Which governments require advertising in community media, and how is it documented?
Part of Fair publisher planning
The short answer
New York City's Local Law 83 of 2021 is the clearest example: each mayoral agency must seek to direct at least 50 percent of its advertising spending to ethnic and community media, with waivers and an annual public report. Canada's federal rules work differently, requiring minority official language publications for required notices without setting a spending share.
Key takeaways
- Public sector rules come in three kinds: a spending goal, a duty to publish in particular outlets, and a duty to consider certain communities when planning.
- New York City's Charter, as amended by Local Law 83, sets a 50 percent goal for mayoral agencies, allows annual waivers and requires a yearly report to the mayor and the Council speaker.
- Only outlets listed in the city's Citywide Marketing Directory count toward New York City's goal, and the city's report treats programmatic, social media and search as out of scope.
- A buyer working for a public agency needs records by outlet, by directory status and by buying method, not just a campaign total.
Which governments require ad spend with community media?
Very few set a hard number. The public sector rules covered here do one of three things: set a spending goal, require certain notices to appear in particular kinds of publication, or require planners to consider specific communities. The difference matters to a buyer, because only the first produces a share that someone will measure against the plan.
| Kind of rule | Example | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Spending goal | New York City Charter section 3303, added by Local Law 83 of 2021: each mayoral agency "shall seek to direct at least 50 percent of its total spending on advertising" to ethnic and community media outlets | Share of each agency's advertising spend, after legally required notices are removed |
| Publication duty | Section 11 of Canada's Official Languages Act: required federal notices appear in a publication mainly in English and one mainly in French in each region where they apply | Whether each version ran in the right kind of publication, with equal prominence |
| Duty to consider | Appendix A of the federal Directive on the Management of Communications and Federal Identity: consider First Nations, Inuit and Métis, linguistic minority and ethnocultural communities in creative and media planning | Evidence in the plan that those audiences were considered |
Other cities, states and provinces have debated similar rules. This page sticks to texts confirmed at their source; for Canada's federal regime in detail, see the Government of Canada advertising guide. Ownership based programs, which ask who owns an outlet rather than whom it serves, are covered in the diverse owned media guide.
What does New York City's community media law require?
Local Law 83 of 2021 (opens in a new tab) added a new chapter 77 to the New York City Charter. The Council passed it on June 17, 2021, and the City Clerk certifies that it was returned unsigned by the Mayor on July 19, 2021. It created an Office of Ethnic and Community Media with an executive director and a citywide marketing director, and the Mayor's Office of Ethnic and Community Media (opens in a new tab) began operating in January 2022.
| Section | Requirement | Who it binds |
|---|---|---|
| 3302(e) | Develop and keep a list of ethnic and community media outlets, with published guidelines for how outlets get on it | The executive director |
| 3302(g) | Each year, report to the mayor and the Council speaker the total each covered entity paid to media outlets and to ethnic and community media outlets, plus waivers | The office, with data from agencies and the Department of Education |
| 3302(h) | Hold at least one annual training for city staff who buy advertising | The executive director |
| 3303(a) | Seek to direct at least 50 percent of total advertising spending to ethnic and community media; an annual waiver needs "a particularized explanation" and is posted online | Each mayoral agency |
| 3303(b) | Omit the cost of legally required notices from the advertising budget before calculating the 50 percent | Each mayoral agency |
How are community and ethnic media defined in these rules?
Section 3301 of the Charter defines an ethnic and community media outlet with three alternative tests: it serves particular communities, it targets a discrete neighborhood, region or population within the city, or it falls within a specifically tailored subject matter chosen by the executive director. The directory guidelines (opens in a new tab) say the subjects chosen so far are "family, government, and professional publications." A media outlet means a print or digital publication that provides news or other media content, or a television or radio outlet.
Two practical rules sit in the guidelines rather than the Charter. An outlet that qualifies because it serves a community by native language must have a primary language other than English. And an outlet counts only once it is listed: every outlet, including those already listed, has to submit a new application, which the office audits before publishing the directory on its website and on NYC Open Data.
| Document | Period named in the guidelines | Why it matters to a buyer |
|---|---|---|
| Analytics reports | Fourth quarter 2023 and the first three quarters of 2024 | Shows the outlet is active and has a measurable audience |
| Digital media kit | 2024 | Lists ad formats and placements the outlet sells |
| Digital rate card | 2024 | Gives prices a direct buy can be planned from |
| Completed application | Accepted year round since October 15, 2024, processed quarterly | Listing status decides whether spend counts toward the goal |
How do agencies document community media spend?
