County communications reports audience growth, expanded emergency outreach
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Summary
The county communications bureau reported notable growth in media mentions, social media followers and earned-equivalency value during the last fiscal year and highlighted new programs — including supervisor snapshots, a refreshed MGTV and multilingual outreach — that officials said improve emergency and routine public information.
Monterey County’s Communications Bureau presented its annual report to the Board of Supervisors on Oct. 21, highlighting growth in traditional and digital engagement and outlining priorities in multilingual outreach and emergency communications.
Director Nick Pascoli reviewed bureau metrics for fiscal year 2024–25, reporting a 19% increase in news releases, a 71% increase in YouTube traffic and triple-digit growth in some web metrics. The bureau cited 8,700 total media mentions and an earned-media equivalency calculated by Meltwater valuing coverage (including major incident coverage) at roughly $2 million in advertising-equivalent terms for the period cited.
Pascoli said the communications team has emphasized rapid public information during emergencies, citing recent responses to the Pajaro levy breach and the Moss Landing fire. He credited long-standing press partners and local newsrooms for their reporting and said the county is investing in language access: several county publications and emergency messages were produced in Spanish and indigenous languages when needed.
The bureau also described several routine and programmatic initiatives: a monthly CAO rundown, a “supervisor snapshot” newsletter for the public, a full reboot of MGTV with refreshed branding and a searchable TV guide, and community-facing “Know Your Rights” campaigns. Pascoli said the supervisor snapshot has drawn tens of thousands of impressions and the CAO rundown reaches internal and external audiences.
Board members praised the bureau’s work; several supervisors asked that future reports more explicitly document language-access outcomes and the number of monolingual Spanish or indigenous-language users reached. Pascoli said county communications will expand reporting to include language-access metrics and make more materials available in Spanish and other languages.
Ending: The board received the report; Pascoli said the communications team will continue investing in emergency information capacity, multilingual outreach and archived media like MGTV to maintain timely and transparent public information.