When Identidad Latina launched in 2001, it was a free biweekly newspaper with a circulation of about 10,000 that covered Hartford and the surrounding areas for the Spanish-speaking population of Connecticut. But by 2009, it had cut back to 7,000 copies, because, like most local news organizations, its advertising revenue had declined substantially after the Great Recession forced widespread small business closures.
To weather COVID-19 and skyrocketing printing costs, Identidad Latina had to downsize again. It’s now a 32-page magazine that publishes every two months with a goal of posting at least three stories a day to its website.
Identidad Latina has survived thanks to a mixture of federal pandemic aid money, personal sacrifice, and cost cutting; it let go of six part-time staff members in 2020. The arrangement works, but the outlet squeaks by financially. ...
Identidad Latina is one of dozens of local news outlets in Connecticut and hundreds across the United States facing this dilemma of declining revenue with little hope for a market-based solution.
