What newsrooms can learn from Telemundo and Mamdani about engaging bilingual audiences
This summer, Telemundo’s 2026 World Cup coverage became the most-watched FIFA World Cup tournament in Spanish-language media history, averaging 6.3 million total viewers across all 104 matches. And the appeal wasn’t limited to Spanish speakers: the energy, pacing and sense of occasion were strong enough to pull in viewers who may not have caught every word, but knew to stay locked in when the commentary started getting faster before hitting that infectious “¡GOOOOOOOOOOOL!”
That same lesson is showing up in politics. More candidates and city governments are investing in direct Spanish-language outreach this election cycle, from bilingual field operations to WhatsApp channels and Spanish-first social accounts designed to meet Latinos where they actually speak and share information.
So how are news organizations reaching this growing audience, especially at a time when Latinos are driving a critical voting bloc?
This edition of Audience Almanac looks at what local newsrooms can do to better engage Spanish-language audiences, and why it matters.
Treat Spanish as a core product line
For many years, newsrooms could get away with treating Spanish coverage as "take this existing product and translate it." Not anymore. A strong bilingual strategy starts with actually knowing your audience — their habits, their culture, how they consume news — not retrofitting what already exists. And this is where soccer ties into local news.
Telemundo's World Cup coverage is the standard for Spanish-speaking audiences. It's what you picture when you think of watching a soccer match: Andrés Cantor's commentary, the chants from fans in perfect sync, the excitement that doesn't dip even during a break in play. And that's the thing: this wasn't a special World Cup production. It's the same experience Telemundo has been delivering for decades, through local league matches on Sundays and Champions League games during the week, long before the rest of the U.S. was watching.
English-speaking viewers weren't getting a translated broadcast this summer; they were getting into a sporting culture that had been running in Spanish the whole time. That's also how Telemundo handled the tournament's most-hated new rule, the 3-minute hydration break. Fox Sports used it to run ads. Telemundo got Coca-Cola to sponsor the break instead, so cameras stayed on players and coaches — arguments, sideline tension, all of it — and the match never lost its pulse.
That authenticity paid off: Nielsen ratings show 20% of Telemundo's World Cup viewers primarily speak English, and Miguel Lorenzo, senior vice president of Telemundo Deportes, says telecast viewership jumped 122% since the 2022 World Cup. “I can't tell you how many comments I've seen where people are saying, ‘I don't speak a lick of Spanish, but I want to watch it on Telemundo because it just sounds more exciting,’” Lorenzo says. "Joy and excitement and drama: it's language agnostic, it's universal.”
Telemundo didn't chase a bigger audience by changing what it does. It just kept doing it well, and the audience found it. That's the cue for local newsrooms: there's no template for authenticity. Know your community, learn from them, and lead the way that actually reflects who they are. That's the only strategy that can't be copied.
Build bilingual routes, not bilingual moments
Campaigns have also learned that a Spanish-language message only works when it is part of a broader system: field scripts, text messages, call banks, signage, social and earned media all working together. That’s the lesson for newsrooms: a story can’t begin and end with translation. It needs a bilingual route from reporting to distribution: an English story, a Spanish explainer, a social version tailored to bilingual users, and distribution through the channels Spanish-speaking audiences already trust.
New York City offers a useful example. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new “El Chisme Oficial de NYC” WhatsApp channel and relaunch of the city’s Spanish-language Instagram account are built to reach residents directly with city news, service updates, immigration information, transit alerts and community resources in a tone that feels conversational (even calling channel members “chismosos y chismosas”) rather than institutional. That matters because the language is not just translated; it is culturally adaptive. The city is meeting Spanish-speaking residents where they already spend time and speaking in a voice that feels authentic to them.
Newsrooms can apply the same lesson to elections, emergencies and other high-tempo moments. Spanish-language updates should move in parallel with English, not days later. The goal should be to create two connected paths into the same story.
Localize by community, not just language
Depending on where you are, Spanish can be different.Pew's data shows 54% of U.S. Latinos get news mostly in English, 21% mostly in Spanish, and 23% in both equally — but even within that 21%, “Spanish” isn't one audience. A Puerto Rican reader in New York and a Mexican reader in Texas may use the same word for two different things (tostada means a slice of toast in San Juan and a fried tortilla in Mexico City) and a “neutral,” textbook-correct Spanish can read as accurate but still feel like it's talking past someone.
Spectrum Noticias is a useful case study for what it looks like to get this right. Rather than build a single national Spanish-language feed, the network opened local bureaus in Los Angeles, New York, Texas, and Florida and staffed them with reporters embedded in those communities.
Local newsrooms don't need a national network's budget to apply the same logic. Before building a Spanish-language strategy, learn who your Spanish speakers actually are: where their families are from, what dialect and slang show up in your comment sections, which local issues matter to them. Often, that knowledge is already sitting in your own newsroom. Spanish-speaking editors and reporters are the fastest, most direct line to that understanding — not just as translators, but as the people who can tell you what's actually resonating and what's falling flat. Listen to them and let them shape the strategy, not just execute it. A generic Spanish translation can technically inform a community. Only a newsroom that knows its own market's Spanish speakers can actually earn their trust.
Be an ecosystem player
Campaigns and city agencies already reach Spanish-speaking residents through hotlines, WhatsApp channels, community groups and trusted messengers. A local newsroom's job isn't to replicate that outreach, but to become the place people turn for context, verification, and plain-language explainers on ballots, candidates, schools, immigration, transit and emergencies.
If your newsroom doesn't have the strategy or in-house experience to serve Spanish-speaking audiences yet, take this as an opportunity to team up with partners who do!
Plug into the civic ecosystem that already exists. Co-produce voter guides or town halls with community organizations. Partner with Spanish-language radio stations, local nonprofits, or outlets that already serve this audience well. El Tímpano hasbuilt civic partnerships that connect Spanish-speaking and Indigenous immigrant audiences in the Bay Area directly to resources and public information. In Montgomery County, Maryland, local government and media partners have usedSpanish-language radio to share essential community information and open a channel for questions. Neither required a newsroom to build strategy from scratch, but finding the right partner already doing the work.
Partnering well, and knowing when someone else in the ecosystem is better positioned to reach a community, is its own form of good journalism.
The Audit
If you’re a newsroom leader serving Latino audiences, ask yourself and your team:
Are Spanish-language stories planned from the start, or translated later?
Do Spanish-speaking editors have authority over coverage and distribution?
Are bilingual channels part of a workflow, or just occasional campaigns?
Are you localizing for specific communities, or using one generic Spanish for everyone?
Is your Spanish-language work part of civic life, or limited to election-season bursts?
You don’t need to have all the answers today, but these questions are a good place to begin prioritizing Spanish-speaking audiences.The bilingual turn in sports and politics this year suggests something newsrooms should find encouraging, not intimidating: audiences respond when language feels authentic, local and operationally serious — a bar any newsroom can clear with intention and a plan.