Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month runs May 1-31, recognizing the role of the AAPI community in U.S. history. This month, we spoke to leaders at two news organizations that serve AAPI audiences to find out how they connect with their readers, what fuels their passion for journalism and how they stay competitive in the digital and print news market.

AsamNews

What is one product or innovation that makes you particularly proud?

We launched a Rock Against Hate virtual concert during the pandemic in 2021 and followed up with a second concert in 2022. We used it to highlight some of the community groups working to combat hate while putting the spotlight on some top AAPI talent. Some of our performers went on to perform on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and Good Morning America 3. This year we hope to be live with the concert in two different venues while simultaneously streaming it.

How does your news organization stay connected to its readers?

We keep an eye out for comments on social media and try to respond when appropriate. We also reply to every email except to the trolls.

What’s the one thing that mainstream media often get wrong about your community?

They portray us as a monolith despite the various ethnicities across the Asian American and Pacific Islander spectrum. While we have common interests, we have distinct cultures, needs and issues.

How has your approach to journalism changed throughout the years?

Whether to inspire change, generate a healthy discussion or focus on solutions, we aim to publish impactful stories. Through representation and inclusion, we want members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities to feel better about themselves and for others to see them in a different light.

— Randall Yip, Founder and Editor, AsAm News

The Juggernaut

What is one product or innovation that makes you particularly proud?

That we even exist. The Juggernaut is a media company and community for the South Asian diaspora, and beyond, headquartered in New York City. We started off as a free weekly newsletter aggregated news affecting South Asians globally. Despite investors thinking our idea wouldn’t work — a targeted news and features offering centering South Asian stories — we then launched with paywalled articles, have a thriving Instagram presence, and also tested podcasts and YouTube videos. We’re excited to keep going! And we hope our audience will keep supporting us (follow us on Instagram, and subscribe here!).

How does your news organization stay connected to its readers?

Our power channel is Instagram, where we have over 288,000 followers. Whenever we do a community-oriented story — such as why many South Asians globally don’t learn to swim or the impact of Kumon on the South Asian diaspora — we usually do a callout for sources using Instagram stories and our Twitter. Not only does this make our story better, but it also engages our existing audience and makes them feel part of the project of preserving our histories.

What’s the one thing that mainstream media often get wrong about your community?

This is cliché, but of course we’re not a monolith. We have some of the richest people within our community (Indian Americans), but we also have the second-largest group of illegal immigrants from one country (also Indian Americans). We also include Bangladeshi Americans, Pakistani Americans, Sri Lanka Americans, Nepali Americans, Bhutanese Americans, Maldivian Americans, Afghan Americans, and sometimes Burmese Americans. We all have different histories and different immigrant journeys. Our community doesn’t just care about “representation” for the sake of representation, i.e. “checking a box.” We have complex, complicated feelings about most everything. For example, when Rishi Sunak became the Prime Minister of the U.K., yes, many were joyous to see someone whose heritage is from a colonized country now heading up the British government. But many people also weren’t happy with some of Sunak’s policies. And that’s OK! Mainstream media often misses these nuances.

How has your approach to journalism changed throughout the years?

We’ve gotten more ambitious and tried to be more timely. Roughly 90% of our stories are evergreen — namely, you can read them today but you can also revisit them three years from now and get some value from it. But, we started noticing that sometimes our voice was missing on cultural moments. Just a few months back, there were no South Asian dancers performing to “Naatu Naatu” at the Oscars, which ultimately won for Best Original Song. We ended up quickly commissioning an op-ed and supplementing it with reporting within just a few days. So we’ve had to work a bit harder to get those out quickly with such a small team, when it’s still the topic of the day.

— Snigdha Sur, Founder, The Juggernaut