NYC Steps Up Support of Media Industry, Includes Freelancers

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES EIGHT INITIATIVES TO STRENGTHEN THE MEDIA INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK CITY

NYC has a unique challenge - it dominates the US in terms of traditional media outlets, although it is also home to numerous "small to medium-sized media companies, those with less than 500 employees, [which] account for nearly one-half of all employment in the sector." Old media meet new media. David meet Goliath. Who will win? And thus, the MediaNYC2020 project was born.

While most of it relates to support of the traditional press corps, it does offer support to the social media industry and citizen journalists, particularly through the Hive@55.

The eight points of this initiative include:
1. NYC Media Lab
2. Media Tech Bond Program
3. Media and Tech Fellowship
4. NYC Start-up Procurement Initiative
5. NYC BigApps Competition
6. Media Freelancer Hive@55
7. JumpStart New Media
8. International and Domestic Recruitment

There are many compelling points to this initiative in my view, but most importantly Mayor Bloomberg and the City of New York recognize that social media is not only a player - but a significant contender. Enough so, that they are facilitating partnerships between the old media and new media worlds. So when you are faced with a challenge of a potential client or internal decision maker saying they don't see any value in social media or the Web 2.0 world, this is a great example to show them.

For more info or to participate in the forum, visit: http://www.nycmedia2020.com/

Spoiler alert: the site hasn't officially launched yet - in signing up for an alert as to when it does launch the site got wonky and gave me an error message. Great initiative, let's hope they can get their act together enough to have a working website!