New sites are always popping up and some exist as a niche within a niche. But Gizmodo en Español is betting that technology news in Spanish is a winning combination.
“We’re trying to reach several markets,” says publisher Daniel Mauser. “The international market, Spain and Latin America, as well as the U.S. Hispanic market.”
Gizmodo en Español is following in the footsteps of Gizmodo in the U.S. which is part of Gawker Media, founded by Nick Denton. Mauser says Denton believes the international market will help Gawker grow and wants it to be 20 percent of revenue in the coming years. Gizmodo en Español is a foray into that market.
But Mauser says the site’s strength will come from commenters and the conversations and dialogue they start. He believes people love to talk and disagree about technology.
“People already have opinions, they already comment,” he says. “There is no way of controlling that conversation. With our commenting system you’re going to want to have a conversation with people on the site.”
Mauser says Gawker Media’s commenting system, Kinja, will allow people to have actual conversations instead of hundreds of comments with no rhyme or reason. He points to a time when Nate Silver, of political polling fame, held court in a conversation on Gawker. He envisions someone like Edward James Olmos coming on to talk about Battlestar Galactica.
He also talked about a recent story Gizmodo en Español posted about Nicaragua claiming that it hoped to be 94 percent dependent on renewable energy by 2017.
“It would be great if the Secretary of Energy of Nicaragua would come on to talk about how it wants to be one of the cleanest countries and energy independent,” he says.
But to get people talking, Mauser knows the site will have to produce quality content – and he’s confident it will do so.
“With Gizmodo en Español it’s about maintaining the essence of Gizmodo,” he says.
“We’ll be working on a daily basis with the Gizmodo U.S. team.” by Adrian Carrasquillo [NBC]