This week’s Hispanic PR Blog interview is with Hispanic blogger and PR pro Clarisel Gonzalez who through her Puerto Rico Sun blog focuses on targeting a diverse and influential English-speaking Puerto Rican/Latino community in New York City.
Hispanic PR Blog: Tell us about your self, any relevant journalism experience you have and why you started your blog?
Clarisel Gonzalez: I am Clarisel Gonzalez, editor and publisher of Puerto Rico Sun Communications, an independent community media and art business registered in the Bronx, NY. PRSUN is a social entrepreneurship with a business and social mission of informing, empowering and building community with a multimedia approach.
A veteran journalist, I have served as a reporter and editor at newspapers and magazines in New York, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico.
I earned a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University in New York City, majoring in media studies and psychology. After years of working as a staff journalist, I broke out on my own in 2002 when I lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico. That year I started the Puerto Rico Sun e-magazine as a grassroots project with the goal of using the Internet to provide community media and art. In 2004, I converted Puerto Rico Sun into a blog. I started blogging because I enjoy its democratic and easy to use format. I also liked that you could reach, communicate and interact with a global audience instantaneously.
In addition to my online activity, I curate and participate in photo exhibits and take part in community, art and cultural events. I also provide freelance writing, teaching, and consulting services for clients. Last year, I graduated from the Kaufmann Foundation’s FastTrac GrowthVenture Program for entrepreneurs, which is offered by the City of New York. I was honored with a “Mejor de Nuestra Comunidad/The Best in Our Community” award from Comite Noviembre as part of the Puerto Rican Heritage Month celebration in New York City last year.
HPRB: Who is the target audience of your blog and what data can you provide us about the size of your audience?
CG: Puerto Rico Sun Communications serves a Puerto Rican and US Latino niche market on- and off-line.
My blogs primarily target a diverse and influential English-speaking Puerto Rican/Latino community in New York City. As a community-driven Internet business, PRSUN also strives to have a national voice. It hopes to be a bridge between Puerto Ricans/Latinos in NYC, Puerto Rico and other important Puerto Rican/Latino markets in the United States.
Our readers are upwardly mobile Latino men and women who are Bilingual/Bicultural with a preference for English media. They are movers and shakers in their communities.
PRSUN Communications not only reaches Latinos who speak English and have an interest in their heritage, but anyone interested in Latino culture, music and information.
I like to be transparent, so I have visitor numbers and relevant information posted on most of my blogs.
HPRB: What makes your blog unique?
CG: Puerto Rico Sun Communications, an Internet based Latina-owned venture, takes its business and social mission of informing, empowering and building community seriously. PRSUN is an independent media and art venture with a multimedia approach.
PRSUN serves as a forum for community life and issues and maintains relationships with local artists and cultural institutions, civic organizations, individual community and business leaders as well as elected officials. PRSUN covers community news, events and views, lifestyle, culture, arts and entertainment. We produce original content. The company, as part of the community, uses technology to report on people, places and happenings going on in the under covered, underserved yet vibrant Puerto Rican/Latino community.
HPRB: Do you have any accompanying Twitter, Facebook or other social media contact information you would like to share?
CG: Yes, I publish or produce several community media projects: Puerto Rico Sun, PRSUN Radio, Bronx Latino and Clarisel’s Photo Place. I use accompanying Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning and other social media as an extension of my blogs. You have to reach your readers and potential customers where they are at and these days many of them are using social media.
HPRB: What is your blog’s web address and how frequently do you update your posts?
CG: Puerto Rico Sun blog, www.prsun.blogspot.com, Puerto Rico Sun social network at www.puertoricosun.ning.com and PRSUN Radio, www.blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio
Bronx Latino, www.bronxlatino.blogspot.com
Clarisel’s Photo Place, www.clarisel.blogspot.com
I update all my blogs and social networks regularly.
HPRB: What is the key contact information for you and or your blog?
CG: Clarisel Gonzalez, Puerto Rico Sun Communications, 318 E. 149 St. #106, Bronx, NY 10454; clarisel@puertoricosun.com; 347 827 0837; prsuncom @ Skype
HPRB: What topics are of special interest to your blog and which ones are definitely not?
CG: Puerto Rico Sun (the blog and online radio show) focuses on cultural news and arts, highlighting themes related to Puerto Ricans and the Diaspora.
Bronx Latino is a lifestyle blog highlighting Bronxites who live, work or hail from the Bronx (no matter where they live at), events and news of interest; and Clarisel’s Photo Place is a blog focusing on my photography and news.
HPRB: What are the best days and hours to reach you and/or your staff with a specific type of story or interview? What are the worst days/times?
CG: The best way to reach me is via e-mail.
HPRB: What are your policies in terms of accepting press kits, photos and/or multimedia video files?
CG: Feel free to e-mail or mail the information the old-fashioned way.
HPRB: Is there anything you would like to add about your blog or about working with you?
CG: If you are on Twitter, follow me and I will follow you. I’m @prsun (for Puerto Rico); @bronxlatino (for Bronx Latino); and @clariselphoto (for Clarisel’s Photo Place). I am microblogging more on Twitter, so that is a good way to communicate and work with me.