts: lagging ad sales despite digital innovations that save money, and unsustainable business models that can’t keep up with substantial new audiences.

This winter, the Chicago weekly Hoy became the latest major Spanish-language newspaper to fold. That followed the stunning news of the final edition of The New York Times en Español. Amid the chaos, however, innovative media projects like Radio Ambulante, on National Public Radio, are winning new audiences.

To make sense of what’s happening to Spanish-language media, we interviewed four experts – academics, journalists and entrepreneurs who today are navigating a volatile industry: Graciela Mochkofsky, director of the Spanish-language Journalism Program at City University of New York; Fernando Díaz, former editor of Hoy and now editor of The Chicago Reporter; Alfredo Carbajal, editor of Al Día Dallas, The Dallas Morning News’ Spanish-language edition; and Alejandro Maciel, editorial director at Los Angeles Times en Español. (Their answers have been edited for clarity and space.)

Graciela Mochkofsky is the Director of the Spanish-language Journalism Program at CUNY. She is also the Executive Director of the Center for Community Media.

palabra.: Are there particular factors that put Spanish-language newspapers under economic pressure in the U.S.? Or is it a general trend across all newspapers from all languages?

Mochkofsky: Everyone is struggling with the same factors – the internet, the platforms – plus demographic changes in the communities. The Spanish-language industry is still mainly serving immigrant Latin American communities, but the majority of Latinx are U.S.-born, young and bilingual.

For local Spanish-language publications owned by English-first corporations, there is the added issue that often they are not valued equally within their own companies. We counted more than 20 of these types of outlets in our research. These are Spanish-language sister newspapers of English-language publications.

Díaz: U.S. newspapers are under pressure because print advertising is under pressure. The majority of Spanish publications are weeklies, and depending on their ownership and monetization strategy, they are either very local or depend on national advertisers through preprint advertising.

The bulk of revenue for newspapers in the U.S. comes from preprint advertising, the bread and butter of the Sunday editions. In Chicago, Hoy and La Raza made most of their revenue as vehicles for preprint advertising from major retailers and big box stores like Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc. A smaller percentage of revenue came from small to medium local businesses. However, both publications have suffered. Hoy is closed. Tribune owned Hoy. ImpreMedia owns La Raza.

Carbajal: Hispanic publications are facing the same trends that the whole media industry is encountering. Demographic shifts, nuanced audience data, and [new forms of] marketing have changed [the business] dramatically. Most of the marketing is now being done online. Products and services have shifted from print to digital and social media. I would emphasize that sustainability is a key word.

Maciel: There is a crisis in newspapers, in any language. But among Spanish-language publications there is a belief, in management circles, that the way to reach Latinos is more and more content in English. I think this is a big mistake. I think they may find it easier to produce content in English, but they are neglecting a market that requires products with their own identity, in Spanish and for Spanish speakers.

Alejandro Maciel is the Editorial Director for the Los Angeles Times en Español and Hoy Los Angeles newspaper.

palabra.: Are there any successful Spanish language newspapers in the United States? What makes them successful?

Díaz: There are several successful Spanish-language newspapers in the U.S., depending on your definition of success. Al Día in Philadelphia is really nice, printed on glossy paper and bilingual. El Nuevo Herald in Miami has excellent coverage of the community and for a long time has been considered a paper of record on Cuban affairs. I would also consider El Tiempo Latino and El Pregonero, in the Washington, D.C., metro [area], very successful. Last year they were thick with advertising that would be the envy of most newspapers, regardless of language. There are likely dozens of small, weekly newspapers across the country that could also be considered successful, as they serve their community, publish on a regular schedule, and have stable management.

Mochkofsky: In our State of the Latino News Media Report, we highlighted five outstanding cases of innovation we see as models for the industry, in very different ways: Radio Ambulante, El Tímpano, Neta, Puerto Rico’s Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, and Univision News Digital. [However,] it’s important to say that Univision has all but dismantled that ambitious digital operation, and much of its talent is now migrating to Telemundo digital, which is now growing.

I think the most important way to measure success is measure impact. That matters because so many Spanish-language news outlets are the only source of information for millions of people who speak the language in the United States – at a time when Latinxs and immigrants are under political attack.

Carbajal: There have been many successful Spanish-speaking media outlets in the U.S., and they are all going through transformation. We are all trying to transition from traditional (print-based) news operations to reach wider audiences by using digital channels. Some are finding better success than others. And sometimes, success is not permanent.

