“De Los is about belonging,” said a June 2 Instagram post from the Los Angeles Times’ newest project. “The name literally translates to ‘of the,’ two words that connect a part to the whole when used in a sentence. In the same way, De Los is meant to be the connective tissues between the Los Angeles Times and the Latino community.”
“The name De Los is also a nod to the institution,” the caption continued. “We are of the Los Angeles Times. Somos de Los Angeles Times.”
De Los launched on Monday, but it’s an idea that’s been building for awhile now. The Latinx Files, a newsletter that the Times started in 2020, now has 50,000 subscribers, according to Nieman Lab. The Times’ digital Día de Muertos project launched in 2021 and returned in 2022. The Times published a project on the Chicano Moratorium and La Vanguardia, which celebrates Latino vanguards. And in June, De Los created space on Instagram and TikTok.
“Created as a space to explore all things Latinidad – in Los Angeles and across the country – De Los offers reporting and commentary, graphic comics and topical social videos, a forum to celebrate or critique the news of the day, and a way to connect through a shared sense of culture and identity,” the Times said in an announcement of the project.”
De Los, with a team of 11, is led by Angel Rodriguez, general manager for Latino initiatives, editorial director Fidel Martinez and design director Martina Ibáñez-Baldor.
In June, Poynter reported that the Los Angeles Times Guild was negotiating with the company over planned layoffs. Nieman Lab reported Monday that De Los was not impacted. (Also on Monday, the Times’ owner sold The San Diego Union-Tribune to Alden Global Capital’s MediaNews Group.) The Los Angeles Times reports that the community it serves is 50% Latino, and the newsroom has 100 journalists who are Latino.
The launch of De Los stands out as newsrooms are working to figure out the best way to attract, cover and serve Latino audiences. In February, Poynter reported that The Dallas Morning News’ Al Día staff would become part of the larger newsroom staff. The Pivot Fund, which is working to get philanthropic funding into newsrooms led by and made for people of color, is working with several newsrooms serving Latino communities in Georgia. And two Poynter-Koch fellows recently built projects to translate and share journalism from English to Spanish.
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The success of the Día de Muertos digital ofrendas showed Times’ leadership “that there’s value in telling these stories,” Ibáñez-Baldor told Poynter last year, “and there’s an audience willing to listen.”
With De Los, community editor Jessica Perez wrote, “our goal is to be a community-driven platform that explores Latino culture and identity — and so it was imperative to have a role dedicated to building relationships with our community to better reflect it. And we’re taking that relationship further — not only telling stories about our community or for our community but with our community.”
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