If the battle over public notice in state legislatures is framed as “newspapers vs the Internet,” newspapers lose.

The Louisiana Press Association (LPA) has taken that lesson to heart as it prepares for a 2022 legislative session that it’s nervous about. In an attractive two-page flyer that will serve as a leave-behind for meetings with legislators (see flyer below), LPA is taking a new messaging approach by touting its members’ digital prowess in delivering public notice advertising across multiple channels.

Print is only one of the five public notice distribution systems promoted on the front of the flyer. Newspaper websites, LPA’s statewide public notice website, and the email and text delivery options enabled by the statewide site, each get equal billing. The fact that Louisiana citizens can opt via the statewide site to receive email or text alerts matching their search criteria seems like a particularly compelling argument for keeping public notice in newspapers.

“We have the digital solution in place with newspaper websites and LouisianaPublicNotice.com, but most public officials don’t know that,” says LPA Executive Director Jerry Raehal (pictured above). “We need to make sure they know it and have a full picture of the value we provide for their public notice needs.”

“Public Notice: A Newspaper Infrastructure That Works,” is the tagline the flyer uses to deliver that message. “Infrastructure” is a word Raehal often employs to describe the multichannel public notice distribution system his members provide the government. He says Wisconsin Press Association Executive Director Beth Bennett planted the word in his head when she told him about a special legislative study committee in 2016. The committee’s research concluded newspapers were still the best place for public notice due to the print and digital infrastructure papers had already built in Wisconsin.

“Return on investment” is another phrase that shows up in the flyer and that LPA plans to make a core part of its message. “Our advocacy often focuses on why public notices on government websites are bad,” notes Raehal. “We plan to shift the focus to the ROI the government receives from its longstanding partnership with our newspapers.”

The various components of LPA’s messaging aren’t groundbreaking. But its silence on the subject of government websites and its narrow focus on making the business case for newspaper notice — which builds on a presentation made by the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association during a committee hearing earlier this year — feels novel.

LPA is still planning its legislative strategy for 2022, but Raehal says focusing on best practices with its members will be a priority. “We need to get better at providing excellent customer service to public notice clients and we need more help from our members with legislative advocacy, so we’ll be targeting our efforts there,” he says.

[Download LPA flyer by clicking this link and/or the view the flyer below]