New York City’s mayoral administration has formalized a standing network of more than 200 influencers who receive daily talking points, video clips, and event access through an encrypted Signal group, according to a forthcoming report from Columbia Journalism School’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism and the Initiative for Policy Dialogue. The report identifies two distinct arrangements: an informal access network and a system of paid civic-messaging campaigns running $5,000 to $20,000 per influencer per campaign.

The network, called “NYC Creators Announcements,” is administered by the Director of New Media and Cultural Communications for the Mayor’s Office, Emilia Rowland, and grew directly out of “Creators4Zohran,” the influencer coalition that supported Mamdani’s campaign. In October 2025, Mamdani hosted more than 70 creators at an influencer-only briefing that reached a combined audience of 77.3 million and drew over 31,000 livestream views. That group, led by Gen Z for Change founder Aidan Kohn-Murphy and creator Alexis Williams, has since become the pipeline into a governing communications apparatus.

Members of the Signal group fill out an intake form listing their neighborhood and topic interests, which the mayor’s office uses to route invitations to canvasses, briefings, and official interviews. Researchers said members are not paid by the city for routine coverage, though some are compensated separately by city agencies for specific messaging campaigns covering topics such as immigration rights, tenants’ rights, voting, and composting. Those campaigns run through marketing and advertising agencies holding city contracts.

A Recognizable Model, an Inconsistent Disclosure Standard

The economics echo standard Influencer Marketing math. José Bayona, former founding executive director of the city’s Office of Ethnic and Community Media, framed the budget logic plainly: “Spending $50,000 on influencers gets you ten influencers who can replicate the message, while $50,000 on a TV ad is only one or two ads, and you cannot be sure anyone sees them.” 

Natalia Goldstein, a digital media strategist with the NYC Campaign Finance Board, said her team benchmarks a 4% engagement rate as strong and 8% as “excellent,” per-influencer figures adjusted to each creator’s audience.

Disclosure is where the report finds the most exposure. Labeling varies by agency, from #paidpartnership to #NYCVotesPartner to campaign-specific account tags, and procurement records name the contracted marketing firms rather than the individual creators paid through them. Some influencers, including education activist Jose Vilson, decline payment to preserve editorial independence: “I have not received a dime, and I think that’s fine. It gets weird, for example, when you have a legit critique of someone who happens to be paying you.” Sari Beth Rosenberg, a creator invited to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, called the current environment “the Wild West” and said federal standards are needed.

The report notes the model has precedent in New York’s pandemic-era outreach, when NYC Health + Hospitals recruited 24 nano- and micro-influencers with a combined reported reach of 12 million followers for its “Test & Trace” campaign. The forthcoming paper concludes with recommendations for standardized disclosure, pointing to existing frameworks in the European Union, where Spain and France require repeated, visible disclosure of paid civic and political content.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Check Out Our Podcast