We need to understand that audiences are moving, shifting, evolving. We need to be smarter. We need to understand two things: audiences and segments. Not only Hispanic audiences, but also younger ones in urban and suburban areas, and first-generation, second-generation audiences. There are even segments within the segments. Most of our decisions today are about understanding that data. We did not do that in the past. You need to be relevant for your audience, so you tailor your products by knowing your audiences.

Maciel: We have to define the concept of success. Most Spanish-language newspapers in the United States are family-owned businesses, and that often allows their owners to live comfortably. Many have strong community ties yet have limited impact on the community due to the scarcity of their resources. Among large companies with Spanish-language publications, I believe there are several successful examples, among them El Nuevo Herald, Al Día [Dallas], and the Los Angeles Times en Español.

But I also see efforts that are [or were] missing a Spanish-language identity, like The New York Times en Español, which was good but lacked a clear [separate identity,] and the Washington Post, with its limited Spanish-language editorial section.

Fernando Díaz is Editor and Publisher of The Chicago Reporter, a nonprofit investigative newsroom. Former editor of Hoy Chicago.

palabra.: Is there a magic business recipe for sustaining a successful Spanish-language newspaper in the U.S.?

Maciel: Of course there's no magic recipe. But I believe that any publication that keeps close contact with its readers is going to be successful, in English or Spanish.

Díaz: I imagine there might be, and I’m hoping we’re among the ones that figure it out. But I can’t point to one newspaper that has a magic recipe.

If you’re asking about success, we need to consider business versus journalistic success. It’s clear that a few Spanish-language newspapers in the U.S. today are punching at or above their weight. The most successful papers, in my opinion, have virtually no journalistic content and include Clarin in Miami and El Clasificado in Los Angeles. These publications have dozens of pages of ads and anyone would consider them good businesses. But they are not “newspapers” in the sense of most English-language publications, or like newspapers you’d find in any Spanish-speaking country. There is no Reforma here, or El Universal, and certainly no Proceso, like there is in Mexico.

Here’s a bad joke: The magic recipe for having a successful Spanish-language newspaper is to not have one. News organizations and entrepreneurs are increasingly turning to online and nonprofit models because the logistics and audience information needs are no longer dependent on a print publication.

Carbajal: There's nothing magic. … I think the answer is more about technological determinism and about society impacting society. The problems are not just in front of news publications. Many industries are facing the same changes: the music delivery industry, pharmaceutical, banking, travel. Everything has been transformed by innovative digital solutions. Experimentation with a purpose is called for – not just random ideas, but strategic experimentation.

Alfredo Carbajal is the Managing Editor of Al Día and serves as senior editor at The Dallas Morning News' news cabinet. He leads the Hispanic audience initiative, where he works on strategic journalism and audience growth initiatives.

palabra.: Do you know any projects out there that have a chance to make it in the market for news in Spanish?

Díaz: I think we have a tremendous opportunity to expand the universe of primarily online and nonprofit news organizations to serve Hispanic and Latinx communities in the U.S. There are only a handful of such publications now, but if we look at the explosion of nonprofit news in English, it stands to reason that similar models will work in Spanish.

This is certainly what we are trying with “LATINEXT,” a collaboration between The Chicago Reporter and Univision Chicago. We are trying to marry the deep investigative legacy of the Reporter with the large reach of Univision. It’s online, broadcast and audio. We are considering some print presence, but it will most certainly not be a “newspaper” as much as some version of publication that lends itself to print.

When I was editor of Hoy, we experimented with video, audio, interactive, and our print product. So, there is a lot of room to do “print” that doesn’t look, feel or is as expensive as newspapers.

Carbajal: We all want to grow audiences. That's the name of the game. We cannot even think we can be successful if we don’t want to grow. With digital, anybody can consume your content. That is part of the complexity.

We need to create journalism in unique segments that are relevant to different people in wider audiences.

Maciel: One of the biggest mistakes committed by large companies when they enter the Latino market is that they put into key places some people who do not know the community and who believe that the same formulas they use for the English-speaking marketplace can be used in Spanish.

Mochkofsky: Most publications are trying to figure out how to survive. Some are growing fast, such as Telemundo, which is buying more and more local stations across the country and developing a professional digital operation out of Miami. With a very different model, Radio Ambulante, in association with NPR, is also growing. And, there are new and interesting collaborations, such as the alliance between the local Univision station in Chicago and the Reporter.

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Andrea Arzaba is an independent journalist based in D.C. She holds a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University.

Éxito or Exiting? U.S. Spanish-Language Media at Crossroads

The shuttering of Chicago’s venerable Hoy newspaper and The New York Times en Español raises doubts about the sustainability of Spanish-language outlets. But with a potentially huge audience base and new digital formats, news in Spanish remains an attractive option.

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