She’s a PR princess.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s influencer military is led by the scion of a public relations empire — who obliviously defended her shady Sign chats by slamming the “legacy press” and its rich homeowners Friday.
Metropolis Corridor’s head of New Media Emilia Winter Rowland’s grandfather seems to have based The Rowland Company, a powerhouse PR agency. Each of her mother and father work within the area, whereas her 100-year-old grandmother Joan Rowland lives in a $32 million apartment close to Billionaires’ Row, public data present.
The 31-year-old nepo child, who makes $175,000 a 12 months spoon-feeding speaking factors to Mamdani-loving on-line personalities, nonetheless railed in opposition to previous media and the wealthy alike amid an ongoing furor over her propaganda pipeline.
“At a second of profound mistrust in politics, our job is to not protect decades-old communications norms or shield the gatekeepers who as soon as managed entry to public info,” she posted on X.
“The monopolization of the media has resulted in legacy press hemorrhaging readers and viewers, important reporting typically locked behind paywalls, and possession more and more concentrated within the arms of a small variety of rich companies and billionaires who exert their very own editorial agendas over the information.”
The remarks had been first made to The New York Instances in a report offering a smattering of recent particulars concerning the “NYC Creators Bulletins” group chat Rowland oversees on the encrypted messaging app Sign, first unearthed by the Columbia Journalism Evaluate earlier this week.
Rowland, whose title is director of recent media and cultural communications, joined Mamdani’s administration after wrangling influencers for the fresh-faced socialist’s mayoral marketing campaign in 2025.
She beforehand labored for the Democratic Nationwide Committee and as press secretary for Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman’s 2022 marketing campaign, her LinkedIn states.
Working in PR is a household enterprise of types for Rowland, who didn’t return calls from The Publish on Friday.
Her grandfather seems to be Herb Rowland, who based The Rowland Firm, which grew to the fifth-biggest unbiased PR agency earlier than its 1985 acquisition by Saatchi & Saatchi, a behemoth London-based promoting company, in line with a New York Instances report.
Emilia Rowland’s father Daryl Rowland labored as a TV author for sequence such because the Nineties NBC sitcom “Mad About You” and as a blogger for The Huffington Publish, his LinkedIn states.
Daryl Rowland at present heads the Rowland Consulting branding and advertising and marketing agency.
Emilia Rowland’s mom, Lisa DeBenedictis, likewise labored in TV. Her LinkedIn states she at present works in consulting and as a author.
And her grandmother Joan Rowland lives on Central Park South in a eight-figure apartment, data present.
Emilia Rowland’s work for Mamdani seems to be a key position in sustaining his relevancy on social media.
The Sign group chat Rowland reportedly heads doles out press releases and speaking factors to about 250 influencers, who blitz social media with favorable, suspiciously comparable content material about Mamdani and his administration.
The Instances report revealed that Rowland additionally maintains smaller Sign chats with content material creators, akin to one which targets parenting influencers.
No less than one chat was set to robotically erase messages, The Instances reported — a possible violation of a state record-keeping regulation that goals to protect the communications by taxpayer-funded public officers.
Metropolis Corridor repeatedly ignored questions concerning the secret record of pro-Mamdani content material creators and went into full injury management on social media attempting to brush off the propaganda peddling.
Press Secretary Dora Pekec whined on X concerning the “absurdity of this faux-scandal” claiming Metropolis Corridor had merely shared press releases, pointing to an instance that went out to each conventional reporters and influencers.
On a regular basis New Yorkers, although, won’t ever be capable of show Pekec’s claims, as a result of the chat had apparently been deleted. A Publish reporter who spent days straight urgent Pekec for reply did so once more Friday, this time on the supposed bastion of transparency — social media — the place she nonetheless ignored inquires.
Anna Bahr, the mayor’s communications director and Rowland’s boss, additionally defended tapping influencers and fully sidestepped questions over transparency.
“The way in which folks get their information has modified! Authorities comms has to mirror that,” she posted on X. “Anything can be irresponsible.”
However not everybody was shopping for the admin’s spin.
“Look I like Mamdani however the competition that they’re extra enthusiastic about working with influencers than journalists as a result of the company media is simply too monopolized and paywalled or no matter is simply clearly dangerous religion and presumes the general public are idiots,” reporter Jacob Fuller posted on X.
