We’ve heard dire warnings for many years that public notice would soon be moving from newspapers to the internet. Yet here we are, twenty years after the pessimists first began predicting doom, and newspapers are still the primary vehicle for official notice in all 50 states.
And after several mostly successful years defending public notice in state legislatures, the newspaper industry is faring especially well on that front in 2019. With 33 legislative bodies already shuttered for the year and eight others scheduled to adjourn sine die by the end of the month, the third leg of the government-transparency stool is looking pretty stable.
In year of heightened legislative activity, Arkansas and Virginia score big wins
We’re only four months into the year and more public notice bills* have already been enacted than in all of 2018.
Like 2018, the truly bad bills — the existential threats to newspaper notice — are either going nowhere or have already been defeated. The two state press groups that appeared to face the greatest danger — Missouri Press Association and Hoosier State Press Association, both of which fought bills that would have eliminated newspaper notice of foreclosure sales — survived to fight another day. Indiana HB1212 passed the House but died in the Senate when the legislature adjourned last week. Missouri HB686/SB50 hasn’t managed to make it out of committee in either chamber with only two weeks left in the session even though an almost-identical piece of legislation came dangerously close to passage in 2018.
Foreclosure notices at issue in Midwestern states
Indiana Statehouse
A bill that would have eliminated the newspaper publication requirement for foreclosure notices in Indiana was narrowly defeated last week in a vote taken immediately following a committee hearing.
House Bill 1212 had passed the Indiana House 62-34 in January and was in danger of moving another step closer to passage when it was defeated by a vote of 5-4 in the Senate Local Government Committee.
Missouri papers take the offensive; unusual notice bills introduced in Idaho and West Virginia
Newspapers in Missouri are going on the offensive in their battle to save public notice in their state.
Fighting separate bills that would move all government and foreclosure notice in the state from newspapers to government and law-firm websites, the Missouri Press Association (MPA) threw its support behind Senate Bill 515, introduced last week on the final day for filing new legislation in Jefferson City. SB 515 would require newspapers in the state that publish notices to also post them on MPA’s statewide public notice site. It would also limit rates by requiring newspapers to include volume or repeat-buyer discounts, and by mandating lower prices for “second and successive insertions”.
City pulls notices after critical coverage
A New York Times story reports on a move by the Garden City, N.Y. village board to take public notices out of a local newspaper and start running them in a smaller competitor.
It’s the latest attempt by government officials to use economic pressure to try to sway coverage.
Meg Morgan Norris, editor and publisher of the 8,300-circulation Garden City News, has been critical of the village board’s handling of the redevelopment of a local landmark.
In addition to cutting the notices, the village board also has threatened to stop sending news items like calendar listings and senior columns to the News.
Missouri, Indiana face high-stakes battles
As the new year dawned and state legislatures reconvened in January, two press associations in the Midwest found themselves in an existential battle to save newspaper notice in their states. The Missouri Press Association (MPA) and the Hoosier State Press Association (HSPA) are fighting several bills with serious prospects for passage that would move government and foreclosure notices to the web.
Alert reader helps save a family farm
Historical marker in Red Level, Ala.
(Photo by Lee Peacock)
For some people, reading public notices in the local newspaper is a matter of habit — and sometimes a matter of saving a family farm.
Lindel Foshee gets five newspapers at the home in Red Level, Ala., where she lives with her husband, Booster. She got in the habit of reading public notices during the years they ran the Peoples Bank of Red Level.
Poor Customer Service Sabotages Newspaper Notice
When the Air Quality Division of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) announced a proposal last year to move all of its public notice advertising from newspapers to its own website, its motivation for doing so was clear: Bureaucratic efficiency.
“(IDEM’s) proposal never even bothers to claim e-notice will reach more Indiana citizens,” PNRC noted in the comments we filed opposing the plan. “It focuses instead on cost, convenience and expedience. Those are all worthy goals. Unfortunately, none are the primary purpose of public notice laws.”
The Year in Public Notice Legislation
Despite a bit of early angst in a few states, 2018 ended up being a relatively benign year for public notice.
PNRC has tracked about 160 separate public notice bills this year, just a bit more than in 2017. Only 24 were enacted into law and most were vanishingly minor. As is generally the case with minor public notice legislation, almost all of the notice changes were incidental to the primary focus of the legislation. For example, a bill in New Jersey added several new instances of both newspaper and government website notice in connection with public-private partnership agreements for certain building and highway infrastructure projects.
PNRC, NNA Meet With Federal Agency to Discuss Proposal
PNRC Executive Director Richard Karpel met last month with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officials to urge the agency to abandon its proposal to eliminate rules requiring broadcasters to publish notices in local newspapers when they file license applications with the Commission. National Newspaper Association (NNA) general counsel Tonda Rush joined him at the meeting.
The FCC proposal, which was filed in October 2017, is open-ended. Potential outcomes range from elimination of all public notice requirements — the preference of the broadcasters’ association — to maintenance of the existing rules. However, dismissive comments expressed by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and a fellow commissioner don’t bode well for their prospects.