Spain’s flagship daily newspaper El País has launched a digital edition focused on reaching the 42 million Spanish speakers in the US—Latin American and Spanish immigrants, US-born Spanish speakers, nonheritage language learners, and any other news consumers who want to get their US news in Spanish. For years and with various levels of success, US news outlets have tried to engage Latinos and Spanish-language audiences with new bureaus abroad, Latino-focused verticals, new products, bilingual storytelling, and/ or translations.
About 24% of all US Latino adults prefer to get their news in Spanish compared to 51% in English, according to the Pew Research Center. That number jumps to 47% for Latino immigrants and drops to 3% for US-born Latinos. Half (50%) get their news from Hispanic news outlets at least sometimes.
“There isn’t a single ‘Latino’ reader, just like there is no single ‘Latino’ vote, nor is there a single way to approach these readers,” says Jan Martínez Ahrens, director of El País América.
“We can’t be so presumptuous as to believe that we are going to interest everyone. We will interest some. We’re going to get to know these readers and they’re going to get to know us, too.”
