Mayor Lori Lightfoot will direct at least half of Chicago’s advertising spending toward local media, with a goal of reaching non-English speakers with information on services and establishing equity in where city ads are placed, she announced Wednesday.
Lightfoot signed the executive order mandating that all city departments direct at least 50% of their advertising budgets to local and ethnic media outlets.
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“Chicago is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and it’s only right that City government honors the diversity by supporting community and ethnic media outlets,” Lightfoot wrote in a statement. “Through this equity-based Executive Order, we will ensure that City communications and information on programs are accessible to all of our residents — no matter their circumstances. This effort will also serve as an economic boon for many of our local media outlets.”
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The Chicago Independent Media Alliance of more than 80 community news outlets have called for such an initiative since 2020, after then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasiosigned a similar executive order in 2019 to shift millions of city dollars to local and ethnic media.
The mayor’s office will also maintain a list of local media that “exemplify Chicago’s interconnected communities,” a news release said. The directory will include the outlet’s audience demographics and other statistics. Community media is defined as any news medium — print, digital, TV, radio and more — that targets a specific geographic area, non-English speaking population, culture or subject matter.
“We are so excited Mayor Lightfoot is taking this first big step toward creating a more equitable playing field for the city’s marketing and advertising spending,” CIMA founder Tracy Baim wrote in a statement. “We urge all city, county and state agencies to follow this lead.”
Diversity among the local press has been a sticking point with Lightfoot’s tenure, but her efforts to champion reporters of color have garnered controversy.
During her two-year anniversary in office, she temporary barred white reporters from one-on-one interviews, leading to accusations she was picking and choosing which journalists to give access to. The National Association of Black Journalists also condemned the move as misguided but agreed the City Hall press corps must be diversified.
