f Convergence through conflict: A case study of a US Spanish-language publication’s efforts to grow a national audience

Drawing on literature related to convergence and conflict in diaspora, this manuscript describes how one long-standing, immigrant, regional Spanish-language newspaper in the United States responded to economic pressures by employing the highly contested topic of immigration to build a larger, more diasporic audience. A comparative analysis of two weeks’ worth of print content and content published on its Facebook page, its primary digital platform, found a larger proportion of immigration stories online than in print. Furthermore, although immigration was the third most frequent subject of online news stories, behind crime and entertainment stories, immigration stories were the most popular stories as evidenced by audience ‘likes’ and ‘shares’. These results lend support to the idea that so-called ‘ethnic entrepreneurs’ can refocus and redirect diasporic audiences around new conflicts in countries of residence.