Americano Media’s pitch to investors and advertisers to fund its extremism has seemingly been unsuccessful, as new reporting finds the outlet is bleeding money despite plans to expand.
According to a recent Miami Herald report, Americano Media — the Trump-aligned network that had been angling to become the Fox News of Spanish-speaking America — “has run out of money” and is asking 100-plus staffers to work without pay until the company finds a lifeline. The report also spells out concerns about “overspending and mismanagement” among Americano Media employees, including concerns over Ivan Garcia-Hidalgo, the network’s CEO, having his family on the payroll.
Americano Media launched in March 2022 with a nearly $20 million initial investment for a Spanish-language conservative channel on SiriusXM satellite radio, but it shifted in September to broadcasting on Florida AM radio, claiming to seek a more “permanent basis in the community.”
Back in May of 2023, Americano Media debuted an aggressive expansion plan, pitching advertisers at the annual NewFronts showcase on a plan to expand its supposedly “brand safe” content, from radio to streaming and television. Nevertheless, Americano Media has spent the better part of 2023 pushing dangerous abortion and climate change misinformation and parroting anti-LGBTQ, anti-Black, and anti-immigrant right-wing narratives.
Now, despite efforts to court investors and advertisers with a growing digital audience and high-profile conservative interviews and endorsements, Americano Media is reportedly seeking a bailout, indicating a clear lack of adequate interest from investors in the conspiracy theory-fueled network’s ambitious expansion goals.
According to the Miami Herald report, an offer from Voz Media — the conservative bilingual news start-up based out of Texas — was “expected within hours,” but reports have not yet indicated whether it has materialized. The buyout would reportedly “allow Americano Media to continue operations.”
Voz Media recently acquired the popular bilingual conservative digital outlet El American, boosting it as a significant purveyor of Spanish-language conservative talking points on immigration, abortion, and other culture-war issues to over 697,000 followers across Facebook, X (Twitter), and Instagram.
Back in February, Voz Media struck a deal to buy the Puerto Rico-based conservative network Mega TV for $64 million from the Miami-based media giant Spanish Broadcasting System. During an interview celebrating the acquisition, VOZ Media CEO Orlando Salazar claimed to “know there is another media outlet that is very close to Trump, and their investors are very close to Trump,” an apparent nod to Americano Media’s entrenched connections to former President Donald Trump, including its chief communications officer Michael Caputo, who was appointed Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services during the Trump administration.
During the interview, Salazar added his company “does not have those relationships,” but he has also made clear he intends to be “the opposite” of the major Spanish-language media networks in the United States, which he claims, “carry water for the left … just like NBC, ABC, and CBS.”