Since 1998, we have built media that matters.

We create media with a distinct identity—capable of shaping how audiences see the world, while sustaining themselves over time. Everything we do is grounded in a simple conviction: cultural impact and financial viability are not opposing forces, but inseparable conditions. A media platform that does not shape the conversation becomes disguised advertising. One that cannot sustain itself simply disappears.

We operate across three divisions: company building, consulting, and business intelligence. This model gives us something rare: an inside perspective. We build media, advise media, and understand the industry through direct experience—as operators, not observers.

Our hardest advantage to replicate comes from an uncommon legacy: decades operating in media environments where survival depended on selling. From that pressure emerged something the digital world rarely develops—a real culture of bootstrapping. Not as a learned methodology, but as instinct: the ability to generate economic value from day one, to turn audiences into revenue and agreements into businesses.

We integrate digital and traditional media not as stages in a transition, but as simultaneous expressions of the same reality: how people inform themselves, identify, and belong. We are living through a moment of realignment. In a world saturated with content, audiences are not looking for more—they are looking for better. They seek niche voices, communities that reflect them, and media that tells them something true about who they are.

Specialization, once seen as a limitation, is now one of the scarcest and most valuable dynamics in the media industry. It is where we build, invest, and grow.

Founder

José Antonio Chaurand

Born Celaya, 1974. Lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico.

Overview

José Antonio Chaurand — known in the art world as JACH — is a Mexican entrepreneur, visual artist, publisher, creative director, and economist whose career spans nearly three decades at the intersection of cultural media, design, and contemporary art. Trained originally in economics, Chaurand built much of his intellectual and creative formation through the direct practice of publishing, immersing himself in art history, journalism, graphic design, and cultural management while simultaneously running one of the most consequential independent arts publications in Mexico. His work as an artist, which developed in parallel to his media career, engages with themes of chance, civilization, and the arbitrary systems through which human beings assign meaning and value. He is also the founder of Media Inc., a media company building and consulting platform, and a key creative force behind Residente Food & Drink Media.

Education and Formation

Chaurand received his Bachelor of Science in Economics in 1998 at ITESM. Rather than following a conventional academic path after graduation, he pursued a self-directed education in the arts and humanities — studying art history, journalism, graphic design, through sustained personal research and professional practice. This formation was inseparable from the founding and daily operation of La Tempestad, a magazine that demanded both intellectual rigor and sophisticated visual literacy. Over the nineteen years he directed it, the publication became his most intensive school, bringing him into continuous dialogue with critics, curators, writers, architects, and artists from across Latin America, Europe, and beyond.

La Tempestad (1998–2017)

In May 1998, Chaurand founded La Tempestad. The magazine launched in black and white with an initial print run of one thousand copies and grew, over the following decade, into a full-color publication of 160 pages with a circulation fourteen times its original size, featuring contributions from more than 600 writers and artists across five continents. Directed by Chaurand, the magazine addressed literature, cinema, the performing arts, music, architecture, visual arts, and design, and was considered one of the essential reference publications for the discussion of the arts in the Spanish-speaking world.

Beyond its bimonthly editions, La Tempestad developed a Semiannual Visual Arts Edition — originally a Special Photography Issue — as well as two mass-circulation supplements: Universitaria (monthly) and Para Viajeros (quarterly), expanding its reach across distinct audience segments. Between 1999 and 2008, the magazine received multiple grants from the "Edmundo Valadés" program for independent magazine publishing, awarded by Mexico's National Council for Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA). In 2003, it won the award for Best Magazine Design at the Second Design Biennial of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA). Chaurand directed La Tempestad until 2017, when the publication transitioned to new editorial leadership. By that point, the magazine had established itself as the longest-running and most influential independent arts media project of its kind in Mexico.

Folio

Alongside La Tempestad, Chaurand founded Folio, a design press and media outlet that positioned itself among the leading independent design publications in Mexico. The project was recognized in international roundups of significant editorial design, drawing comparisons to publications like Wallpaper, Apartamento, and Experimenta. Folio addressed the design community with a tone that was both analytical and visually ambitious, reflecting Chaurand's belief that design criticism deserved dedicated, high-quality publishing infrastructure.

Residente Food & Drink Media (2012–present)

In 2012, Chaurand founded Residente, originally conceived as a multi-city civic newspaper with parallel circulation in Mexico City, Nuevo León, and Quintana Roo, covering urbanism, sustainable development, civic consciousness, culture, and gastronomy. The publication attracted a readership of highly educated, socially engaged readers, many of whom later became leaders in government, culture, business, and civil society organizations in Nuevo León. Among its most lasting early contributions was helping lay the groundwork for public debates that eventually became legislation on animal protection, sustainable mobility, zoning districts, environmental policy, and the creative and design industry cluster.

