New MOECM Executive Director Sidahmed warns of local news crisis
Sidahmed introduces himself as the newly appointed executive director of the Mayor's Office of Ethnic and Community Media. He says New York City cannot work for everyone if residents cannot access information and describes a national decline in local news.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good morning, Speaker Menon and Chair Brewer and members of the Committee on Governmental Operations, State and Federal Legislation.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here with you today.
My name is Mazen Siddahmed, and I'm the newly appointed Executive Director of the Mayor's Office of Ethnic and Community Media.
I'm excited to share my vision and hopes for the future of this office and Local Law 83 in New York City.
Let me start with a simple truth.
New York City cannot work for everyone if everyone cannot access the information they need.
This is why Local Law 83 is a truly transformative law.
Across the U.S.
And globally, local news is disappearing.
For more than two decades, the news industry has been battered by shifting business models, changing user behavior, and growing concentration of corporate media ownership.
Since 2001, the newspaper industry has lost more jobs in the U.S.
Than coal mining.