Newspapers are stacked next to the register at a gas station in Del Rio, Texas, on a Tuesday morning, just as they have always been, next to the bottled water and lottery tickets, with a hint of neglect. However, if you look closely at the front page, you’ll notice something. There are two columns. two languages. The identical tale, repeated twice, flowing side by side like a dialogue between neighbors who were raised speaking different languages at home. Decades ago, the majority of American journalists stopped using this format. A few small dailies continue to operate in some areas of the Texas border region.
One of the few newspapers in the nation that still uses true bilingual printing is the Del Rio News-Herald, which offers both Spanish and English as a single product designed for a community that has always spoken two languages. Journalism of that nature doesn’t just happen. It calls for bilingual reporters, bilingual editors, and a sales force prepared to convince sponsors that their money can simultaneously reach two different reading habits. Every operational metric shows that it is more difficult and costly than publishing in a single language. Nevertheless, the newspaper continues to do so, upholding a South Texas custom that dates back more than a century.
Speaking with border journalism scholars gives me the impression that these publications exist in a state of dignified tension, beloved by the communities they serve but structurally vulnerable in ways that have nothing to do with language and everything to do with money. Bilingual newspapers are not an exception to the long-term decline in local advertising across the newspaper industry. Classified revenue was taken away by digital platforms. Print subscriptions have expired. In a 50,000-person border town, the economics that once made a small daily feasible have gotten much worse, and it’s still unclear whether any combination of operational ingenuity and community goodwill can completely offset that.
A demographic shift that researchers have been monitoring for decades is what makes the situation especially complex. First-generation immigrants in America tend to rely primarily on Spanish-language media for news that they can truly comprehend. They raise bilingual kids who can switch between the two languages with ease. The Spanish-language press loses a reader that is difficult to replace by the third generation, when English has typically taken the lead. It simply illustrates how language assimilation occurs over time within families; it is not a critique of cultural loyalty. With every decade that goes by, it becomes more difficult for a bilingual newspaper to serve all three generations simultaneously.
It’s not just a demographic problem. Research from Spain’s bilingual journalism experiments indicates that combining languages in a single product can alienate rather than satisfy both audiences. This is especially true in Catalonia and Galicia, where newspapers have spent years trying to figure out how to serve readers who theoretically speak two languages. A paper that is half in English could make readers who prefer Spanish feel undervalued. English-speaking readers might wonder why they are paying full price for a publication that only partially speaks to them. Some of that issue is avoided by the Del Rio model, which runs complete stories in both languages instead of combining them, but it also doubles the amount of editorial work required to produce each page.
It’s difficult to ignore the fact that the publications that continue to carry out this work are driven by a mission that transcends circulation figures. A bilingual daily serves as something more akin to a public utility than a media product in areas where a sizable portion of the populace communicates primarily in Spanish—where school board meetings, county commission votes, and emergency notifications are crucial but don’t always reach Spanish-dominant households through English-only channels. That doesn’t appear neatly on a balance sheet. However, its loss would leave a void that is unlikely to be filled by any algorithm, social media feed, or national Spanish-language outlet operating out of a studio in Miami or New York.
It is genuinely unclear if these papers will survive for another ten years. They are being opposed by structural and unyielding forces. However, the justification for their existence is also stubbornly real; it is printed in two columns, side by side, for anyone who is prepared to pick one up on a Tuesday morning near the register.
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