Three years after starting NYT en Español, The New York Times has shut down the Spanish-language platform. Originally, the site was created as an experiment to engage Spanish-speaking readers, mostly with translations of NYT content, but also with several pieces of original content every day.
“While the Español site did attract a new audience for our journalism and consistently produced coverage we are very proud of, it did not prove financially successful,” a message on the site reads. “Our strategy is now focused on our subscription-driven core news report for a global audience. Moving forward, editors will continue to translate signature journalism into more than a dozen languages – including Spanish, which will continue to appear at www.nytimes.com/es — as part of our core mission, and we will increase investment in the expansion of these broader translation efforts.”
As the message – which comes in the midst of Hispanic Heritage Month, makes the rounds – many Spanish-language speakers have expressed their disappointment with the NYT‘s decision. Paulina Chavira, a journalist who worked on this platform, wrote a thread explaining the importance behind NYT en Español.
“For the [NYT} it’s a ‘corporate’ decision, but for us … it was a project that we put our whole hearts into,” she wrote. “We began operations in January 2016, but in February is when we launched. At the time, @elilopez was in charge and the idea was to translate interesting articles for Spanish-speaking audiences. With time, of course, our objectives changed. We published 900 opinion pieces and hundreds of original content pieces, written by journalists who collaborated with ÑYT or members of the platform. It’s been a path filled with many lessons, and as @patynietog, stated, I could not have been better accompanied on this journey. I still believe that writing in Spanish is good … and time will tell [us this.]”
