Debuting a new magazine in an age where print media is collapsing, especially among Latinos, seems a little like stretching out on a lawn chair on the deck of the Titanic as it’s going down.

So imagine my surprise when I spotted one newly sprung to life last month while grabbing breakfast at a Mexican restaurant in Pacoima.

But let’s start at the beginning.

For decades, El Aviso and El Clasificado lorded over Southern California’s Spanish-language newspaper wars together — yet apart.

The former was a glossy free monthly that focused on dishy entertainment stories; the bare-bones latter was the Latino version of the PennySaver. The publications were rivals the way George Clooney and Brad Pitt are, each happy to stay in their lanes and appear alongside each other seemingly everywhere. Working-class Latinos grabbed them in tandem from racks at laundromats, grocery stores and strip malls.

The two started in the 1980s, mastered the wave of Spanish-language print media in the United States during the 1990s, weathered the digital media shift in the 2000s and were still going strong as recently as last year. But El Aviso hasn’t published since November; in January, its parent company declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

When El Aviso sputtered out, El Clasificado’s husband-and-wife owners, Martha de la Torre and Joe Badame, sensed an opportunity.

Enter VíveLA, a free, glossy Spanish-language monthly that literally translates as “Live L.A.” in Spanish but also offers an alternate meaning: “Live It.” It’s the magazine I first eyeballed at the Mexican restaurant. I grinned at the audacity of De la Torre and Badame.

I met the couple at El Clasificado’s two-story headquarters in Norwalk. They sit at modest desks at opposite ends of a large open newsroom; on the second floor is a small hall where the company used to hold community forums and concerts but now mostly sits empty. The office vibe is out of the 1990s, with silhouettes of random celebrities such as John Lennon and Juan Gabriel painted on walls alongside affirmations such as “Dive deep commit and execute” complete with a scuba diver doing said task.

“We’re going to stay with print as long as the demand is there,” the chipper De la Torre told me as we walked around the office. At its height, El Clasificado’s circulation was 500,000, making it the largest free Spanish-language weekly in the United States; it now stands at 265,000. Its parent company, which publishes other titles and helps Latino small-business owners create websites and social media campaigns, brought in $17 million in revenue last year, about 25% less than their best year in 2016.

“In the ‘90s, there was a lot of foot traffic everywhere that picked up El Clasificado,” said Badame, who’s more subdued than his wife but just as positive in countenance. Behind him was VíveLa managing editor Pablo Scarpellini. “We just don’t have it anymore.”

“But we still have some,” De la Torre added.

El Clasificado’s office in Norwalk. The parent company of the longtime Spanish-language monthly launched a new lifestyle magazine, VíveLA, this year.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

We settled into a conference room so the three could talk about their vision for VíveLA and answer the most obvious question:

Why?

“This was not in our plans,” admitted De la Torre, 68. “I always wanted to do one more thing, but we said it was too late in our lives. But then when [El Aviso] went bankrupt —“

“Why not?” the 66-year-old Badame interjected. He then smiled. “I love keeping busy.”

“It’s not romantic or crazy,” De la Torre replied. “It makes sense.”

She said El Aviso’s advertisers asked them to do a similar publication once word got out that it was going under, so De la Torre and her husband — accountants by training who started El Clasificado in 1988 — ran the proverbial numbers. Changing El Clasificado’s format was out of the question because “its readers don’t want to see it changed,” Badame said. They tasked Scarpellini, who has been with them for 15 years and still writes for newspapers in his native Spain, to create something fast.

“We’re not a high-end publication, but whatever we do, we wanted to do it with respect to our readers,” said the polite but passionate Scarpellini, 50.

“There used to be weeklies in the South Bay that my relatives would pick up only for the sports,” responded De la Torre, who’s of Ecuadorian descent. “We want to do stuff like that. I don’t wanna compete with daily news. Let’s do deeper stories.”

“We’re not doing this to become mega millionaires,” Badame said. “And I want to say out loud: That we’re the only type of this magazine left in the city sounds amazing, but it’s sad.”

Jose Luis Benavides, a Cal State Northridge journalism professor who specializes in Spanish-language media, said the launch of VíveLA “is a sign of hope” for Latino-themed journalism in the Southland.

“These guys know where they need to be,” he said. “There’s an incredible need. It’s not a bad idea, and it has a possibility of success.”

Benavides added that if any media organization could pull off a new Spanish-language magazine in L.A., it was El Clasificado given its brand.

“This is not the time you’re thinking, ‘Let’s start some legacy news outlet out there,’” he said. “It seems like an impossibility but evidently they found a niche.”

The first issue of VíveLA looks like an El Aviso clone at first glance. There’s a focus on entertainment stories and health advice columns, with a horoscope and a crossword puzzle thrown in. But unlike their late rival, it also includes a good mix of L.A.-centric coverage and no news releases masquerading as journalism. Scarpellini compiled a list of local events, places to celebrate Valentine’s Day and commissioned features on new California laws and a dishwasher turned Mexican restaurant mogul. He also contributed an interview with VíveLA’s inaugural cover girl, Selena Gomez.

It’s a modest effort at just 44 pages. But in an era where most print publications are already forecasting the year where they’ll go online only, VíveLA’s birth is nothing less than a miracle.

Inside El Clasificado’s office in Norwalk.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

“I don’t just want farándula [showbiz] articles,” De la Torre said. “Not just generic articles. Let’s tell deeper stories about L.A. Who’s telling the stories of Latino high school athletes from Garfield High [East Los Angeles]? No one.”

VíveLA is starting starting small, with a circulation of 40,000 distributed through the San Fernando Valley and Southeast L.A. County and the hope to expand into Santa Ana. But it’s already a financial success for its founders — they’ve sold enough ads to make the magazine profitable for 2025.

“I think it has legs for the next two years,” said Badame. “After that, we’ll see.”

Scarpellini wants to do community events to introduce VíveLA to readers. Already, staffers have done meet-and-greets at the Paramount Swap Meet.

“We don’t know how long we’ll last,” Scarpellini added, “but as long as we’re around, we’ll do it with integrity.”

De la Torre looked at both of them, then me.

“If it doesn’t make sense, it’ll break my heart,” she replied with a touch of sadness. Then came the sensibility.

“And we’ll cut it.”