Sometimes business owners have an idea, create a product, and then go looking for customers. But for the founders of Revolution English and Noticias para Inmigrantes (NPI), the idea sparked after checking in with the audience. Revolution English, a venture started under the incubator Accelerate Change, was created around 2014 due to the responses of a survey to discover the biggest needs in the Latino community.
“The number one issue that Latinos had during that time was, ‘I need to learn English,’ so a team at Accelerate Change came up with an English lesson course, and they named it Revolution English,” says Irene Velarde, Director of Growth and Advertising for NPI.
Once they had created the coursework, finding a platform to distribute the lessons was next on the list. They tested text messages (which were too expensive), found that relatively few people used email, and finally settled on Facebook Messenger which a large portion of their community members were already using.
“We found that Messenger was one of the platforms that they used more for communication. So, it was easier for them to access the lessons in Messenger,” explains Velarde. “We started sending out English lessons to anyone who subscribed, and we also tested options for tutoring, mentoring, implementing English lessons in schools, etc.”
Over time as Facebook made changes to policies that could affect the way information could be delivered through Messenger, Velarde and her team decided to pause their work on Revolution English and turned their focus to a new venture, Noticias Para Inmigrantes—a digital news media platform whose mission is to provide news and resources in Spanish to Latino immigrants in the United States.
“We’re not breaking news, but we make the information that is already out there easier to digest and understand,” explains Velarde. “A lot of the resources that we share with them are things that they really need, for example information in Spanish on government websites. But it’s so complex and difficult to understand, that we really go and make it easier for them to read and understand in their own language. And sometimes it’s not even in Spanish, so we go and translate it into Spanish.”
At the end of 2019, NPI found that there was a demand for news in Spanish, but aside from big news outlets like Univision and Telemundo, there weren’t a lot of platforms that could fill that need.
“When the pandemic hit, there was a lot of need for information about the resources that we were already thinking about and compiling,” says Velarde, “And there was a lot of misinformation and disinformation around what was available for the community—who was eligible due to their status for example—so we were able to clear up a lot of that information on social media where they were already online and it was easy to reach out to them.”
With requests for basic needs such as where food banks were located as well as more complex issues regarding stimulus check eligibility, NPI’s audience grew exponentially.
“We reach Latinos who have been here for 10–20 years as well as those who’ve maybe just recently arrived a month or two months ago and that first year, we reached a million subscribers in Messenger and that’s because there was that need,” she explains. “It was a very unfortunate situation, but that’s how our media grew in reaching the Latino community nationwide, with most of the growth happening in California, Texas, Florida, and Illinois, and it’s just kind of spiraled from there. I think now, across all our platforms, we’re reaching at least 6 million subscribers on TikTok, Instagram, Messenger, and our email newsletter.”
Because of their initial success in building an online community with Revolution English, and having turned their focus to creating Noticias Para Inmigrantes, Velarde and her team were in a unique position to provide information quickly as opposed to other media outlets that had relied on physical publications.
“I think we were kind of ahead of what a lot of news outlets out there were doing in the Latino community, because even before the pandemic, we were already a remote team. Everything has always been digital,” explains Velarde. “I think what we’ve seen with a lot of Spanish outlets out there is that they have a presence, maybe a newspaper, a magazine, doing everything more physical, and they maybe even had it before the pandemic, but right after the pandemic, if you were not online, if you didn’t have a social media account already, you had to immediately get on it, but we were already online, trying out and testing so many things that it pushed us a little bit ahead of what maybe other Spanish new outlets were doing.”
Their methods of testing and listening to their audience continue to spark new ventures with the launch of Plus Más Media, they are developing content franchises that authentically connect with the diversity of the Latino community.
“Our mission is to bridge brands with the Latino experience through innovative storytelling, digital engagement, and data-driven insights,” says Velarde. “We specialize in content creation, distribution, culture-driven advertising, and research.”
Their latest channel, Somos Madres Latinas, focuses on sharing content and information about motherhood.
“For Somos Madres Latinas, we don’t have a website yet, it’s all social media, but it’s about going through parenting with their kids and sharing information,” says Velarde. “As we look ahead to the future, our vision is to be the leading culture-creating media for Latinos in the United States. We want to create more franchises that will connect with the Latino community so growth is going to be important in the next couple of years.“
Creating franchises that are able to connect with the diversity of the Latino community isn’t easy but with the success of their past two ventures, Velarde’s team seems to have discovered a pattern that works.
“Latinos are not just one type, one category. It’s really so diverse, so finding their needs is challenging. What’s concerning to one group is maybe not be a problem or issue to another one,” explains Velarde. “We focus on what’s really affecting the majority of them and share all that information. We know our audience very well because we are part of the community, and we know how to connect with them and build trust.”
For Velarde, the main benefit found in the Revolution English, Noticias Para Inmigrantes, and Somos Madres Latinas platforms is the effect their work has had on helping the Latino community.
“I think it’s so great to do work where you’re making an impact into these people’s lives, and then you see it and you read it in the comments that people are saying, ‘Thank you for sharing this information. I went to that food bank that you shared with me,’ or ‘I went to this doctor’s clinic that you suggested going to and it helped me and my kids.’ It’s so gratifying to do this work where people are giving you this feedback.”
If you want to partner with NPI and reach the Latino community, contact Irene Velarde for more information at irene@noticiasparainmigrantes.org.
