New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has raised concerns about the city’s commitment to advertising in community and ethnic media outlets. Speaking on the Community Cornerstone podcast with Suresh Shahi for the Nepali community media outlet Khasokhas, Lander pointed out that many city agencies, including the Health Department, are not fulfilling their obligations to advertise through these channels.
Lander emphasized the critical role such outlets play in delivering essential information to diverse populations.
“We have a commitment from the city to advertise in community and ethnic media—newspapers, TV, and radio. But a lot of the agencies are not meeting those obligations,” Lander said during the interview. He highlighted that even the city’s Health Department has fallen short in utilizing these platforms. “We looked at this and saw that even the Health Department, which most of all needs to get, you know, information to everyone, isn’t doing enough of their advertising in ethnic and community media,” Lander said.
This commitment is reinforced by Local Law 83 of 2021, which mandates that city agencies allocate at least 50% of their annual advertising budgets to ethnic and community media outlets. The law builds on Executive Order 47 of 2019, which initially required city agencies to spend a significant portion of their advertising budgets on these outlets to ensure diverse and inclusive communication. Local Law 83 expanded the scope to include all forms of media—print, digital, radio, and television—aiming to reach a broader and more diverse audience.
Executive Order 47, signed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio on May 22, 2019, laid the groundwork by recognizing the vital role of community and ethnic media in reaching New York City’s diverse populations. It mandated agencies to allocate advertising budgets toward these outlets and required annual reporting on spending for transparency. Local Law 83 strengthened these provisions and further updated the citywide directory of ethnic and community media outlets to include qualifying broadcast platforms.
Despite these policies, Lander highlighted ongoing gaps in implementation, particularly among agencies like the Health Department, which play a crucial role in disseminating vital information to immigrant and minority communities.
According to the Mayor’s Office of Ethnic and Community Media Annual Advertising Spend Report, in fiscal year 2023, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) spent $36,462,569 on advertising, with total in-scope advertising—defined as any print, digital, radio, or TV media outlet—amounting to $27,362,793. Of this in-scope advertising, $9,338,023 was allocated to Ethnic and Community Media (ECM), which includes print, digital, radio, or TV outlets listed in the Citywide Marketing Directory. In contrast, $18,024,770 was spent on non-ECM media, which refers to print, digital, radio, or TV outlets not listed in the Citywide Marketing Directory, representing just 34% of the department’s total advertising spend on in-scope media. This falls short of the 50% ECM spending goal set by Local Law 83, which requires ECM spending to be at least half of total in-scope spending. Additionally, the DOHMH spent $9,099,776 on out-of-scope advertising, which includes media outlets outside the print, digital, radio, or TV categories, such as out-of-home, social media, job boards, and digital displays.
Other agencies that fell short of the ECM spending goal in FY 2023 include the NYC Districting Commission, Department of Sanitation, Department of Social Services, Department of Transportation, Mayor’s Office, NYC Emergency Management, Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, Department of Buildings, Department of Design and Construction, Racial Justice Commission, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Department of Correction, Department of Housing Preservation and Development, New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, and Department of Veterans Services.
Lander stressed the importance of providing information in multiple languages to effectively reach diverse communities. “If there’s information about programs, it needs to be in your language. Otherwise, how are you going to learn about it?” he said.
Lander suggested that the city increase its support for outreach organizations, nonprofits, and community media to improve information dissemination. He also underscored the need for culturally and linguistically tailored outreach to bridge these gaps. “We need people to go to those business owners in their language and say, ‘Hey, here are some programs we have. Which ones might be helpful to you?'” he said.
Kishor Panthi
View More PostsKishor Panthi is the founder and editor-in-chief of Khasokhas and NepYork. He is the author of three books, “Kampan,” "UNTRANSLATABLE" and “Zero Mile.” He writes about social issues, immigration, and politics.