New York City's Fiscal Year 2025 Advertising Spend Report (opens in a new tab), covering July 2024 to June 2025, shows the method. Data is self reported by contracted media placement vendors and city agencies, then analyzed by the office. Two kinds of waiver come out first: a legal mandate waiver for notices the law requires in general media, and a full agency waiver for agencies spending under $5,000 a year. In fiscal 2025, waivers covered $416,302, or 1.3 percent of $32,117,161 in total media placement.
What remains is split into in scope and out of scope. In scope means print, digital publications, radio and audio, and television and video, which is where community outlets exist. Out of scope includes out of home, social media, online search, job postings, programmatic, sports and promotional placements, which the report says are dominated by national companies with no comparable community alternative. In scope spend is then divided into directory listed outlets and general outlets.
Records a buyer should hand a public agency client
- Spend by outlet, with the outlet's directory status on the date of the buy.
- Buying method for every line: direct placement with the outlet, or programmatic through an exchange.
- Media type for every line, matching the categories the agency reports: print, digital, radio and audio, or television and video.
- Legally required notices listed separately, so they can be removed before the share is calculated.
- Language of each placement's creative and of the outlet's pages.
- Invoices or insertion orders that tie each amount to a named outlet.
How do these rules affect site list building?
The biggest effect is on buying method. Because New York City's report puts programmatic spend out of scope, a programmatic line on community news sites may serve the campaign well and still not count toward the goal. A plan for a city agency can use two layers: direct placements with directory listed outlets, which carry the goal, and a programmatic site list that adds reach and frequency around them.
Building a plan that meets a community media goal
- Start from the directory. Pull the current listed outlets for the campaign's neighborhoods and languages before opening any buying platform.
- Read each outlet's pages. Confirm recent articles, the language of the content and fit with the message, exactly as for any other site.
- Assign a buying method. Mark each listed outlet as a direct placement, and keep programmatic lines on a separate list.
- Fill gaps with fair discovery. Search for active community publishers the directory does not yet hold, and invite them to apply rather than counting them early.
- Tag every line. Record directory status, media type, language and method, so the agency's report can be built from the plan itself.
Community outlets can be small, so the shortcuts that remove small publishers, such as popularity cutoffs, also remove the outlets the rule exists to reach. The fair publisher planning guide explains how to keep them on equal evidence, and the local news advertising guide covers how local outlets sell their space.
How can PlacementGraph help when a plan includes community media?
What does a community media plan look like for a city agency?
Fictional example
A fictional tenant rights campaign in New York City
A planning team supports an unnamed New York City agency with a campaign telling renters about free legal help, across the five boroughs, in English, Spanish, Chinese, Bengali and Haitian Creole. The client's goal is to meet the 50 percent community media goal on in scope spend.
The team starts from the Citywide Marketing Directory and selects listed print and digital outlets in each language, reading recent articles from each before booking. These become direct placements, tagged by language and media type. A Korean language outlet the team wants is not yet listed; the agency invites it to apply, and the plan does not count it toward the goal.
A separate programmatic site list adds neighborhood news and community sites for frequency. The plan states plainly that this layer is out of scope for the goal. The legally required public hearing notices are listed apart so the agency can remove them before calculating its share.
Frequently asked questions
Does being listed in New York City's directory guarantee an outlet advertising?
The directory guidelines say submitting an application does not guarantee a listing, and that outlets in the directory "are not guaranteed any advertising or other business relationship with the City of New York." Agencies use the list at their discretion when they plan campaigns.
Which languages does New York City encourage agencies to advertise in?
The fiscal 2025 report says Local Law 30 of 2017 encourages agencies to provide public communications, including advertising, in ten languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Urdu. The office also encourages American Sign Language, Greek, Japanese and Yiddish.
Do the Department of Education, NYCHA and Health and Hospitals fall under the 50 percent goal?
The goal in section 3303 binds mayoral agencies. The law tells the office to assist the Department of Education, the Health and Hospitals Corporation and the Housing Authority in their discretionary efforts to meet it, and includes their advertising totals in the annual report.
Where is the raw spending data published?
The fiscal 2025 report says that under Local Law 83 city agency advertising spend must be placed on NYC Open Data each year, and the directory is published there too. Buyers can compare their own records for a client with the published figures after each fiscal year closes.
Sources
- Local Law 83 of 2021 (Int. No. 2313-A), legislation details and enacted text (opens in a new tab)New York City Council
- Local Law 83 of 2021 (opens in a new tab)NYC Mayor's Office of Ethnic and Community Media
- Citywide Marketing Directory Guidelines (opens in a new tab)NYC Mayor's Office of Ethnic and Community Media
- Fiscal Year 2025 Advertising Spend Report (opens in a new tab)NYC Mayor's Office of Ethnic and Community Media, December 2025
- Official Languages Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. 31 (4th Supp.)) (opens in a new tab)Justice Laws Website, Government of Canada
- Directive on the Management of Communications and Federal Identity (opens in a new tab)Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.