Americano Media, a right-wing Hispanic media outlet that ran from 2022 to 2023, is back backed by a new group of investors, according to owner Iván García-Hidalgo.
García-Hidalgo, the former telecommunications executive who created Americano, predicted the scope of the new investment in an exclusive interview with The Hill.
“I think a lot of people are going to be very surprised to see the round of investors that have stepped up to bring the Americano back and launch it for the future. And I think it will be a really surprising shock for many who missed the opportunity,” he said.
“And I’m pretty sure they’re probably going to kick themselves for not participating, and they’re probably going to come, you know, wanting to come in and invest, frankly, but I don’t know if that’ll be a little too late, but you know, that’s how the cookie crumbles, right?
Although short-lived in its first iteration, the network quickly gained tractionas Trump’s favorite Spanish-language outlet in the worldlanding interviews with former President Trump and other prominent Republicans in his orbit.
“Everyone has talked about the need for a Spanish-language Fox News Network for decades, since the launch of Fox News, and no one has ever done it, and we decided to do it. We were probably crazy enough to do it,” said García – Hidalgo.
Americano’s rise and fall between 2022 and 2023 was the product of an aggressive expansion plan, restless investors and afailed takeover attemptby Texas-based Voz Media, a separate conservative media company thatalso failed to purchase Mega TVof the Spanish Broadcasting System based in Puerto Rico.
“There are two things that I believe went wrong. They tried to grow up too fast, right? They stepped on the gas too quickly, right? If you’re not an experienced driver, which means you might not be an experienced businessman, and you accelerate your vehicle too much, you’re going to crash,” said José Aristimuño, a former Democratic National Committee spokesman who appeared in the Americano as an analyst. center-left politician and is in talks to return for the network’s revival.
“The second is that they operated in good faith that investors would get it, and some investors fell along the way. You know, the people they got, they were promised things and the investors didn’t deliver,” Aristimuño added.
García-Hidalgo’s need for money resulted from the rush to transition the network’s 18 hours a day of live original programming from radio to video.
“When we started, we started with very little funding, with a million dollars, and that wouldn’t give us the ability to launch a television network à la Fox News, CNN or MSNBC,” García said. -Hidalgo.
“But you know, we did it, we managed to launch radio. We were able to, you know, get on Sirius XM.”
About $14 million of the $19.7 million Americano raised came from Doug Hayden, a packaging company heir who invested after meeting García-Hidalgo through a mutual friend he met at a political conference. García-Hidalgo said Hayden and his family are “100% in agreement” with the new version of Americano.
But that funding was not enough to complete the transition to video, which García-Hidalgo said was necessary because “radio is dead. You know, radio is dead. There is no money in radio.”
With funding exhausted, García-Hidalgo halted operations and laid off employees “to avoid greater responsibilities and focus 100 percent on our next round of funding – which is this round and is the most important round for us and most startups.” . companies – which one gets you into distribution and monetization, right?”
From the beginning, Americano sought to fill an ideological gap in Latino media, providing a conservative outlet with reach comparable to Telemundo and Univisión.
The thirst for such an outlet highlights the growing interest on all sides of the political spectrum in Latino voters, who were once considered non-participative or tied to Democrats.
But García-Hidalgo says it’s also a reflection of a broader trend in conservative media outlets.
“Traditionally, conservative investors have always invested in real estate and energy — you know, oil and gas — and haven’t really invested in media and technology and things like that, and then they wonder why they lose the culture wars,” he said. .
“Outside of Elon Musk and Donald Trump, you know, there aren’t many conservatives in the media, right? You might say Fox, but you know, that’s it. And I think that will change. I think this is going to change drastically.”
This change, according to García-Hidalgo, will happen because of Americano’s leadership and investment teams, whose names he declined to reveal at this time.
“We are coming back. We’re going to blow this up. We won’t stop. You know, the leadership team is fantastic. The round of investors is incredible,” he said.
“We have the right mix, the right people who have a lot of money and believe in the cause, believe in the mission. Believe that Hispanics deserve to hear both sides of the news, of the stories, not just one side, and to know, you know, what to think. And that’s what Americano was all about.
This is also what has led Americano to receive sharp criticism from the left and anti-Trump Republicans, who view Trump-aligned Hispanics as self-destructive at best.
But some on the left see the possibility of a conservative Latino network as a space to reach new audiences.
Aristimuño, who appears regularly on Fox News, said conservative networks are an opportunity for Democrats to reach new audiences.
“I believe – and there is no doubt – that Americano has a right-wing tendency or has a conservative mission. OK, there’s no denying that, but I’d rather the Democrats get involved in things like this than not, because there are people who say, ‘I’m not going on Fox News. I don’t agree with Fox. I won’t.’ You’re doing the American people a disservice and you’re doing the nation a disservice by not participating in these kinds of things, right?” he said.
And Aristimuño, who previously co-hosted a right-left news analysis program with García-Hidalgo, said his former co-host is the right person to build that network.
“Iván is like a bull, man. He just keeps going and going and going until he knocks the wall down. So I think he can – the unity is there, right? The unity is there. And I think the connections too. I think he knows the right people to do this,” Aristimuño said.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
