The state of Latino public media today
Public broadcasting's leaders, trends and audience insights in a post-CPB industry
What is Latino content and audience service in public media now? It’s a complicated question.
Whether you are a station manager trying to build a bilingual newsroom, an independent producer developing bicultural podcasts, or a public radio professional seeking sustainable audience growth, understanding the current landscape of Latino communities related to public media is critical. The state of public broadcasting and how to serve Latinos are questions I get often. Here is a guide on Latino public media now.
This OIGO, I will break down audience data, highlight the industry’s innovators, and provide actionable strategies to help public media organizations authentically connect with Hispanic and bicultural listeners.
Bicultural listener audience demographics
To program effectively, stations must first understand who they are programming for. The modern Latino media consumer is not a monolith.
What I always tell leaders is this: To serve this audience, we must move past assumptions and look at the actual behaviors, needs and cultural nuances of the community.
Beyond monolingual Spanish
For decades, “Hispanic media” was strictly synonymous with “Spanish-language media.” While monolingual Spanish content remains vital for immigrant communities, the driving force behind Latino population growth today is U.S.-born individuals, virtually all of whom are rooted in the English language.
How does this show up when we consider Latino audiences? Well, second and third-generation Latinos are largely bilingual or English-dominant, but they retain strong cultural ties. This demographic often feels alienated by traditional English-language media that ignores their heritage, but they may not tune into heritage Spanish radio stations either.
What’s a throughline? Latino audiences are seeking “bicultural” content. That means stories reported in English (or fluidly bilingual formats) that authentically reflect the Latino experience in America present an avenue.
Where the audience is
Terrestrial radio listenership is shifting, and public media must serve the base, while keeping an eye on where the audience is moving. Data consistently shows that Latino consumers over-index on digital platforms. Key metrics:
Podcasting: Adoption among Latinos has surged, particularly for narrative and creator-led shows.
Video and streaming: Platforms like YouTube are increasingly primary news sources for U.S. Hispanics.
Messaging apps: WhatsApp remains a dominant ecosystem for community connection, information sharing and the spread of news, but also misinformation.
Key innovators in Latino public broadcasting
So, those are core issues to understand the audience. What’s working? Success in this space requires looking at the organizations and creators who are already moving the needle.
Public media connecting with Latinos encompasses a broad, evolving spectrum of efforts. It includes the foundational, national work of entities like Latino Public Broadcasting and NPR/PBS affiliates, as well as the agile, grassroots journalism of local digital hubs, community media and independent creators.
Latino Public Broadcasting
At the national level, Latino Public Broadcasting has spent over a quarter-century funding independent filmmakers and ensuring Latino stories reach PBS audiences. Through flagship series like VOCES, LPB has been instrumental in placing high-quality documentaries—covering everything from the arts to the plight of American veterans facing deportation—on a national stage.
As Luis Ortiz reflects, LPB’s place in the system can’t be overstated. Its work has ensured that the systemic issues and rich cultural history of the Latino community remain visible within the traditional public broadcasting framework.
Public media licensees
The days of collaborations like the Latino Public Radio Consortium are long gone at this point. However, a range of great public media organizations are doing valuable work to reach Latino communities.
Among the most prominent organizations leading this matter are Connecticut Public, KQED, Avanza and New Hampshire Public Radio. The community radio side also has too many interesting efforts to name, though most are in the vein of a single program by a volunteer or part-time host, which can be hard to build an audience with. Lastly, from time to time, you also get in public media bilingual initiatives like we’ve seen at KERA.
Independent creators and community hubs
Beyond the traditional PBS/NPR ecosystem, independent entities are redefining the space. Organizations like Futuro Media have long set the standard for independent, bicultural journalism with shows like Latino USA. In fact, Inside Radio has the story on Futuro Media’s efforts to branch out beyond public media and into new spaces Furthermore, a new wave of local, digital-first newsrooms, community media and newsletters are filling the gaps left by legacy media.
The bigger public media organizations are doing good work, and smaller organizations are operating with a nimbleness and cultural fluency that sometimes larger institutions struggle to match.
The content shift
One of the most common mistakes public radio stations make when attempting to reach Latino audiences is relying entirely on translation. But taking an existing English-language story and simply translating the script into Spanish does not make the content relevant to a Latino listener.
It’s not so much a problem about the information therein. It’s that the framing, the sources, and the underlying assumptions often remain disconnected from the community’s lived reality. Therefore the shift must be toward cultural fluency. This means:
Reporting stories from within the community, rather than parachuting in only when there is a crisis or a cultural festival.
Understanding the specific systemic and local nuances that affect Latino neighborhoods.
Elevating Latino voices as subject matter experts on general topics (the economy, climate change, education), not just on “Latino issues” like immigration.
Profiles in OIGO to convey this perspective include Julian Berger, Lisa Rodriguez and Blanca Torres most recently.
What’s your take?
OIGO began as an effort to help you navigating this evolving landscape. Continuous learning, data analysis and peer-to-peer stories are exactly what OIGO is built to provide.
Have a success story or a challenge you’re facing in your local market? Reply to any OIGO newsletter or connect with me directly. The best way forward is by building this aspiration together. 🟢
Cafecito: stories to discuss ☕
Strong storytelling. Immigration enforcement is one of the year’s top stories. 📝 The Pivot Fund relates how several nonprofit newsrooms are reflecting the scope of the issue locally.
Felicidades. Cicero Independiente received the Catalyst Award for Local News Innovation at the Next Challenge for Media and Journalism National Awards. 🏆 Read OIGO profiles of the news organization here and here.
Latin music surges. Luminate’s mid-year study indicates the Latin music and country formats are enjoying growth on radio and streaming across the United States. 🥁 Inside Radio has the numbers.
Latine voter intel. This has made the rounds, so I’ll park opining on the meaning of such, but Axios is one of many outlets to cover new research on Hispanic voters and ethnic identity. 🌎
El radar: try this 📡
See how local nonprofits are helping wildlife in Latine communities. WBEZ has a fun story about a local zoo’s effort to repopulate endangered toads in Puerto Rico. 🐸 That toad, associated with Bad Bunny to many fans, is seeing a major preservation push.
Track election law shifts. OPB spotlights changes in Oregon intended to protect the rights of historically disenfranchised Latine voters. 🗳️
Examine tandas. KQED covers the Latinx concept of tanda, or microlending among community members, and how young entrepreneurs are seeking to put a new digital sheen to the longtime practice. 🤑
Talk with Latino fashion designers. Another at KQED reminds me many fashion designers are telling stories of culture through their creations. 👕 A fun story to localize.
Reflect on Hispanic veterans for America 250. This Arizona Mirror piece is all over the place, but the interesting kernel for public media examines military veterans of Latin American descent. 🪖
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