In 2015, Residente separated from Periscopio Media to join the portfolio of RelevantMCB, and refocused its editorial identity to become the first media platform dedicated to culinary culture in Monterrey. From that point, it evolved from a magazine into a multi-channel media company with print, digital, and experiential products serving both end consumers and the broader food and beverage industry. In 2016, Residente launched its market research division — later formalized as Residente Restaurant Research — delivering valuable economic intelligence to industry leaders at major business venues across the state.

In 2017, Residente co-launched Residente Restaurant Weekend with the Subsecretariat of Tourism of Nuevo León and Grupo Modelo, a large-scale event offering 199 restaurants for 199 pesos, designed to promote local restaurant consumption and position Nuevo León as a culinary destination. That same year, the platform's culinary video archive surpassed one million views. By 2018, Residente had redesigned its print edition under the creative direction of designer Gerardo Ortiz ("Gom"), partnering with Marco Reynosa and Chuy Villarreal's production studio to produce what was described as Mexico's finest food photography magazine. Residente continued publishing through the COVID-19 pandemic and, in partnership with the state government and CANIRAC Nuevo León, launched the "Cocinando el futuro" program, which registered nearly 100,000 delivery orders from over 800 restaurants in three months, supporting employment across the wounded industry.

Riviera Maya Film Festival

Chaurand was a co-founder of the Riviera Maya Film Festival, an international film event held in Quintana Roo, Mexico. The festival was developed within the broader framework of his media ventures and reflected his interest in building cultural platforms with geographic reach beyond Monterrey.

Media Inc. and Advisory Work

Chaurand founded Media Inc. (mediainc.net) as a platform for media company building and consulting. Operating across three divisions — company building, consulting, and business intelligence — Media Inc. integrates digital and traditional media not as stages in a transition but as simultaneous expressions of how people inform themselves, identify, and belong. In 2019, Chaurand published Media Company Building, a book presenting the econometric formulas he developed for the creation, operation, and maturation of media companies, which he presented to global industry leaders including Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post), Mark Thompson (BBC, The New York Times, CNN), and Julio Bruno (TimeOut Group). mediainc

Across his various ventures, Chaurand has worked as a commercial director and media consultant with over 1,000 companies and institutions, ranging from Apple, Microsoft, and HP to Rolex, Givenchy, BBVA, Nike, Adidas, Heineken, Air France, and the governments of France, the United States, Nuevo León, Quintana Roo, and multiple Mexican municipalities. He received the international Endeavor Entrepreneur distinction in Dubai in 2013.

Visual Art Practice

Chaurand's practice as a visual artist — developed under the name JACH — emerged publicly in the early 2020s, building on years of personal research into painting, drawing, and conceptual art. His work explores chance as a philosophical and social category, examining the unspoken systems that govern fortune, luck, failure, and meaning in contemporary civilization.

His solo exhibitions include God Undeciphered (2022) at the Museo Metropolitano de Monterrey; Gone Wrong (2022) at The JACH Gallery, his artist-run space in San Pedro Garza García; Canned Luck (2023) at Centro Cultural Plaza Fátima, Monterrey, which also extended into a large-scale urban intervention across the city; and Idiosyncrasy of Luck (2023), presented at The JACH Gallery and later featured internationally at the rownsville Museum of fine arts (2024). His work has been covered in four consecutive editions of DAMNº, the leading Belgian arts and design magazine, and has been featured across local and national media in Mexico. His work was also selected by Saatchi Art to participate in The Other Art Fair in Dallas. In addition, his visual identity work reached mass circulation when Pay-Nom in partner with MasterCard featured his artwork on a credit card that began circulating in October 2023.

The JACH Gallery, which Chaurand founded in San Pedro Garza García, operates as both an exhibition space and a platform for artistic dialogue, featuring his own work alongside programming that connects the Monterrey art community to international contemporary art discourse.

Creative Direction and Design

As a creative director and designer, Chaurand has produced over 1,200 editions of media products including magazines, supplements, newspapers, books, websites, apps, conferences, exhibitions, videos, radio programs, and podcasts. His design portfolio encompasses more than 1,000 individual pieces across a wide range of formats and media, and his work has been recognized with the National Graphic Design Award and the National Prize for the Graphic Arts, in addition to multiple grants and scholarships from Mexico's National Fund for Arts and Culture (FONCA).

Awards and Recognition

National Graphic Design Award (category: publications), for La Tempestad Special Photography Issue.
National Prize for the Graphic Arts.
Best Magazine Design, Second Design Biennial, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA), 2003.
Multiple grants from CONACULTA's Edmundo Valadés Program for Independent Magazine Publishing (1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008).
Endeavor Entrepreneur, international distinction, Dubai, 2013.
Premio al Mérito Restaurantero, awarded by CANIRAC Nuevo León, 2019.