In individual Q&A sessions with reporters and editors from the community and ethnic press, organized by the Center for Community and Ethnic Media (CCEM) at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, mayoral candidates answered questions about how their administrations would handle the current dearth of advertising dollars spent by the city on the more than 270 ethnic and local media outlets in New York.
CCEM released a report in March that found the city spends $18 million every year in newspaper ads that promote issues such as health and education. Only $3.2 million of that, or about 18 percent, is earmarked for community and ethnic publications, which together, have a total circulation of 4.5 million, or 55 percent of the city’s population. CCEM executive director Garry Pierre-Pierre, who moderated the eight Q&A sessions over the last three weeks, asked each candidate if they planned on addressing the discrepancy which potential leaves millions of New Yorkers out of the loop about city policies and programs that affect them.
Bill Thompson
Bill Thompson (Photo by Voices of NY)
Democrat Bill Thompson was the first to sit down with the media sector. Following the release of the report back in March, the former city comptroller wrote a column that criticized the policies of the Bloomberg administration for depriving “communities of important information and access to their government.” Echoing a condensed version of that piece, he told the audience that as mayor, he would nearly triple the amount spent by the city on advertising in non-mainstream publications.
Citing the 18 percent as “way too low,” Thompson had another number in mind, one more reflecting of the city’s demographics.
“We should at the very least be looking at somewhere in excess of 50 percent. I mean, that’s a real number and that starts to spread things out across the community. That’s a city administration that starts to looks at what the city of New York is, that looks at the diversity of the city of New York and tries to spread that out.”
Bill de Blasio
Bill de Blasio (Photo by Voices of NY)
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio did not offer an exact number but did say he would support an increase in advertising spending, given that organizations and newspapers support and nurture people in their communities.
“I am a believer in expanding the amount of advertising because I think it is one of the ways we reach more people and reach people more effectively,” the Democratic candidate said.
“I think there’s a bit of a parallel to the question of how the city treats community-based organizations. I’m someone by virtue of my own experiences who appreciates the value of indigenous organizations and what they do in terms of both providing service more effectively at community levels and fostering leadership.”
He continued, “I think the same could be said in a different way of community media and ethnic media. There is a greater sensitivity and obviously a lot of the people who will become leaders in a variety of ways in the city are coming out of our ethnic media so I think that is a good reason alone to have more of our city advertising go in that direction.”
Joe Lhota
Joe Lhota (Photo by Voices of NY)
Republican candidate Joe Lhota described the report as “eye-opening.”
“We should use those publications, and as mayor I will look at ways to do it more efficiently,” the former MTA chairman said.
Lhota took particular issue to the finding that of the two agencies who place advertisements for the city, one is located outside of the five boroughs. “Are you telling me there’s only one agency that places ads in New York and we had to go outside the city of New York?”
He continued: “We have to properly look at how we use our procurement rules and regulations… We should give preference to New York City businesses.”
Seeing advertising as a vehicle to reach the public, the mayoral candidate also tied the issue to job creation.
“If we’re going to put out legal notices in the city of New York, if we’re going to do advertising … we should spread the wealth and we should find a way to get to the people as best we possibly can and having everyone benefitting. I understand what’s going in in your industry very, very well and how important it is to be able to get advertising revenue … because you provide jobs in the city of New York and one of the things that the mayor always needs to focus on is making sure that he or she not only allows an environment where jobs can be created.”
Adolfo Carrion
(Photo by Melanie Bencosme/Voices of NY)
The former Bronx borough president and Independence party candidate, Adolfo Carrion, would distribute city ad dollars to newspapers according to their readership. He acknowledged that the city is “severely lopsided towards the mainstream dailies” which are facing declining readership while ethnic and local newspapers see “tremendous growth.”
In terms of shifting the money to smaller newspapers, Carrion called it a “common sense answer.”
“The obvious answer is that we ought to be using these vehicles and promoting small businesses, that’s obvious but the common sense answer is if the readership is shifting and you have the ability to communicate with people in their native language and a way that’s user-friendly to them and that they then can go viral with that information, in other words they share it more easily, make it more relevant to them and their culture and their language, then we ought to as a city spend the tens of millions of dollars, if not more, that we’re already spending on advertising.”
Asked by how much he thought the ad money the city currently spends on non-mainstream publications would increase under his administration, Carrion said that the percentage should be “pegged to the readership.” If there’s 4 million readers of the smaller publications, then “we ought to be using half the budget to talk to New Yorkers that way,” referring to the public service ads that the city places in newspapers.
He sees newspapers as small businesses who hire people in the community and serve as the training ground for journalists. Supporting the papers would essentially be “growing small businesses.”
John Liu
John Liu (Photo by Melanie Bencosme/Voices of NY)
Like Thompson, Democrat John Liu responded to the CCEM report after its release in March: “We must do much, much better,” he said at the time.
The city comptroller elaborated during his Q&A session, saying that the issue of “inequities of city spending” had never left his mind after first engaging in the subject four years ago. Like his rivals, Liu looked at the bigger picture of the importance of transmitting information out to New Yorkers.
“It’s not about the dollars and it’s not about the news outlets,” he said. “It’s about how best to get official information from the city out to everybody in New York City and the reality is not everybody reads the New York Times or the Daily News or the New York Post … people read a lot of other literature and other newspapers.” He said he has relatively limited options as comptroller because most of the ads his office places are in financial publications like Pensions & Investments, but that things would be different if he’s elected mayor.
“I would have far more control over what the commissioner and the various agencies are doing and I think I have a particular sensitivity in terms of how best to get information from City Hall and the various city agencies to everybody in the city of New York.”
Anthony Weiner
Anthony Weiner (Photo by Devan Mulvaney/Voices of NY)
Former Congressman Anthony Weiner came out in support of increasing the ad money the city spends in community outlets but took issue with the question.
“I would direct more towards ethnic newspapers but I don’t know if reporters should care,” he said, explaining that he believed the question crossed the line that divides the business and editorial side of journalism.
He acknowledged that local and community newspapers are “issue leaders in the conversation of what goes on.” However, in terms of the report, he did not see it as a “journalism question” that would be of concern to reporters.
Christine Quinn
Christine Quinn (Photo by Devan Mulvaney/Voices of NY)
Democrat Christine Quinn drew from her experience as City Council speaker when it came to addressing the importance of using newspapers to bridge the gap between the public and their government.
“If we’re not using newspapers that really get into the depth and diversity of New York City, then we’re going to be less likely to have diverse New Yorkers come in and testify about rules changes or tell us what they need,” she said.
Similar to some of her rivals, Quinn called the support of community and ethnic newspapers a “byproduct” and “not the real goal.” Rather, “the goal would be to make sure we’re hearing from New Yorkers.” She added, “One of the things I would be asking for is a report back from agencies on what papers they’re using … and how we’re making decisions.”
John Catsimatidis
John Catsimatidis (Photo by Devan Mulvaney/Voices of NY)
Republican candidate John Catsimatidis said he had experience on the subject since he has owned the Greek-American publication Hellenic Times since 1977. His wife runs the English-language publication.
“I feel for the people with ethnic papers and I want to help more,” he said, adding that he wants the he wants the papers to prove they deserve that help.
“The problem is you have to have the credibility to be able to justify somebody saying, ‘let’s give them a chance,’” he added. The candidate would look for “proof of how much of an outreach they do have to establish their credibility.”
By JENNIFER CHENG | VOICES OF NY