“Instead of writing a report or issuing a critique or counting the number of times that the presidential candidates have talked about cities, we decided that the voices that really need to be heard are the mayors’ themselves. “
That’s Andrea Batista Schlesinger, head of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy (DMI), commenting in the New York Times (December 14, 2007) on MayorTV, a web video series PhilanthroMedia proudly produced at her request.
With support from provided to DMI from The Nation, PhilanthroMedia’s president, Susan Herr, traveled the country over ten days capturing exclusive interviews. As a film crew of one, Susan simultaneously shot and conducted the interviews. Then she uploaded the videos to the web, enabling NYC-based DMI staff to script footage conveying perspectives offered by these urban leaders.
According to Susan “Andrea isn’t content to pitch the news media and passively wait for them to respond — she’s out generating top-notch coverage that speaks directly to her audience and becomes worthy of highly-coveted coverage from the Times.”
During the U.S. Conference of Mayors held in Miami in May, DMI conducted an additional 12 interviews with mayors, bringing the number of mayors interviewed to 23. From Boston to Buffalo to Atlanta to Miami to LA to Rochester to Gainesville – MayorTV served to challenge 2008 presidential candidates: Start talking about cities.
In addition to coverage in the New York Times, Pm footage was also featured in an episode of UpClose with Bill Ritter, produced by WABC New York, when he interviewed Andrea about MayorTV.
