Friday, August 15, 2008

Swan song for “El Nuevo Dia Orlando”

Central Florida’s only Spanish-language daily newspaper will cease production by the end of the month.

“El Nuevo Dia Orlando”- a local version of Puerto Rican mainstay “El Nuevo Dia”- was launched as a free daily in 2003. A spokesman for the paper’s parent company said that “the paper had consistently lost money” despite claims that ad revenue increased by 28% last year.

Though the newspaper was catered towards Central Florida’s Puerto Rican populace, the area’s growing Latino community will undoubtedly suffer:

Luis Suárez, president of Asociación Borinqueña de la Florida Central, Inc., the area's largest Puerto Rican community group, said this is a great loss for the local Hispanic community.
"El Nuevo Día Orlando emphasized what was relevant news for the Hispanic community, losing it means that we lose a spokesperson for our issues, we lose an ally in the Hispanic cause," Suárez said.

Image- Echo Media

Sources- WWSB, Editor & Publisher, Hispanic Tips, Orlando Sentinel


1 comment:

Benjamin N. Gedan said...

That's sad to hear. I don't know this paper, but I had been led to believe that newspapers geared toward Latino communities were growing, despite the economic pressures that have forced major city papers to shrink in recent years.

I'm doing research in South American on a fellowship right now, but in the U.S. I work as a newspaper writer. I had hoped that Latinos were bringing a culture of newspaper reading to the U.S. that could help the industry survive the challenges it is facing these days.

Oh well, as a well-known Spanish TV newscaster used to say, "Maybe tomorrow they'll be some good news."