Pandora, the online music streaming service, keeps track of the number of Latinos who are using the platform, and as a result, the company is able to leverage that audience for specific sponsorships for advertisers. The company does an annual survey of its users in order to be able to leverage its users base. An interesting post in AdWeek points out that, although Pandora keeps track of this data, Spotify does not, and as a result Pandora has been more apt at leveraging its Latino audience.… more

A project from 4thEstate.net found that less than 1% — .9% — of front page print articles covering the 2012 presidential election were written by Latinos. Asian and African American reporters were represented in slightly higher numbers, but a whopping 93% of the stories were written by whites (Updated). And, we’d venture to say, the majority of those were written by men. According to the project:

The most striking under-representation of minorities in our data is that of Hispanic journalists, considering the Hispanic population stands at approximately 16.3% of the U.S.

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California launched online voter register this year and the results have been pretty impressive: 1 million visitors to the site. Online registrants tended to be younger, which is interesting in a state where 38% of the population is Latino, and during an era where 1 in 3 Latino voters are under 30. According to the California Secretary of State the site drew about 1 million users, and of the 680,000 new voters, more than half came from the online registration process. Most of the online registrants were young, according to Capitol Weekly:

 The online registrants also trended toward younger voters.

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If you haven’t heard of Los Master Plus, you’ve been missing out. If you have heard of them, you are going to love their latest hit! “Ponte SMART” is not only a catchy tune, but talks about the different ways Latinos (Mexicans, in this case) use technology, their smartphones in particular. The song details everything from texting to Facebooking and more. So check out this latest video and let us know what you think! Thanks to Clarissa for the tip! … more

The Florida Board of Education voted to set different standards of reading and math achievement for students based on their race and ethnicity this month. There’s been controversy over the decision, which the Board is not budging on, but apparently the move was made in part because of No Child Left Behind. The ultimate goal is to get white, Asian, black and Latino students up to grade level achievement by 2023; the proposed achievement for each ethnic group is a gradient to get them there. … more

Latinos between the ages of 18 and 34 tend to be more entrepreneurial than their white or African American counterparts, according to a recent report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which supports entrepreneurship.  According to the survey young people in the U.S. today are interested in pursuing their own ventures, but:

Young Latinos and African Americans (64 percent and 63 percent, respectively) are even more motivated to start their own businesses.

The report also shed some light on why this might be.… more

Nuevo Labs is a Chicago-based business accelerator program trying to develop Latino entrepreneurial talent. Co-created by Patricia Martinez and Juan Hernández, applications for businesses and entrepreneurs open soon. Business accelerator programs such as Nuevo Labs provide a three-month intensive mentoring program for early-stage ventures. Business accelerators also create the opportunity for the investor community and local industry experts to interact with the startups in the program.… more

A report from the National Association of Investment Companies shows that private equity firms that are either diverse or owned by  minorities achieved substantially higher gains that those which are not. A Bloomberg report noted:

Funds managed by NAIC member firms, 79 percent of which are owned by minorities and 69 percent of which have women or minorities in at least half of the investment roles, had a median net internal rate of return of 15 percent from 1998 to 2011, compared with 3.7 percent for the U.S.

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A recent analysis of 20,000 venture-backed companies in the U.S. from 1997 to 2011 found that, when women are in senior positions, companies tend to do better. An article in Business Week noted:

They had more than twice as many women in top jobs like C-level managers, vice presidents, and board members than their unsuccessful counterparts did. Companies that went public, were acquired, or turned profitable were defined as “successful”…At successful companies, the median share of female executives was 7.1 percent, compared with 3.1 percent at unsuccessful firms.

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The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project released a study this week detailing the use of mobile devices for political purposes this election season. Turns out, about 27% of registered voters use their phones for political ends. Three-fourths of these folks use their phones to text, and of those texts:

• 19% sent campaign-related texts
• 5% signed up to receive politics-related texts
• 5% are receiving political texts they don’t want

But the really interesting stuff is at the intersection of cell phone ownership (48% of those in the survey owned smartphones) and social networking:

• 45% used their smartphone to read others’ comments on a social networking site about a candidate or the campaign
• 35% used their smartphone to fact check a candidate’s statement
• 18% used their smartphone to comment on a social networking site about a candidate or the campaign

You can read the rest of the report here.… more