Days ago at the Knight Media Forum, I shared the stage with some of the most influential voices shaping Spanish-language discourse in the United States today: Jorge Ramos, the most recognized Spanish-language journalist in the country; and Carlos Eduardo Espina, a digital creator with millions of followers across social platforms. Alicia Menendez, host of The Weeknight on MSN Now, moderated the conversation.
Early in the discussion, Alicia posed a question that stayed with me:
“Everyone else on this stage is a storyteller who has become a micro-media owner — but you’ve spent your career understanding this market from the business side. Who are today’s Spanish-language media consumers, and how do they differ from Latinos who consume news in English?”
On stage, my response had to be brief. But the question deserved more than a soundbite. After the forum, I returned to the research, archives, and historical analysis that shaped the book Live from America. What follows is a deeper answer.
America celebrates Spanish-speaking success in music. Streaming platforms and advertisers are investing billions in Spanish-speaking sports and entertainment. But when it comes to newsrooms serving 65 million Hispanics in the United States, the infrastructure has quietly been dismantled. Let’s explore this shift that began around 2012.
Spanish speaking news infrastructure in 2000:
Population: 35 million Hispanics lived in the U.S. The overwhelming majority watched the nightly news on Univision and Telemundo, read local newspapers, and listened to local Spanish-language radio. Newsrooms were robust, investigative, and powerful. In 2002 Telemundo was sold to NBC Universal for $2.1 Billion. In 2007 Univision was sold for $13 Billion to private equity firms lead by Hain Saban. Twitter and Facebook began to significantly disrupt the news media landscape between 2006 and 2009, transitioning from personal networking sites to dominant, real-time information distributors that challenged the traditional 24-hour news cycle and ad-based business models.
2026 Today:
Population: Aprox. 65 million Hispanics live in the U.S. Out of them, 38% depend on Spanish as their primary language because their English proficiency is limited. Spanish-language information is oxygen for this audience. The other 62% are bilingual and stopped watching Spanish speaking news.
Why 62% of Spanish speaking people in the U.S. stopped reading and watching news en español?
After the Hispanic market proved commercially attractive, consolidation followed. In the 1990s, major media brands entered the Spanish-language news space through acquisitions and ambitious projects. But once absorbed into larger corporate structures, Spanish-speaking newsrooms were downsized. Hispanic investigative units were dismantled. Newspapers closed. Radio stations were reformatted into entertainment and sports machines, and in some cases, propaganda platforms.
For a deeper look at how consolidation reshaped Spanish-language television, including the rise of Univision and Telemundo, their serious early investment in journalism, the ownership shifts, and the financial turbulence that followed, read or listen to Live from America: How Latino TV Conquered the U.S.
Mainstream media companies began their restructuring cycles by reducing or eliminating their Spanish speaking subsidiaries, organizations, partners, and affiliates. Spanish-language journalism was often the first asset cut when balance sheets tightened.
At the same time, federal agencies and philanthropy largely ignored the Spanish-speaking informational ecosystem.
By 2012, Telemundo had consolidated news production with NBC, and Univision’s change in ownership left the company burdened with unmanageable corporate debt for nearly a decade.
As a result of this dismantling, and with the arrival of viral short form videos via TikTok and Instagram, by 2020 the information economy was fundamentally reshaped. While traditional Spanish-language newsrooms were shrinking, Spanish-speaking influencers were flourishing. With minimal infrastructure, no investigative costs, and algorithmic amplification on their side, they monetized identity, culture, and political commentary at scale. Without robust Spanish-language newsroom institutions, influencers increasingly filled the void, becoming primary information sources for millions of Spanish-speaking Americans, particularly the 25 million who depend on news in Spanish.
The result?
Forty million bilingual Hispanics lost trust in Spanish-language journalism and migrated to mainstream English outlets. Univision and Telemundo news stories began to mirror English-language broadcasts instead of breaking original ground. There are important local Spanish-language outlets in certain regions doing their best to serve their communities. Yet most lack the financial strength and investigative infrastructure necessary to anchor rigorous, independent journalism at scale.
Examples of why there is need of Spanish speaking news providers?
1. Two undocumented Guatemalan workers are arrested in Massachusetts and transferred to a detention center in Texas. A Spanish-language anchor reads the headline on air. But what no longer exists is a reporter tracking their detention route, a spanish speaking journalist interviewing their families and coworkers, a legal expert explaining due process questions, a data team analyzing deportation patterns in that region, a business reporter quantifying the impact on local contractors who suddenly lost workers, and a follow-up story six months later.
2. If 40 poultry workers are detained in Arkansas, Who reports how that affects regional food supply chains? Who interviews the Latino-owned trucking company that loses its contract? Who examines whether employers face penalties? Mainstream outlets cover the raid, and a robust local Spanish-language newsroom would cover the ecosystem.
3. If deportations or immigration audits affect restaurant staff, Who investigates abandoned ownership transfers? Who examines the ripple effect on jobs, commercial real estate? Without Spanish-language business reporting, the economic story disappears.
4. When school districts see a reduction of students due to fear of ICE: Who tracks the long-term academic impact? Who reports on teachers laid off because of declining enrollment? Who analyzes the socio economics consequences for those districts?
Spanish-language journalism complement English speaking journalism with more legal clarity, more economic transparency and more civic participation which consolidate a more democratic stability.
When robust Spanish-language newsrooms disappear, the Latino perspective on consequences disappears. And when 65 million Americans lose tailored investigative coverage, the entire democratic system loses balance. In that vacuum, anyone can improvise, lie, misinform, and manipulate communities, including influencing how they vote, without facing serious journalistic scrutiny.
While Spanish-speaking music crossed over and scaled globally, Spanish-language news went back to the starting line.
