Menin details Local Law 83 mandate and declining ad dollars
Menin explains that Local Law 83 codified Executive Order 47 and requires mayoral agencies to spend at least 50% of advertising budgets with ethnic and community media. She says spending peaked at $23.1 million in 2022 but overall city ad spending fell sharply, leaving only $7 million for ethnic media in 2024.
So that quote that I mentioned almost a decade ago still rings incredibly true today.
That is why the council passed Local Law 83 in 2021 to formally establish the Mayor's Office of Ethnic and Community.
community media, codifying former Mayor de Blasio's Executive Order 47.
Local Law 83 also requires mayoral agencies to spend at least 50% of their advertising budget on ethnic and community media outlets.
The Council passed this bill because we recognize the crucial role that community and ethnic media plays in our city and to address the difficult media climate for small publications.
I also want to add I really appreciate the incredible work that our community and ethnic media outlets provide and that is why
when I served as a 2020 census director we proudly allocated half of our media budget to community and ethnic outlets all across the city of New York.
So I do want to say that when former Mayor de Blasio made that change in policy and the council passed that law, it had a significant impact.
Prior to the implementation of Executive Order 47 and Local Law 83, 82% of the city's advertising spending went to large mainstream media outlets, whereas ethnic and community media outlets only received $2.7 million
in the city's advertising budget.
By 2020, the first full year of implementation, that amount increased to $9.9 million.
City spending on ethnic and community media peaked in 2022 when it reached a high of $23.1 million.
In fiscal year 2025, 57% of city agencies' overall advertising spending went towards ethnic and community media.
It was 51% for fiscal year 24 and 40% for fiscal year 23.
However, that has not translated into greater monetary benefits because overall advertising spending has decreased significantly.
In fiscal year 2022, the city spent $260 million on advertising across all media outlets.
However, that number dropped to $70.4 million in fiscal year 2023, $28.8 million in fiscal year 2024.
In 2024, just $7 million of those dollars went to ethnic and community media, less than a third of what it was.
Two years before that.