Three publications covering Georgia’s fast-growing Asian American, Black and Hispanic communities have joined forces. That partnership – a first of its kind in the state – aims to better inform the readers of the Georgia Asian Times, The Atlanta Voice, and Mundo Hispánico; and shed light on the issues that most concern communities of color.
Rene Alegria is the president and CEO of Mundo Hispánico, Georgia’s largest Spanish-language newspaper. He explains it made sense to pool the three newspapers’ influence and launch the new media alliance, dubbed the Ethnic Media Collaborative, in the wake of the 2020 election, where highly mobilized voters of color helped cement Georgia’s place as battleground state.
“I think that has exacerbated how quickly things are changing [in the state],” Alegria said. “And given we were open to working with each other … it just felt right.”
He added: “I do think that our communities of color oftentimes work and live in silos and us crossing into each other’s silo collaboratively is something not done... We aim to change that.”
The Ethnic Media Collaborative’s first initiative is a speaker series with political and business leaders, where issues that are top-of-mind in communities of color will be raised.
At the launch of the speaker series last week in Gwinnett County, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams fielded questions about the growth of the Latino evangelical community, funding of the technical college system, the rise of anti-Asian violence and affordable housing, among others.
Invitations to participate in future events will be extended to political leaders across the political spectrum. Alegria hopes those interactions and the coverage they will generate help ethnic media readers feel like they have a stake in the political process.
“We are setting a new standard for journalism in Georgia,” said Li Wong, CEO and publisher of the Georgia Asian Times, in a statement shared on his publication’s website.
“Our newspaper has been serving the Black and African American communities in Georgia for over 50 years. We are proud to work together with other ethnic media groups to share our stories and news to better inform our people,” added Janis Ware, publisher of the Atlanta Voice.
Lautaro Grinspan is a Report for America corps member covering metro Atlanta’s immigrant communities.
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