In a note to newsroom staff, Emily Barocas, Deputy Director of Digital Platforms & Curation, made the following announcement:
I am thrilled to announce that Pablo Valdivia will be joining the Digital Platforms and Curation team as an audience editor for Latinx readers, viewers and listeners. This is the first position of its kind at NPR and it exists thanks to the thoughtful and innovative work of the Oye listening group.
Pablo will collaborate across Newsroom and Programming to identify, develop and distribute content that will appeal to Latinx audiences. That work could take many forms - the launch of a new newsletter, a social media vertical, coordinating with desks on story angles, a video series or something else entirely.
He comes to us from Buzzfeed where he was a Senior Editor for Latinx Culture. He oversaw Pero Like, a massive digital platform to fully understand the Latinx experience that doesn't just speak to those audiences, but with them. His coverage has run the gamut — from lifestyle, food, and humorous Latinx identity content to video scripts about the 2019 Chilean protests, the tourist deaths in the DR, and the 2019 shootings in El Paso and Dayton that hit the Latinx community hard.
During the interview process for the position, Pablo impressed us with his incredibly nuanced understanding of Latinx audiences and his creative ideas on how we can get NPR content in front of them. It is not a surprise he emerged as the clear pick from the panel.
Pablo is a first-generation Mexican American who loves a good ghost story as much he loves a tasty chocolate chip cookie. In fact, he's currently on a personal quest to find LA's greatest cookie. He once consoled Lady Gaga outside of a bar, watched "Everything Everywhere All At Once" four times in theaters (and cried each time), and will hopefully be throwing his parent's 14-year-old Chihuahua a quinceañera in October when she turns 15. If you ever need to talk horror, baked goods, pop culture, or all things Latino, Pablo is your guy.
He will be joining us on August 15th. Please reach out and welcome him.
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