Al Dia

About Al Dia

AL DÍA is Philadelphia's Latino news organization — founded in 1992 by Hernán and Elizabeth Guaracao, immigrants from Colombia, as a Spanish-language neighborhood paper in North Philadelphia, and grown over three decades into a bilingual, multimedia news operation serving Latinos in Philadelphia, the Mid-Atlantic and nationwide. What began in January 1993 as an eight-page newsletter has evolved through a weekly newspaper into a digital-first organization publishing in both Spanish and English, crowned in 2023 by the launch of AL DÍA Magazine, a subscription-based digital and print publication in "English+" covering the best of the American multicultural experience. Journalist-owned and operated from 1835 Market Street in Philadelphia, its website is aldianews.com.

Founding: a newsletter from North Philly

Al Día was founded in 1992 by Hernán and Elizabeth Guaracao, who had immigrated to the United States from Colombia. Hernán Guaracao — an unemployed professional journalist with a master's degree in journalism from the University of Iowa who couldn't land a newsroom job in Philadelphia in 1991 — started the paper at home in North Philadelphia, where he and Elizabeth were raising their daughters Gabriela Andrea and Anna Felicia. The first issue appeared in January 1993 as an eight-page newsletter, produced on a Macintosh SE that still sits in the company's conference room. The impulse was representation: a lack of Latinx representation in the media led entrepreneurial journalists to found a paper focused on the daily experiences and struggles of the Latino population, told by the community itself, challenging the stereotypes molded by mainstream media.

Growing beyond the barrios

According to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Al Día "worked to expand the circulation of Latino-centric news beyond the Spanish-speaking barrios of North Philadelphia to the entire city, a span that continued to grow until it reached into the suburbs of Pennsylvania and New Jersey." When publication began, Al Día appeared monthly at perhaps eight pages; within a year it had become a weekly. The paper was revolutionary in its ambition: Latino-centric news not as a neighborhood bulletin but as a citywide — and eventually regional — journalistic institution. By 2019, more than twenty years on, Al Día served as a multi-platform news medium, publishing physical and electronic editions in both English and Spanish and hosting culturally and socially engaging events and initiatives.

The libel case

The paper's adversarial journalism carried risks. In 2009, Al Día paid $210,000 to former city solicitor Ken Trujillo after losing a libel lawsuit over a 2006 series alleging improprieties in Trujillo's election as chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The case — reportedly influenced by the paper's rare use of an English headline on its cover — was a costly lesson in the stakes of watchdog reporting, and a reminder that the community press faces the same legal perils as the mainstream dailies.

Going bilingual

As Philadelphia's Latino population grew — 13 percent Hispanic or Latino by 2014, up from 11.6 percent in 2010 — and as younger Latinos shifted toward English, Al Día adapted. In 2014 it launched an English-language version of its website and began publishing original stories in English alongside translations between the languages. The shift was decisive: by 2016, roughly 80 percent of visits to the website were to English-language content, and the site averaged 92,000 unique visitors a month in 2015. The paper's leadership read the demographics clearly — 62 percent of adult American Hispanics were bilingual or primarily English-speaking, and the share speaking only English at home was projected to keep rising — and bet the organization's future on serving Latino readers in whatever language they preferred.

AL DÍA Magazine and the "English+" era

In 2023, AL DÍA announced the launch of AL DÍA Magazine, a subscription-based digital and print publication in English covering "the best of the American multicultural experience" — news analysis, op-eds and features on politics, education, leadership and culture, plus metro Philadelphia and Mid-Atlantic news. The 40- to 60-page glossy magazine is written in what the company calls "English+," with QR codes in each article giving members access to the content in American English and standard U.S. Spanish. A one-year membership includes the magazine and VIP invitations to news events; the first edition featured Cherelle Parker and David Oh, the candidates for Philadelphia's 100th mayor. "AL DÍA has continuously evolved over its 30-year history," publisher Hernán Guaracao explained. "What started as a newsletter printed in my home in North Philly... eventually grew into a weekly newspaper... And now it has grown into a multimedia news organization, with a glossy magazine, housed in a high rise in Philadelphia."

Championing Spanish-language journalism

Al Día's commitment to the field extends beyond its own pages. Its philanthropic arm, the Al Día Foundation, created the Félix Varela y Morales Annual Awards for Excellence in Spanish-Language Journalism — with $10,000 prizes believed to be the largest cash award for U.S. Spanish-language journalism — honoring the Cuban-born priest who founded America's first Spanish-language newspaper in Philadelphia in 1824. The awards recognize that Hispanic print has contributed to the national dialogue since 1824 and deserves recognition for its excellence like any other press.

Serving a growing Latino Philadelphia

Al Día's growth has tracked the growth of the community it serves. Philadelphia's Hispanic and Latino population rose from 11.6 percent in 2010 to 13 percent in 2014, and the city boasts one of the fastest-growing millennial populations in the United States — the young, bilingual audience Al Día courts. The paper's evolution from a Spanish-only neighborhood newsletter to a bilingual multimedia organization mirrors the community's own trajectory: increasingly English-dominant, increasingly suburban, increasingly central to the city's civic and cultural life. With 62 percent of adult American Hispanics bilingual or primarily English-speaking, Al Día's bet on bilingualism positioned it ahead of Spanish-only competitors — serving Latino readers in the language they actually use, while keeping the community's stories told by the community itself.

A journalist-owned institution

From an eight-page newsletter on a Macintosh SE to a bilingual multimedia organization with a glossy magazine, AL DÍA's journey mirrors the rise of Latino America itself. Hernán Guaracao couldn't get hired by a Philadelphia newsroom in 1991; he built one instead — and three decades later it serves Latinos from North Philly to the nation, in two languages, owned by journalists, telling the community's stories its own way.

AL DÍA remains a unique journalist-owned and operated news organization — founded by a working journalist, run by journalists, with offices on Market Street in Philadelphia's business and political center. From an eight-page newsletter on a Macintosh SE to a bilingual multimedia organization with a glossy magazine, its 30-plus-year arc traces the maturation of Latino media in America: from the margins to the mainstream, from Spanish-only to bilingual, from neighborhood to nation — always telling the community's stories in the community's own voice.

That journalist ownership matters. In an era of hedge-fund newspaper chains and disappearing local news, AL DÍA is owned by the people who produce it — accountable to its readers, not to distant shareholders. Hernán Guaracao's journey from unemployed journalism graduate to publisher of a bilingual multimedia organization is itself the American story the magazine celebrates: an immigrant who couldn't get hired by Philadelphia's newsrooms built his own, and spent three decades making sure his community's stories got told. The newsletter became a newspaper; the newspaper became a magazine; the mission never changed.