This Colombian media outlet translates economics with a dash of memes and humour

The Instagram page of Economía para la Pipol features a disappointed Kermit the Frog, a confused Shrek, and countless memes of dogs and cats. The visual and written language of this Colombian media outlet is very different from that of austere financial publications.

Ran by a team of nine people, mostly women, and founded five years ago, this news outlet is trying to translate economics into language that truly reaches people. To learn more about their work, I spoke with María Camila González, executive director and one of the founders of Economía para la Pipol. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. How did Economía para la Pipol come about?

A. It was born at a time when people in Colombia were taking to the streets to protest tax reform. At the time, I was working as a journalist for a traditional economic media outlet here in Colombia called Portafolio, and I saw a big gap between the way information about taxes and economic issues that affect people was being communicated.

I remember being in a WhatsApp group with my family. My aunties were sending fake chain messages about tax reform, and I would explain things to them in the group and send them articles I had written explaining the issue, but they didn't read what I wrote because it was too technical. It sounded complex, and people don't really trust traditional media. That's how the groundwork for Economía para la Pipol began to be laid.

I created a WhatsApp group with colleagues who also covered economic issues, and we opened up Pipol's networks. At first, we published posts answering people's questions: what is tax reform, what is a tax... We grew, quit our jobs, and put together a plan. Today, most of us are young women, and we have been defining what it means to be a journalist today while also becoming leaders and managers.

Q. Who is your audience right now? Are they mostly young people, or more like aunties on WhatsApp?

A. We have a mix on social media, but let's say that the most prominent are people between 25 and 45 years old. Although the profiles in each network vary. On Instagram, most of our followers are women, but on YouTube, we have a lot of male followers between the ages of 35 and 55. On TikTok, we have younger followers, but most of them are millennials, with Gen Z in second place.

Last year, our Facebook followers doubled, which was strange for us because it hasn't been our main focus and it's a network that's dying. The Facebook audience is indeed the aunties.

Q. How are you funded?

A. We have several sources of funding. Among the most significant sources of income are: Sponsored educational partnerships with educational institutions, companies, NGOs, and organizations to explain complex topics in simple language on our social media channels; Courses, talks, and conferences for public and private sector organizations and educational institutions; Grants from international organizations. Although we do not have any active grants at this time; Sales of the book we launched last year with Penguin Random House; Workshops for individuals; Monetization through our reach on YouTube and Facebook, although this is not yet a significant source of income.

We are currently profitable as a company. So far, we have not had any losses. We have very strict control over our finances, with external advice. We have an approximate annual budget of $200,000, depending on the number of people on the team and the investments for the year.

Q. How do you decide which economic issues to cover?

A. Our mission is to explain economic issues that impact people. If people understand what is happening, they can make better decisions, whether democratic decisions or financial decisions with their own money. But it is also important that they can form their own opinions.

We try to answer the big questions that people ask themselves. The essence of what we do is answer questions. That's why all the headlines we have in Economía para la Pipol are questions: because they are questions from the people.

We have been covering economics for 10 years now and have developed our own criteria. But we are journalists by profession. We are not economists. We are like representatives of the public. We want to be a bridge. We follow the economic news closely, how it affects people, what the conversations are. When we get a lot of questions on the same topic, we do something on that topic.

Our logic is that if people know how inflation works, how interest rates work, they will know what to do with their money. Instead of turning to a financial guru who tells them to “move your money this way,” we think people can do it on their own if they understand economics.

Q. On your social media accounts, you address issues with humor and memes. Why did you decide to use that tone?

A. It was more of a response to what we experience as journalists in traditional media.

It also has a lot to do with our own personalities and the audience we were trying to reach. We wanted to break down that language barrier, even starting with the name itself: Pipol is misspelled in English, but we said, “That's how you can pronounce it in Spanish.”

We also thought about how we would explain some of these issues at a family lunch on a Sunday: “You're a journalist, what's going on with the minimum wage in Colombia?” Part of what we want to reproduce is the way we communicate with the people close to us, and tell them things in a way they can understand.

Q. Are you concerned that people won't take you seriously because of your informal style?

A. It's not a concern because we have the backing of several public opinion leaders who are economists and whom people listen to. We have built up a reputation over the years. The quality and journalistic rigor behind everything we do, even if there is a joke, even if there is a meme, even if there are colors, gives us credibility, and that's why there isn't much to criticize.

Q. I saw that you have started experimenting with AI. Can you tell me about your chatbot?

A. It's a chatbot that collects the database of economic content for La Pipol to answer people's questions about economics. But its answers are only based on our content, so it doesn't hallucinate. If it doesn't know something, it tells you it doesn't know.

We launched it in September. It's still in beta and we're fine-tuning things, but it's already up and running. So far, we've had a thousand open conversations. In other words, people are using it. It's been really cool because it opens up a new spectrum for us and is an innovative space. Within our workflow, we also use various tools to streamline processes and organize ourselves. We want to continue experimenting with AI and see how we can tell stories in a better way.

Q. At the moment, your content is only Colombian. Are you thinking of expanding your work to other countries?

A. That is one of our medium-term goals. Although we have not yet officially reached other countries, we have a significant percentage of followers from other countries, ranging from 5 to 10% of our total followers. We find that we have followers from other Latin American countries, but also Colombians and Latinos living in Europe, the United States, and Canada.

Q. How do you view the current environment in which traffic is declining and you are operating on platforms owned by large technology companies?

A. It is a constant risk. In fact, part of our plans for this year is to become less dependent on social media, given that our main source of income comes from there and it is very volatile.

For example, last year, after having a very high reach on X, Elon Musk's social network, we saw a significant drop in the accounts we were reaching. Our theory is that the algorithm no longer prioritizes the work we do as a media outlet. This network feeds much more on polarized messages.

As for other networks, we have managed to navigate the uncertainty and changes. We are constantly gauging the temperature of the networks and innovating frequently so as not to lose relevance. It's a daily task.

Despite the volatility of the networks and our plan to diversify our sources of income, social media remains at the heart of what we do. The reason is that this is where our audience gets its information, and we believe that continuing to be a relevant voice in these increasingly polarized and confusing spaces is key.