La Palabra: Celebrating SI's Latino Content in 2017
Mi gente! Welcome to La Palabra, SI's weekly column delivering the best content with a Latino perspective from around the web. Sports, pop culture, movies, TV, music, food, travel...you name it. Send tips to luis.echegaray@simail.com or mándame un Tweet.
Time to reflect
This was my first year at Sports Illustrated and I'm proud of the steps we've made towards engaging better with the Latino community. From video to social, to bilingual content and crowdsourcing projects, there was a stronger focus on producing work that better represented the Hispanic and Latino audience and I'm so thankful for all the support that has come from my colleagues towards making this happen.
To begin with, we launched Planeta Futbol this past summer: our Spanish soccer vertical, powered by 90min, where we deliver fútbol news (Liga MX, Premier League, MLS, South America, Europe) to our Spanish speaking audience. But aside from that, we also made a conscious effort to create more English-written content that spoke specifically to US-Hispanics and Latinos. From our Top 30 Most Influential Hispanics in Sports List to our call out asking Latino NFL fans to send us images of how they celebrate the game, the aim was to not just talk about the community, but work with it.
One of my favorite moments of the year was being invited on Richard Deitsch's podcast and discuss what it means to be a minority in the world of sports journalism. I was lucky enough to sit with Richard and the wonderful Marly Rivera and have a conversation that touched upon different perspectives.
We also celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month by highlighting Hispanic female athletes who made a name for themselves in the United States...
Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: Latina Athletes
Laurie Hernandez - 2016
Bob Martin
Rebecca Lobo - 1997
Manny Millan
Gabriela Sabatini - 1990
Manny Millan
Lisa Fernandez - 1996
John Iacono
Amy Rodriguez - 2008
Al Tielemans
Dara Torres - 2008
Heinz Kluetmeier
Lorena Ochoa - 2007
Bob Martin
Pearl Gonzalez - 2017
Chad Matthew Carlson
Diana Taurasi - 2002
Manny Millan
Marlen Esparza - 2012
Jed Jacobsohn
Jennifer Rodriguez - 2002
John Biever
Nancy Lopez - 1977
Tony Triolo
Jennifer Rodriguez - 2006
Al Tielemans
Mary Joe Fernandez - 2011
Erick W. Rasco
Diana Lopez - 2008
John W. McDonough
Rebecca Lobo - 1996
Manny Millan
Marlen Esparza - 2012
Jed Jacobsohn
Lorena Ochoa - 2008
Robert Beck
Dara Torres - 2008
Heinz Kluetmeier
Laurie Hernandez - 2016
Robert Beck
Diana Taurasi - 2012
John Biever
Amy Rodriguez - 2015
Simon Bruty
...and began doing weekly video stories touching on sports stories from a Latin perspective.
Here are the facts: By 2065 Latinos will be 24% of the US population. The Latino/Hispanic population is the youngest ethnic or racial group in the country. US-Latinos are aggressive consumers of online content, especially mobile. In fact, according to Nielsen’s Total Audience Report, they are 10 percentage points more likely than other Americans overall to use smartphone apps or watch videos.
That's why we diversified our distribution.
Whether it's an Instagram story with Miguel Cotto or a video interview with Canelo Alvarez, the conversation went from how to create content to where it should go in the first place. Speaking of boxing, the GGG-Canelo fight was also a perfect opportunity to show our audience that we can do more and represent not just the boxing world, but also the larger Mexican audience so our live-blogs were done in English and Spanish.
La Palabra: We're So Ready For An Afro-Latino Spiderman
We celebrated the achievements of so many Latinos. From Tom Verducci's excellent piece on Jose Altuve to Jeremy Woo's on Manu Ginobili, 2017 was a chance to acknowledge Latin and Hispanic achievement.
Other standout pieces include Greg Bishop's beautiful piece on Boxer and activist Jose Ramirez, J.J Barea's touching piece on his trip to his native Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and The Narrative's story on professional football in Mexico and and Los Aztecas Dorados of the Continental Football League.
The work, however, has just started and as we look to 2018 the efforts on creating and engaging more and more with US Hispanic and Latinos are going to double down. I can't tell you exactly what else we're working on but you can be assured it will be worth the wait.
Also, if you want to send me ideas you know where to find me:
Twitter: @lmechegaray
Instagram: @luismechegaray
Feliz Navidad!
