Jose Beyonna, a Columbian immigrant who arrived in New York City 30 years ago, has spent decades connecting diverse communities through journalism and government. Now, he is betting on artificial intelligence to transform how ethnic and community media connect with advertisers and ultimately how they communicate with New York City.
While leading the offices of ethnic and community media in New York City, Bayona witnessed first-hand the challenge of matching advertisers with hundreds of small stores serving immigrant and minority audiences.
“For humans, it’s a process that takes days or weeks to negotiate,” he said. “We always go to the same thing (media outlet).
“We need more diversity,” Bayona said.
The challenge has inspired Bayona’s latest venture, Mosaic Connect. This is a platform that utilizes artificial intelligence to match advertisers with the right community outlet in minutes rather than weeks.
For Bayona, this project is more than business. “I didn’t think of this as business at first,” he said. “What I’m looking at is something like empowerment.”
From Community News to City Hall
Bayona began her journalism career shortly after her arrival in New York. He studied political science and journalism from Baruch College and earned a master’s degree from Cuny’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Bayona also worked as an assistant for community paper Hora Hispana under the New York Daily News in the 2000s, and later joined NY1 Noticias and served as Metro Editor for El Diario.
However, journalism has not been easy to balance family life.
In search of more stability, Bayona moved to government communications, working as deputy press secretary for the Ministry of Transport and then the administration of Children’s Services.
“Communication in government is basically like journalism at the same pace, open 24/7,” Bayona said. “You’re always on the phone. You’re dealing with the media, the stories, the reporters and all of that.”
Build the city’s community media infrastructure
In 2018, under Mayor Birde Blasio, Bayona became the director of the city hall community media. At the time, the city was home to over 350 community and ethnic media. Bayona led an effort to create reviewed directories to help urban institutions connect with these outlets.
“City agencies began asking, ‘How can I get to (the community media outlet)?'” Bayona said.
In that role, Bayona said, “supported the city’s institutions to provide information to different languages and different outlets.”
When Eric Adams became mayor, Bayona proposed to create a permanent office for ethnic and community media. “When Eric Adams was elected, he said, ‘We need to implement this office from the first day on January 21, 2022,” Bayona said.
Bayona said the office helped “open” the community media platform to New York. “These outlets, they felt empowered to report,” he said.
He added that publishers have also begun to see “the path to developing their products and businesses.”
Bayona said the office set a national example. “Other cities are considering that,” he said.
“Boston is looking at that, I think San Jose, LA is also looking at it. A lot of cities say it’s a good model,” says Bayona.
From public services to entrepreneurship
After leaving City Hall, Bayona established a consulting company, Grassroots Strategy. However, he was deeply involved in the community and ethnic media. This is the same area that I’ve been building connections and infrastructure for years at City Hall.
Bayona expanded its grassroots strategy, launched grassroots media and began developing Mosaic Connect with the same challenges encountered in the city government.
Advertisers and city staff struggled to allocate advertising dollars to 350 stores. “They said, ‘We’re going to make that mission and all of it,'” Bayona said.
He found that advertisers were repeatedly dependent on the same outlet and motivated them to find a solution. “We need to solve this,” he said.
Bayona has partnered with high-tech companies such as Airtable and Singular Innovation to build Mosaic Connect.
“Therefore, the platform has two phases,” explained Bayona. “One is for media and the other is for advertisers.”
“The media also provides all information (about the company) (all information including circulation, fees, community covered, language covered, where to distribute, etc.),” Bayona said.
Advertisers log in to the platform to target a specific community.
“I want to do this campaign, I want to do this campaign in the Bronx or in New Jersey,” Bayona said. “So the platform looked into all these outlets and which one came from New Jersey?”
AI narrows down results and filters them based on what advertisers are looking for, media provided by media, printed newspapers, radio, digital platforms, or ads in specific communities, such as newspapers and foreign language publications focused on Latin America.
Ultimately, Mosaic Connect can generate media plans in hours rather than days. “That process, I can tell you, it may take as long as half a day,” Bayona said. “The same process as traditional advertising agencies can take a week.”
AI as a tool
Mosaic Connect relies on artificial intelligence to analyze and match data, while Bayona emphasized that humans continue to control it.
“AI gives me the first interaction,” Bayona said. “This is a recommendation. But AI doesn’t lead the process. (client) lead the process.”
He highlighted a clear line between the platform recommendations and the content of any ads. Mosaic Connect does not generate creative assets or political advertising.
“One difference is that AI that the platform doesn’t create is not creative,” says Bayona. “The only thing the platform is doing is to suggest a media outlet.”
“We have nothing to do with photos, text, etc.” he added. “The client signs a contract that says, ‘I’m responsible for that creative’, but there is no interference. ”
Bayona also wanted to ensure that smaller community outlets were not left behind due to cost barriers. “High-tech services have an annual fee, which is exempt from the first month so that everyone can register,” Bayona says. The annual fee is $249 per year.
Bayona said this is much lower than other organizations, usually charging $1,000 a year and charging fees. “The grassroots media doesn’t charge fees. Everything is online,” Bayona said.
Empowering a diverse community
Bayona believes Mosaic Connect can change the way campaigns, nonprofits and businesses engage with diverse communities, especially those with limited budgets. While major campaigns often rely on expensive TV ads, small organizations may reach a more affordable price to similar audiences through ethnic and community outlets. This strategy is cheaper, but can have a big impact.
“That’s the advantage,” he continued. “If you go straight to the community when you name your community media, you may spend less and get more.”
“We don’t need to work for tools. Tools can work for us,” Bayona said.
For Bayona, Mosaic Connect represents the culmination of decades of power structure and the pinnacle of the communities they serve.
“If ethnic media survives, the community survives. That means the entire city survives,” Bayona said.
