For Patricia Mercado Sánchez, founder of Conexión Migrante, “information is the most powerful tool to defend the rights of migrants.”
The longtime journalist and former editor-in-chief of Mexico’s El Economista launched Conexión Migrante in Mexico nearly a decade ago to provide news and information in Spanish to migrants living in the U.S. and Mexico.
Stories published on the digital news outlet’s website, YouTube and other social channels from a small team of reporters respond to questions directly from Latinx migrants, covering everything from health care to taxes to family reunification.
In early 2026, the website updated readers with critical information daily related to ICE, including an explainer on what documents may be needed in the event of detention.
“I came from 20 years working in print journalism,” Mercado Sánchez explains. “When I started this digital outlet, the first thing that I did was study the digital world to understand what kind of business challenges I could have.
“I learned that the technological area in Conexión Migrante is vital for our operation,” Mercado Sánchez says.
They do a lot as a small team, Mercado Sánchez explains. Even though last year was one of the worst financially for the digital outlet, she still manages to support five full-time journalists and four student interns with a mixed revenue model.
But with a tight budget came limited resources to optimize the website and make improvements.
Like many LATAM news outlets, Conexión Migrante’s website design and tech support were contracted out, and with that came slowdowns and server disruptions that were costing them traffic and ad revenue.
Mercado Sánchez was drawn to Indiegraf’s tech because the full-service tech stack delivers “everything you need to be successful in the digital world as media.”
“I can relax in peace knowing that everything is okay with the tech.”
Research from SembraMedia shows that organizations with someone on the team dedicated to tech see three times the revenue compared to those that don’t.
“[With Indiegraf]you can have all the services in one place, like the newsletter, the ad sections… and the platform is very easy to use for us,” Mercado Sánchez says.
“You have the guarantee that it’s a serious company that has resources to know the latest developments in tech to give us a good service and good optimization.”
Switching to Indiegraf helped Conexión Migrante recover website traffic
In 2021, Conexión Migrante had millions in traffic with programmatic ads generating the main source of income, Mercado Sánchez explains. But problems with the website server started costing them traffic.
Now, after a successful migration to Indiegraf in 2025 and access to a suite of services, the outlet is gaining it back. “Since October or November… we are growing our audience. I think the stability and the good design of the web page is helping us to recover this traffic.”
With ad revenue being critical to the sustainability of the outlet, customizability is key. “The other part that I love is that we can decide where we put our ads and the design of the web page,” she says. “They give you all the information you need.”
“The most important asset we have now is our web page. And it has to be a good design and good performance if we want to have traffic and if we want to make money.”
“For us, it is very important to have a company who can support all of this.”
Because Indiegraf’s websites are built within the WordPress ecosystem, where the previous website was built, the team adapted quickly, she says.
“At first I was a little afraid because I said, ‘Oh my god, I don’t know what will happen if I move the design of the page’ But it’s very easy to use and we are very happy to have the independence to do the things without asking somebody to do it.”
“I can relax in peace knowing that everything is okay with the tech.”
The value of efficient migration and customer support in Spanish
The process of migration was less than a week, even with a large volume of information to be transferred.
For Mercado Sánchez, the migration was fast and easy to follow. “The process to give you all the information you need to design the web page and do all the connections is very easy to follow and to understand.”
Importantly, they see Indiegraf working hard to provide Spanish-language service.
“It’s very important to have Spanish support, because maybe I can speak English but my team doesn’t.”
Using Indiegraf data analytics, revenue, and website features to boost revenue
Mercado Sánchez appreciates the back-end dashboard that brings all of the digital services in one place for publishers.
“I love the dashboard because you have analytics,” says. “It’s very easy for us to know how our website is performing and to access the features we need to use everyday… Because G4A (Google Analytics) is so difficult to understand.”
Other service highlights include video streaming on the website and Indiegraf Pay, an integration that facilitates reader donations and audience revenue.
A sidebar on the website displays their latest YouTube content, strong placement that helps ensure people who prefer to take in information and news in video format are well served.
“The video section for us is very very important,” Mercado Sánchez says. “We need to change the way we are informing our audience because our audience now is now used to informing themselves through video.”
These improvements are especially important for Conexión Migrante to counter misinformation targeting migrants on social platforms.
“[Our community members] think the social networks are the only place where they can be informed. Then you have to do something and find strategies to say, ‘No this is not the only place where you can find information.’”
Mercado Sánchez is hopeful additional improvements to the website performance will also boost revenue.
“The most important asset we have now is our web page. And it has to be a good design and good performance if we want to have traffic and if we want to make money.”
Specifically, they aim to provide more direct advertising.
“Even journalists who never thought to put advertising on their websites can be thinking about another channel to get money to sustain the media outlet.”
While Mercado Sánchez hasn’t noticed an uptick in ad sales quite yet as it’s the start of a new year, they have solid prospects for direct advertising.
Other technological developments for the outlet include AI training and tools to support internal operations, like a Gemini Gem to assist with grant and proposal writing.
“We use AI more than we think because we are using it for many things that are everyday work. But I think we need to do it in a better way — more organized and with more clear processes because we are a small team then we need help,” Mercado Sánchez says.
“We need to understand the technology and to know what is happening because we are working in the digital era.”
