Newspapers in Michigan expect a bill to be introduced soon that would move all local government notices from newspapers to government websites. Although similar bills have been introduced every legislative session in Lansing for the last 12 years, this time Michigan newspapers are in a state of alarm.

“I’m more worried than I’ve ever been,” said Lisa McGraw, who has been public affairs manager of the Michigan Press Association (MPA) since 2003.

What makes this time different?

First, the bill has the backing of Republican leadership in the Michigan House of Representatives, so it isn’t just another random bill seeking support in the legislature. Moreover, the issue of public notice is one of the top five priorities of Michigan’s 31-year-old Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield, according to McGraw.

Second, the GOP cohort behind the bill, including its 25-year-old, first-term sponsor, state Rep. Steve Johnson, are aligned with the extreme political rhetoric emanating from the White House, which considers newspapers to be the enemy. “That negative attitude about the news media has found its way to Michigan” and is clearly driving this incipient effort to move notices from newspapers, said McGraw.

There is some irony in the fact that this is happening in Michigan, where newspapers for the past two years have taken the unusually aggressive step of supporting legislation that would expand the size of the foreclosure notices published in their papers. That effort, which seeks to address problems created by failed lawsuits filed against foreclosure lawyers in the state, will continue, said McGraw, although it will take a back seat to the effort to kill the Johnson/Chatfield bill.

McGraw also notes the GOP leadership effort to move official notice to government websites is focused only on “public notice” advertising that local governments are statutorily required to publish, not the “legal notices” ordered by Michigan courts, such as foreclosure ads.

MPA is still in the initial stages of assessing the contours of this battle, but according to McGraw the association is encouraged by the fact that there is still significant support in the Michigan legislature for newspaper notice, including backing from many GOP members.

Michigan is also in the process of rolling out a website that aggregates all of the state’s public notices on a single website, according to PNRC President and MPA Immediate Past President Brad Thompson. “We expect to introduce legislation to mandate the use of this statewide system,” said Thompson, whose company is developing the website. “We’ve heard from a number of legislators who consider it a much better solution than moving notices to government websites.”

Meanwhile, the bill’s sponsors have plenty of time to make their next move. Michigan is in the first year of a two-year session and is one of only six states in which the legislature works year round.