La Prensa! La Prensa!
There was an article in Sunday’s Omaha World-Herald about the ethnic press feeling the sting of the recession and drop in ad revenue. I had read in the past that ethnic newspapers have been doing much better than mainstream newspapers over the last several years, expanding while the big ones were contracting. They generally have much smaller, but tighter, markets, and it makes sense. Who wouldn’t want information about the local community in their native language? The article mentions several ethnic newspapers from larger markets like San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, who have greater immigrant populations. Some have gone under, and others have gone to online only publication. I’m sure part of it is the natural ebb and flow of the market, and there are always those businesses that are just barely solvent.
My favorite quote: “Additionally, many ethnic publications are run like nonprofit organizations that operate on shoestring budgets with a strong commitment to serving their communities.”
Which brings me to the local situation. I understand that eastern Nebraska is not pequeño Mexico, but I feel like there is sufficient market size for some Hispanic media. And that’s not to say there is none (oh, the sweet double negative). But El Perico out of Omaha and Buenos Días Nebraska in Grand Island are about all there is. I would be glad to link to El Perico‘s website, but I don’t think they have one. And Buenos Dias‘ amounts to scanned images of the print newspaper. I’ve heard that just one man runs the whole newspaper, which is quite an accomplishment. There used to be Hispanos Unidos, but they stopped publication last year. I have also seen a small magazine floating around El Centro’s office called Mi Gente Latina that just recently started printing. Good luck to them.
But what I wonder is if there is enough of an online presence in the Latino community in Nebraska to do online publishing in addition to print. There are several programs out there like Drupal, Joomla or WordPress that greatly simplify online publications, as well as posting ads and collecting revenue. I want to know if it would be possible to profitably run a Spanish hybrid online/print media outfit in this area. It could run with a small reporting staff, or even encourage articles, stories, etc. from the Hispanic community at large and split the profit with the author.
I’m rambling now, so I’ll wind it down. It’s just an idea that has come up in the office on several occasion, and the article prompted me to write about it. I would be interested to hear what other people in this community think about the idea.
