On Feb. 8, the New York Times launched “NYT América.” NYT América is a project in its beta stage that aims to provide the same global news, but in Spanish. This introduction of a Spanish section will expand the New York Times’s audience to Latin American countries and to Spanish speakers in the United States.
Currently the online articles under NYT América are free, getting most of its funding from launch sponsors courtesy of several large Latin-American corporations.
By providing free content to a larger audience, the New York Times hopes to accumulate more digital subscribers. Aragon senior Charlie Rodriguez says, “I think that it will increase the subscribers for the New York Times because if it’s more relevant stuff for Latino people, then more Latino people will want to get the newspaper and read it because it has information that is useful to them.”
The New York Times made a similar attempt in China back in the summer of 2012. They launched cn.newyorktimes.com, intended to augment the Chinese middle class. After the New York Times published some controversial stories about Chinese public figures, the Chinese government blocked the website.
NYT América is not expected to face any similar restrictions that were seen in the Chinese New York Times launch as there is already a demand for news content in Spanish speaking countries. The New York times also previously provided wire services for newspapers in Latin America, effectively selling the right to publish the New York Times’s stories in their newspapers. The launch of NYT América will not likely make a huge change to news coverage in Spanish speaking countries.
The New York Times may also gain an increase in Spanish native speakers in the United States. Senior Anakaren Barraza says, “[Native speakers] will be able to read the news and know [more of] what is going on in the United States.”
The multicultural Spanish articles on NYT América could likely have an impact on students at Aragon. Every student takes a foreign language class at Aragon and a majority of those students take some level of Spanish.
Spanish articles about world news double as a tool for Spanish learners and students studying contemporary events. Aragon Spanish teacher Alejandra Cheever says, “I’ll definitely look at it, but what I tend to look at more are those authentic sources like BBC Mundo, CNN in Spanish and United Nations Radio and Publications in Spanish. Those are great sources. So we have all these resources readily available. If I have to pay for this, as a teacher, I’m probably not going to use it.”
The launch of NYT América could prove to be very important in breaking the language barrier between news sources. However, there are other alternatives though. Cheever says “There are so many other options for people that speak Spanish to get the news from credible sources or newspapers that are renowned, so I’m not sure [the New York Times] is going to get the results that they want from this new adventure.”
However, the New York Times move to expand its audience to include more cultural groups could also attract more readers from the general U.S. public. Charlie Rodriguez concludes, “I think it’s a good idea that the NYT is making a [Hispanic] version, finally.”
