At 4 a.m., while his city still sleeps, Johnny Lucas is already awake. He gets ready to arrive at the radio station where he co-hosts a morning news show from 5 to 8 a.m. By then, his day is just beginning. He spends the rest reporting and publishing on his own outlet, Punto de Vista Manabí.
Lucas repeats this routine Mondays through Saturdays. And on Sundays, instead of resting, he’s up early again to run a flower stand outside the General Cemetery of Manta, a fishing city on Ecuador’s coast. What began as help for a family tradition is now part of his survival amid the precarity of journalism in Ecuador.
His situation mirrors that of many Ecuadorian journalists who work without a living wage or social security, according to a report this year by the organization Journalists Unbound (Periodistas Sin Cadenas in Spanish). To get by, many reporters in the country must combine journalism with other jobs.
“The hardest part is waking up in the early morning, Monday through Saturday, and then doing the same on Sunday,” Lucas told LatAm Journalism Review. “There’s no regular rest.”
Johnny Lucas colabora en una estación de radio de lunes a sábado, además de administrar su propio medio digital. (Captura de pantalla de un Facebook Live de Radio La Voz 1570)
Lucas, 53, is a journalism graduate of the Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí. His connection to flowers is rooted in his family’s history. His mother entered the business by helping a woman who brought flowers from Ecuador’s highlands to sell in Manta, he said. Later, his mother opened her own stall outside the cemetery, where Lucas began helping her at age 14.
Over time, one of Lucas’s brothers opened a flower shop. After their mother died, another sister inherited the cemetery stall.
But Lucas chose a different path. He graduated high school as an auto mechanic, started studying computer science, and later switched to communications with a focus on journalism.
Lucas paid for college with construction jobs, mostly pouring concrete slabs, he said. He began his journalism career with internships at the now-defunct Cenit radio station and the Manta bureau of the now-defunct Diario El Mercurio. He later held more formal roles at other local outlets including Diario Metropolitano, Radio Colón, and Diario El Manaba.
Even after becoming a journalist, Lucas continued helping his siblings with the flower business, especially his sister, who had health issues. “On Sundays I would sacrifice a bit and go help her. I was always there, believe me. I didn’t feel obligated, but she was my sister and I was her only support,” he said.
That support for his sister soon became support for himself. During President Rafael Correa’s three consecutive terms, from 2007 to 2017, dozens of news outlets were forced to close due to economic pressure, while others were shut down or seized by authorities. The outlets Lucas worked for were among them.
Then came the earthquake that struck Ecuador in April 2016, wiping out dozens of media outlets across the country, especially in the coastal provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas, according to the independent organization Fundamedios.
That’s when Lucas began to hear that some colleagues were turning to “virtual journalism” by creating news platforms online and, with them, their own jobs.
One of those journalists was Gerardo Delgado, a well-known local TV reporter who launched the digital channel Ola Manta in 2020. He became widely popular by walking the streets and giving a voice to the community’s problems, until he was shot to death in 2022.
Lucas’s first experience with online journalism was precisely at Ola Manta, which he helped create alongside Delgado. A few months after the channel launched, Lucas contracted COVID-19 and spent two weeks hospitalized. Upon recovery, he challenged himself to launch his own online outlet. That was the genesis of Punto de Vista Manabí, a page on Facebook where Lucas covers all kinds of news in Manta and surrounding areas.
The site features news about politics, the economy, and local community issues. But Lucas admits he gives a certain priority to crime reporting, which, he says, is what his audience consumes the most. “You know people like the sensational stuff, and to get followers, to get people to follow me, crime stories have to be there, no matter what.”
Today, Punto de Vista Manabí has 12,000 followers. That audience allows him to generate income by selling commercial coverage to local businesses and institutions, an approach many Ecuadorian journalists have adopted with digital ventures.
Lucas knows that with that number of followers, he could monetize his Facebook page, as it exceeds the 10,000-follower threshold required by Meta’s content monetization program. But he says he hasn’t done it yet due to lack of time and technical knowledge.
“Some colleagues here who have a large following monetize everything,” he said. “What I do are paid interviews, paid coverage, when a company invites you to cover an opening or something.”
With his work at the radio station, his online outlet, and flower sales, Lucas earns the equivalent of one monthly minimum wage. “And sometimes a little more,” he said. With that, he must cover household expenses and support his 12-year-old grandson, who is now his only companion following the death of his sister earlier this year.
“He’s in school and I’m basically the one covering all his expenses. I pay for basic utilities here: water, electricity, phone, internet, and food,” he said. “Sometimes when I have a little time, I come home and, I’m not a great cook, but I can find my way around the kitchen.”
After his sister passed away, Lucas’s brother, who owns the flower shop, asked him to fully take over the stall at the cemetery. “My mom used to do it, my sister continued, and I used to help her. And now that they’ve both passed, I’m the one there,” he said.
Every Sunday, Lucas arrives from 5:30 to 6 a.m. to set up the stall and prepare bouquets and floral arrangements before the cemetery opens at 8 a.m. That way, he can make the most of the busiest hours for visitors, he said.
With nearly 40 years in the business, Lucas has learned the techniques to craft all kinds of bouquets and arrangements.
“I’m not a master. My brother is much better at it,” he said. “But with time, you learn how it’s done. It becomes a routine. Practice makes perfect. I’ve been doing this for years, just by watching, observing. You learn a lot by asking questions.”
He usually wraps up by midday—unless it’s a special occasion like Mother’s Day or the Day of the Dead, when sales increase, he said. But if news beckons, he doesn’t hesitate to pack up early.
“When there’s something scheduled ahead of time, say, an event to cover, then I go do that. And I tell my brother, ‘You know what? I’m done here,’ and I leave.”
Despite the low pay, lack of rest, and lack of labor protections, Lucas keeps reporting because he believes in the value of information. When asked whether he’s ever thought about leaving journalism, his answer is firm:
“No, I haven’t thought about it. This is what I know how to do.”
This article is part of a series on journalists who supplement their income with work outside the profession
