How One Newsroom reaches the immigrant communities they live in online

The WeChat channel 纽约移民记事网Documented (or New York Imaging Chronicle) is part news service and part public service. The channel, run by the nonprofit newsroom Documented NYC, is full of local news for Chinese speakers in New York: stories about health care and immigration detentions, but also information on local events like toy giveaways, places where families can get free groceries, and affordable housing lottery lists. Followers can also contact reporters directly – to send them tips, of course, but followers also turn to the Verifier for basic questions: Where can I find free English lessons? What should I expect at my next court date? Should I travel as a green card holder?

For many newsrooms, WeChat isn’t the first place they think of to distribute news. But April Xu, who covers the Chinese community in New York, realized that the “documentary” needed to have a presence in it. Many immigrants coming to the United States from China are already on WeChat, a platform that allows them to do so It works like an everything appAnd combine X, Facebook, Venmo, online shopping, news, financial services, and more. It’s semi-closed, meaning users can only see content from their contacts, an essential way for Chinese immigrants to stay in touch with family and friends.

“That’s why they’re still sticking with this app,” Shaw says. “But it provided us with an ideal platform to communicate with Chinese-speaking immigrants.” Xu participates in more than 50 Chinese community chat groups in New York, each of which can have up to 500 members. They also run a smaller verified group chat for readers.

Xu covers only one segment of the audience for which hopes of reaching him have been documented. The nonprofit news outlet serves a range of New York’s immigrant communities, with a special focus on producing work that immigrants can use: guides, how-tos, explainers, and more. More than a third New York’s population is immigrants, the largest percentage of whom were born in the Dominican Republic, China, and Jamaica. Documented stories are available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Haitian Creole.

For years, mainstream media have turned to technology platforms to disseminate information, Bending to the will From third parties that have been kind to publishers – Until they didn’t. The media’s dependence on social media platforms is so profound that algorithms adjust priorities and change priorities Changing political winds It can lead to newsroom access. When publishers need an intermediary platform to reach their audience, they don’t really own the relationship. A documentarian thinks about access differently. Publishes the port On the Internet But also on specialized platforms like WeChat for Chinese speakers, WhatsApp for Spanish speakers, and Nextdoor for the Caribbean community.

Immigration was one of the biggest stories of 2025, as the federal government was able to take in thousands of immigrants — and Even some American citizens – In it Data-powered cloud network. But too often, news relevant to immigrant communities cannot be accessed by the people who need it most, and it is only published in English in outlets or on platforms that the community does not use.

“This would never have served them well, nor was it in their interest,” says Eithar Al-Katatni, editor-in-chief of Documented magazine. “For us, the two things that are important are: Migrants want actionable information in the languages ​​they speak and on the platforms they use.”

This dedication to meeting immigrant audiences where they are permeates Documented’s work. Al-Katatni says reporters spend between three and six hours each week personally answering readers’ questions and are encouraged to spend time in the communities they cover. Understanding the migrant media ecosystem is also essential, because every community gets their news in slightly different ways, on different platforms, or through different media. In 2019, I wrote about Hmong Americans who got news through informal means Hosted radio shows on free conference calling software. If you’re a journalist and you want to reach the people you’re writing about, you have to go where the community is.

For Ralph Thomasnet Joseph, who covers the Caribbean community for Documented magazine, this means being a regular presence on Nextdoor, the neighbourhood-based social platform; He learned through audience surveying that the platform was an essential part of the community’s media ecosystem. Every week, he searches for keywords like “immigrant” on the platform to see what local users are discussing and shares news related to immigration. Historically, Nextdoor has not been a core part of newsrooms’ distribution channels: neighborhood-level segmentation made it difficult to reach a broad audience. Earlier this year, Nextdoor Partner with thousands of local media outlets To highlight news articles more clearly among neighbors’ posts (Verifier is not part of the program).

“When I started there as a journalist talking about federal politics, promoting news content, and communicating with people in different neighborhoods, it was difficult,” Joseph says. He says many of his posts will be removed, especially if they contain certain keywords like “Donald Trump” or “Joe Biden,” or can be read as political. “The platform may assess that the conversation might be too heated, creating friction in neighborhoods, so they remove those posts.” Joseph realized that the way to make the platform useful was to keep showing up so the Nextdoor community would start recognizing him as a verified reporter. Al-Katatni says on the stand that he is “Mr. Joseph,” and is a regular source of reliable information.

Since these alternative platforms were not designed specifically for news outlets, there is a certain degree of hacking that documentarians must do to make things work for them. Rommel Ojeda, who covers Latino communities for Documented, uses WhatsApp to communicate with Spanish-speaking communities — but he quickly discovered that traditional broadcast channels didn’t offer a personalized, direct experience for readers.

“When using a third-party platform, there are always a lot of limitations,” Ojeda says. “We’ve learned that often times, these streaming channels only allow people to respond with emojis or little hearts. As in any relationship, emojis (reactions) don’t really give you anything.”

Instead, Ojeda uses the WhatsApp Business platform, where interactions with readers are “customer and business or service provider interactions” — like a customer service line. It allows Documented to have one-on-one private discussions that come through the backend of the platform managed by reporters. Staff can track previous conversations they’ve had with the user, who in turn knows they’re speaking directly with a journalist. He also shares his work and updates on a channel with 8,500 verified readers.

Intentional relationship building is also useful for story ideas: In 2023, Shaw published guide About where Chinese New Yorkers can find mental health services. The story had only gotten 300 page views when Xu received a message from a mother who had recently arrived from China and saw the story on WeChat — she had an adult son with developmental disabilities and wasn’t sure where she could get support. Xu was able to connect the family with a community organization, Profile of mother and sonAnd then publishing Separate story With resources for other Chinese New Yorkers with disabilities.

“A lot of articles focus on why (Chinese immigrants) came here, what their journey is like, how they got here, but I don’t think there’s been enough follow-up on what their lives are like after they arrive in the United States,” Xu says. How immigrants find work and access services is part of the story of immigration to the United States — and documented place can be especially helpful.

Interest in unconventional apps and forums is important, but Al-Katatni knows that nothing lasts forever when it comes to the media industry; Useful platform someday It can change overnight. The newsroom is thinking about emergency plans and how to deepen its engagement. Caribbean readers send in a lot of audio notes, should Documented produce more audio works? How can journalists protect sources, who are increasingly afraid to speak to the press amid federal attacks on immigrants? Platforms are ultimately secondary; Scope is not the motivation.

“It’s the community journalism model that really allows us to have such incredible access to our audience, and that really strong pulse that informs all of our reporting,” Al-Katatni says. “It makes our reporting compelling, it makes it effective, and it allows us to reach people we never could.”