Lander slams Adams administration over ethnic media ad spending; local media leaders raise concerns

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is accusing Mayor Eric Adams’ administration of failing to uphold the city’s commitment to support ethnic and community media outlets, as required under Local Law 83.

In a recent report, Lander said City Hall released its Fiscal Year 2024 advertising spending report more than 75 days late and revealed a sharp drop in spending on ethnic and community media (ECM) outlets. Under Local Law 83, agencies are required to spend at least 50% of their advertising budgets on ECM outlets to ensure broader access to government information.

While early data during Adams’ first two years suggested some compliance, Lander’s office found that the latest report shows a troubling trend. In-scope advertising spending on ECM outlets dropped by 67% year-over-year to $14.2 million — and has declined by 84% since the law took effect. Lander also raised concerns about major English-language outlets like NY1 and 1010WINS being added to the city’s ECM directory, potentially inflating the appearance of compliance without significantly supporting smaller, community-focused media.

“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,” Lander said.

The effects can be immediate for local media outlets serving vulnerable communities. Ricot Dupuy, station director of Radio Soleil in Brooklyn, said cuts in city advertising directly impact operations and can diminish a radio station’s ability to focus on journalism.

“When less resources are dedicated to ethnic media the impact is direct. In our case, we have to struggle to make ends meet, and that means less focus on news and more focus on trying to get resources in,” Dupuy said. “That’s never too good for a press organization.”

He explained that growing financial pressures are forcing stations like Radio Soleil to broker more airtime — selling programming slots to outside groups — in order to stay afloat.

“If advertising from the city is drastically cut, as was the case, that means that you have to try to broker time,” Dupuy said. 

“When you broker time, that comes with all kinds of problems because we have to constantly monitor these things to make sure that they stay within guidelines. The more brokered airtime you have, the more the personality of the station is subject to change.”

Dupuy emphasized that cuts in city advertising threaten the core mission of community media: keeping vulnerable communities informed.

“Especially when serving a community that is in the situation that our community is in right now, they need all the information that they need on a regular basis to try to make sense of new developments and you become so preoccupied with, you know, making ends meet, paying your bills, that the news aspect of it tends to suffer,” he said. 

“News production, news gathering, news collection suffers when you become more of a businessperson than a journalist.”

He also emphasized that expanding the definition of ethnic media to include larger, mainstream outlets reduces the resources available to smaller, community-driven organizations.

“It seems to me, based upon the report of the Comptroller, there are media that are really mid-sized media that are being considered as ethnic media, and therefore reducing the pool of resources available to ethnic media per se,” Dupuy said.

Others in the community media world have raised similar concerns. The Center for Community Media (CCM) at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism said it is analyzing the FY24 data and will soon publish its own report assessing city agency advertising practices.

“We recognize the concerns it raises,” CCM said in a statement. “We will provide an assessment of the current state of NYC agencies’ advertising in community media through our analysis of the available data.”

Lander, who is running for mayor against Adams in the upcoming 2025 election, has called on City Hall to begin releasing quarterly reports on media spending instead of annual ones to increase transparency.

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