In a letter to Mayor Eric Adams, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander accused the administration of failing “to comply with the spirit” of legislation ensuring ad spending by mayoral agencies is directed towards minority-owned media organizations.
Local Law 83 of 2021 directs for at least half of the money in city agency advertising to go towards ethnic and community media (ECM) outlets unless a legal mandate waiver or a full mandate waiver is granted (disclosure: The Amsterdam News is registered in the Citywide Media Database and receives advertising money from mayoral agencies).
On paper, the Adams administration is in compliance with 51% of allocated “in-scope” spending towards ECM outlets in fiscal year 2024 (from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024) in a recently released report. The findings credit compliance gains to the Mayor’s Office of Ethnic & Community Media (MOECM) “working closely over the last three years with city agencies to demonstrate the effectiveness of diversified media placement.”
However, Lander accuses the Adams administration of achieving compliance by “sleight of hand,” pointing to the inclusion of larger commercial outlets like the NY1 within the MOECM Citywide Marketing Directory as an attempt to “bolster” the percentage of ECM advertising to 51%.
Under Local Law 83 of 2021, ethnic and community media outlets qualified for directory placement if it “serves particular communities of people based on native language, race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability or immigrant status,” “targets a discrete neighborhood, geographic region, or population within the city rather than the city as a whole,” or “falls within a specifically tailored subject matter, as determined by the Executive Director.”
“Each neighborhood across the five boroughs is defined by its own identity and rich traditions, and community media outlets deliver critical information on a local level and in the language they speak,” said Lander. “Unfortunately, City advertising budgets often overlook these outlets and by proxy, the neighborhood readership, viewership, and listenership they serve.
“By dramatically decreasing ad spends with ECM outlets and releasing their annual spending report more than 75 days late, City Hall undermines the trust these outlets have in City government and the City’s ability to reach all corners of our vast and diverse city.”
And the larger slice comes from a significantly smaller pie. Lander’s letter points out the “in-scope” spending has been slashed by half and ECM funding by even a bigger percentage point.
A drastic decline in advertising money stems from the conclusion of federal COVID-19 funding, which ballooned the city ad budget to $260 million in fiscal year 2022 or from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. But when the pandemic outreach ended, the city’s total advertising budget cratered to $70 million. The NYC Comptroller’s Office said the $9.6 million decline in ad spending between fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024 provides a more accurate picture as the COVID-19 funding was no longer a factor.
Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, disputes Lander’s calculations and said Local Law 83 of 2021 sets a goal for ECM advertising rather than a requirement. The Adams administration also denied boosting numbers with larger media companies like NY1 and said they only made up around 2% of ECM compliance.
“While Local Law 83 does not require the city to allocate half of our advertising budget to ethnic and community media outlets, the Adams administration does exactly that,” said Mamelak Altus in her statement. “In fact, in Fiscal Year 2024, 51 percent of our advertising budget was spent on ethnic and community media — a percentage that has grown every year since we took office.
“The Adams administration has also increased access for our ethnic and community media partners to the Mayor’s Office through weekly roundtables and interviews, as well as providing them with seats in City Hall’s Room 9, which was previously reserved for legacy media outlets.”
Whether Local Law 83 of 2021 serves as a mandate or merely a suggestion is vague based on the legislative language, which proclaims “each mayoral agency shall seek to direct at least 50 percent of its total spending on advertising to ethnic and community media outlets, provided that a mayoral agency may apply to the executive director for an annual waiver of this goal.”
While the Adams administration questioned Lander’s calculations, the analysis actually credited the city with more ECM funding than the MOECM findings. Lander’s letter stems from using two datasets publicly available on the city’s Open Data website: “Local Law 83 – City Agency Advertising Spend” and “Citywide Marketing Directory”.
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.