USA TODAY’s Bilingual SMS Alerts Provided Vital Hurricane Updates

Count me as a journalist who still believes that the industry’s future is a positive one, despite all the noise that AI will take over our jobs. As long as we focus on the communities we serve with honest intentions, this is an exciting time to be in journalism.

It’s why I was intrigued when the corporate communications team at Gannett Media reached out to me earlier this week about how the USA TODAY Network implemented the use of real-time SMS texting in English and Spanish to provide real-time local reporting and alerts about Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

To be honest, I was skeptical that a company like Gannett and an outlet like USA TODAY were doing SMS work in Spanish for states like Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, but when I saw the examples shared with me, I asked for an interview with one of the leads behind this effort.

On Wednesday morning, I spoke with Annemarie Dooling, VP Audience Growth & Experiences, Gannett Media. According to what Gannett provided me, the team produced and translated over 30 pieces of news about Hurricane Milton for Spanish-language readers. Gannett also noted that the SMS text capabilities for Hurricane Helene led to 12,000 sign-ups and hundreds of responses. For Hurricane Milton, Gannett noted, the initiative received 29,000 subscribers and more than 3,000 text interactions in both languages. Besides Dooling’s work, other key members in leading this effort were Aldana Vales, Director, Audience Experiences, and Caitlin Petrakovitz, Sr. Manager of Messaging Experiences.

Here is a condensed version of the conversation I had with Annemarie:

Julio Ricardo Varela: Can you tell me specifically why USA TODAY decided to do this project, and what came out of it? Did you have conversations as journalists and say, “Hey, this is important?” I know a lot of smaller digital outlets have been tapping into this, particularly with communities that have large Spanish-speaking audiences. Why did you choose to do it now?

Annemarie Dooling: Yeah, I wish there was a grand master plan, but it’s pretty simple. My team focuses on community and figuring out how we can help people at the right time, in the right medium, where they are. We worked closely with the service journalism team for hurricane coverage.

We were focused on Florida because, at that point, everyone thought Hurricane Helene was going to hit there. We know that there’s a significant population of native Spanish speakers in Florida. That’s just the reality of the audience there, so we didn’t think twice about it. What we had to think about was how we would execute it—whether we had enough people and the right content. But the audience was always top of mind.

Our goal was to figure out what we could offer via SMS to this audience that would help them during a tough time. Could we provide information on what to do if the power went out, or reminders to have batteries on hand? We even sent phone numbers people could save in case they lost internet or cell service. We know that not every audience has constant access to a laptop or knows to visit our website. SMS is often a casual medium, but it can also be a primary source of information for many people.

When we first experimented with it, we realized the Spanish-speaking audience, across many different Latino cultures, was using SMS and waiting for this type of information. So, we ramped up from there.

JRV: How did you reach these communities, and how did they opt in? Walk me through the process.

AD: We started in English first. This year was our first three-storm experiment. We had tried this approach last year with Hurricane Idalia, but that was more of a toe dip compared to this year. The first step was to gather the right information in English. Then, we figured out which content needed to be translated. We have teams across the newsroom who either translate content or write specifically for Spanish-speaking audiences. It’s not always a direct one-to-one translation. It's more about figuring out what’s going to help the audience at that moment.

After that, we put house ads on our site to see if anyone visiting those stories would be interested. We really didn’t know what to expect. In the articles we wrote in Spanish, we included a text number, and pretty quickly, people started asking for information. Some of the English speakers even asked if we were AI, which was funny, but we decided to use a casual tone for the Latino audience because it felt more natural.

JRV: That’s fascinating. I came in with assumptions that this was all machine-generated, but what you’re describing is traditional journalism. You’re putting house ads out, determining the editorial strategy, and leveraging the brand of USA TODAY. But at the end of the day, it’s about human connection, right?

AD: Exactly. I’ll tell you, the night Hurricane Milton hit, we had 500 replies from people in both English and Spanish. We sat down as a team, called in folks who were off that night, and said, “Who’s around? Who can help?” I’m lucky to have a team that really cares. No one hesitated. They jumped in and said, “Where do you need me?” We were opening Florida county maps because we cover a lot of Florida, but not every county, and we needed to be sure we were giving real information.

In some cases, we were providing information that the local government hadn’t yet posted on their websites. For instance, I was asking questions during a Facebook Live session with the Buncombe County (NC) government and then relaying that information to my deputy, Aldana Vales. We had to think about how to communicate in a way that wouldn’t scare people, especially when we didn’t have all the facts yet.

JRV: Does this renew your faith in journalism? I mean, here we are, often talking about the “death of journalism,” and yet you’re showing how human, community-driven journalism is still thriving. How do you feel?

AD: Thank you for saying that. My team specializes in community growth, and I’ve been working in community management since I started moderating comments years ago. So, answering 500 SMS questions wasn’t new to me—it felt like coming home. I’m fortunate to have hired people who also believe in this kind of work.

I don’t come from a traditional journalism background, and I still believe in journalism, despite all the discussions about AI and the “future of news.” I wanted a job that allowed me to connect with people. USA TODAY has such a unique audience, and reaching out to Spanish-speaking communities across the U.S. is part of that. We do this kind of work not only in Spanish but across many cultures and communities. It’s manual work, and it’s hard, but it’s worth it.

JRV: Thank you so much, Annemarie, for sharing your insights.

My honest assessment of what the USA TODAY Network did?

Real service journalism that is not flashy but is doing the work, no matter how small or big your community is.

Consider me hopeful.

About the Author

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

What We’re Watching

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