For Part 1 of this series, see “The Media and the NYC Mayoral Race” by Theodore Hamm.

In the 2021 Democratic primary, New York Daily News endorsed Kathryn Garcia, calling her “whip-smart.”  The outlet then ranked Adams as a “strong second.” The plugs certainly helped both candidates but not nearly as much as the support of The New York Times and the New York Post. The Daily News seems to be running on fumes these days, and the “editorial board” is basically just Michael Aronson, whose views are generally centrist.   

The nonprofit media — led by Gothamist/WNYC and The City — does not endorse candidates but will provide plenty of scoops over the next two months. The same holds for Politico, a for-profit. Hell Gate is also a for-profit, but it’s not clear if they will endorse anyone. If so, it’s a safe bet that it won’t be Andrew Cuomo. 

The newly formed New York Editorial Board, which consists of veteran journalists from many of the above outlets, will back a candidate, but it’s hard to gauge the influence of its inaugural run. 

Schneps Media, meanwhile, is likely a name that only media insiders will recognize. But it wields considerable influence over local coverage across the city. 

In 2018, Schneps purchased The Villager and Gay City News, two long-standing weekly outlets that have subsequently lost their radical edge. One year later, amNewYork (amNY) joined the Schneps portfolio, giving the chain a citywide daily anchor. A slew of borough-based outlets, including Bronx Times, Brooklyn Paper, and the Queens Times-Ledger, lead the roster of over two dozen publications owned by Schneps. 

As Hell Gate has documented, Victoria Schneps-Yunis, the company’s figurehead, has close ties to Eric Adams. Her only four-figure political donation in the last 25 years was the $1,000 Schneps-Yunis gave to Adams in 2015. While the Schneps outlets did not endorse any mayoral candidate in the 2021 primary, many of the publications provided favorable coverage and/or a platform for Adams down the stretch. 

amNY currently runs weekly op-eds from the mayor’s team that are essentially press releases touting Adams’ accomplishments. Many of these vapid columns end up running in other Schneps outlets. In early April, Brooklyn Paper yielded space to Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the Brooklyn Democratic Party boss who switched her support from Adams to Andrew Cuomo. Bichotte Hermelyn acknowledged that in 2021 she had called for Cuomo to resign amid the sexual harassment scandal, but defended what she characterized as her “nuanced approach” to it. 

With Adams sitting out the primary, it seems likely that the Schneps outlets will lend de facto support to Cuomo. All have print editions, a format preferred by older voters, who are also Cuomo’s base. Schneps-Yunis also shares Cuomo’s hawkish views on Israel and hostility to the DSA wing of the Democratic Party. If Cuomo faces Adams in the general election, she will face a real quandary about which reactionary ally her outlets will favor.  

Zohran Mamdani will continue to receive sympathetic coverage from the city’s left-wing media, including The Indypendent, Jacobin and The Nation. His most influential supporter, however, will be the candidate himself — or more specifically, his campaign’s manifest ability to create dynamic social media statements. Among the candidates in the June primary, Mamdani has no competition in terms of comms game. 

No matter what happens in June, the shake-up in media control over New York City political campaigns is long overdue. The boomers are fading, and millennials are at the gates.

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