El Nuevo Cojo Ilustrado was a free alternative webzine published monthly from Harlem, New York. It was founded in 2003, and originally conceived as an arts and opinion magazine focused exclusively on Venezuelan culture for Venezuelans living in the United States. It also sought to be a window to the US press for Spanish speaking only immigrants by translating English articles from mainstream newspapers. But the website slowly embraced a wider audience by covering general interest issues. The site went online on April 19 and until December 2005 was updated monthly. Starting January 2006, El Nuevo Cojo moved into a model of constant updating in order to compete with the popularity of Blogging.
Since April 2005, El Nuevo Cojo started publishing an erratically printed monthly tabloid focusing on local and international events and highly politicized opinion articles in line with a gradual shift towards a more left-leaning and liberal editorial point of view. However, over time, the satirical articles and sections like fake horoscopes, polls, movie reviews and obituaries have demonstrated to be El Nuevo Cojo Ilustrado’s real trademark.
El Nuevo Cojo Ilustrado's music section is integrated to a radio streaming service called Lobotoradio. The service transmits a 24 stream of Hispanic and English pop/rock in support of music reviews and articles.
El Nuevo Cojo was founded by Gustavo Morales, a Venezuelan lawyer and New York resident, who frequently contributes history and opinion articles. The staff is made out of an international group of Hispanic writers and journalists from Europe, Latin America and the United States. Freelance writers are frequent contributors, given El Nuevo Cojo’s policy of promoting the art of writing for non-journalists. In its first year of existing, 80% of El Nuevo Cojo’s articles were written by freelancers, mostly readers. Today freelancers’ contributions make only about 10% of El Nuevo Cojo’s output.
The change, rather than from diminishing readership, was due to the development of a strong team of columnists and contributors.
El Nuevo Cojo first gained notoriety among Venezuelan readers by its strong criticism to the failed Coup d'etat that sought the deposing of President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and later against the 2004 recall referendum, when the wide majority of Venezuelan media outlets opposed the president. Attacks against opposition journalists and politicians were frequent and opened to the door to articles about local racism, classism and values in the Venezuelan society. This position gained the webzine a “Chavista” reputation that it hasn’t been able to clean up. Far from being “Chavista” (El Nuevo Cojo Ilustrado has published articles criticizing Chávez’ politics in several occasions), its ideological stance about Venezuelan affairs was motivated by its liberal and anti-Bush anti-War in Iraq point of view.
El Nuevo Cojo Ilustrado’s staff has changed a lot since its launching, but frequent contributors include Spanish writer Xavier B. Fernandez (Barcelona), Venezuelan expatriate Vicente Ulive-Schnell (Paris), Carolina Taboada (Venezuela) and Argentine journalist Cruz Joaquin Saubidet (New York). The printed edition of El Nuevo Cojo Ilustrado is highlighted by high concept illustrations by Spanish artist ADOLF.