A Q1 Update From The Latino Newsletter

Today is the start of The Latino Newsletter's 44th week.

I wanted to provide you all with a Q1 update and also share some thoughts about what it all means to me as Founder and Publisher.

This year’s first three months have come with typical startup challenges, but there have been some really strong wins.

• Knowing that we would only continue into 2025 if we achieved our Winter Pledge goal of $4,000, we did that, and even exceeded it, thanks to a $5,000 donation from the donor-advised fund at the Boston Foundation. When you see the first quarter financials below, there is no doubt that we could not exist right now without the support we received from the Winter Pledge drive. Thank you!

• The Latino Newsletter is now officially registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office—a big milestone in protecting our name, our mission, and our long-term vision.

• We are also receiving unsolicited pitches every day. The biggest Q1 highlight was when two Latino high school students from Texas filed an opinion piece, and part of their email back to me said this: “Thank you so much for your support and your timely edits! We just saw it on the website and are taking a moment to soak it in, and by soak it in, we mean we have been running around super excited. We both have been struggling to get publications to even read our work whenever we mention immigration, but have been really committed to bringing to light what’s happening in our community, as our teachers have been heavily scrutinized and put on a witch hunt.”

If you haven’t read Rebecca’s and Henders’ opinion piece, you can find it here.

I never thought I would say this, but the first 10 months of The Latino Newsletter are feeling like what Latino Rebels felt like back in 2011 and 2012.

When 2025 started, I knew that January through March would be challenging months, but since we surpassed our Winter Pledge goal, some of the leads we have been pursuing are starting to pay off.

New Projects

This month, The Latino Newsletter will be working on two projects, both of which align with Board-approved strategic goals from earlier this year.

Here is what we can announce right now, with more specific details coming later this month:

• We will start our San Juan bureau work with a timely series of original multimedia reporting about U.S. immigration policy in Puerto Rico.

• We will be producing a new podcast episode with an established nonprofit media organization.

Landing these projects now is huge for us because they will bring in the necessary revenue to make up for some of the Q1 gaps we have identified. The following is a breakdown of all our Q1 unaudited expenses (January 1, 2025-March 31, 2025):

• Revenue

  • Donations & Grants: $8,402.00

  • Newsletter Advertising: $86.47

  • Total Revenue: $8,488.47

• Expenses

  • Staffing (Salary, Payroll Taxes): $8,371.47

  • Contractors: $3,300.00

  • Operations (Marketing, Legal, Insurance, Software, etc.): $2,971.02

  • Total Expenses: $14,642.49

• Net Revenue

  • –$6,153.75

As you review, note that I am the only employee of The Latino Newsletter, working part-time at about $2,800/month, or $33,600/year. Having run previous startups, one promise I made to myself this time around was that I wouldn’t repeat the mistake of not paying myself for my time.

Why Now

In the early 2000s, I started rediscovering my voice. I wrote more, experimented with flash fiction (best group ever), and reconnected with why I was —and always will be— a writer. I had already been drawn to digital spaces since the late ‘90s, back when online communities were actually building something meaningful.

That creative push led me to found Latino Rebels in 2011. I was younger, and the goal back then was digital innovation for journalism, which to me was still years behind. Latino Rebels gave me a platform and a purpose, and it ultimately propelled me into my second career as a journalist. I sold the outlet in 2018, and looking back, that decision helped me return to what I will always love to do: write, produce and create.

The last 13 years have been incredible. And now, I finally have some time to return to my creative roots—the same ones that sparked Latino Rebels back in May of 2011. But this time, I won’t chase it. The Latino Newsletter just feels different, and I hope to keep it going, even if that means publishing less often. You can't keep sprinting. And if The Latino Newsletter ever reaches a point where it can’t keep operating (which I doubt, because we’re trending up), I won’t keep going just to keep going. I’ll simply be grateful that it carried me through a hard professional chapter in my life.

I have no intention of staying on as Publisher of The Latino Newsletter forever. My short-term hope is that this foundational work, which will hit the one-year mark in May (something about May?), makes it possible to build a small, full-time team of no more than five people. And that for at least the next three to five years, those jobs are secure, stable, and can pay for the talent we’re already assembling. I'm doing this with a clearer vision, and that doesn’t mean I have to undervalue my own time and creativity to make it real. I’ve done that before. This time, I’m building differently.

The goal hasn’t changed: to help amplify and uplift Latino voices from our community, every single day. What we’re doing is hard because we are still really small, but I hope you see it matters.

Seguimos,

Julio

About the Author

Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder and publisher of The Latino Newsletter.

We want to keep The Latino Newsletter accessible without paywalls. To help, you can donate here. Any amount (one-time or monthly) will keep us going.

What We’re Watching

Bad Bunny’s Tiny Desk Concert: Yes, it dropped earlier on Monday. Enjoy!

Do you believe in creating new journalism lanes for Latinos and Latinas? Do you believe that U.S. mainstream outlets will never understand our community? Consider donating to The Latino Newsletter. Any little bit helps to keep this newsletter free and accessible to all. ¡Gracias mil!