The newspaper industry that existed when public notice laws were originally enacted is a thing of the past. There are fewer newspapers and they have less circulation. The papers are physically smaller and sometimes they’re designed, edited and/or printed at great geographical distances from the local markets in which they circulate. They’re also published electronically with a reach and immediacy that were unprecedented in the pre-internet era.
These changes have made it increasingly difficult for newspapers and government agencies to discharge their responsibilities under public notice laws enacted many decades ago. As a result, state press associations otherwise reluctant to meddle with public notice statutes now may find it necessary to advocate for changes to ensure the laws that determine which papers qualify to publish notices remain relevant.
Scope of Florida’s new public notice law questioned
As we previously reported, the new Florida public notice statute set to take affect on Jan. 1 is beset with ambiguity. In general, the statute is designed to give local governments the option to publish notices on their county website in lieu of newspapers. But as the dust has settled from the battle over House Bill 7049, fears about the immediate damage it will wreak on public notice in the state have diminished.
A weird but benign session in Missouri
“I’ve been doing advocacy work in the state legislature for 40 years and this was probably the weirdest session I’ve ever experienced,” says Doug Crews, lobbyist and former executive director of the Missouri Press Association (MPA), where he worked for 36 years.
Two related factors made the 2022 session in Jefferson City unusual, according to Crews, who now contracts with Lathrop GPM Consulting, the firm that represents MPA. About half the session was dominated by Senate debate over a redistricting map for Missouri’s eight U.S. Congressional districts. And with the Senate Republican majority split into two caucuses — one ultra-conservative and the other more moderate — functionally speaking there are now three ideologically distinct parties in the state Senate.
Two more states pass web-posting bills
Is it something in the water?
Two more midwestern states passed laws last month requiring newspapers to post notices on their press association’s statewide public notice website. With Minnesota and Michigan joining South Dakota and Nebraska, four states in the region have now passed web-posting laws this year.
In total, eighteen states now have web-posting statutes on the books.
The new law in Minnesota requires newspapers to publish their notices on the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s statewide public notice website and to include an index link to the public notice section on their own websites. (Current law in Minnesota already requires newspapers to post notices on their website; the new law adds the index-link requirement and forbids the notices from being posted behind a paywall.)
Nebraska modernizes public notice law
Nebraska became the second midwestern state to update its public notice law in 2022 when Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) signed Legislative Bill 840 on April 18.
LB-840 requires newspapers to post notices on the Nebraska Press Association’s statewide website. It also raises public notice ad rates from 45 cents per line to 48 cents per line for 12 months beginning Oct. 1, 2022, and to 50 cents per line on Oct. 1, 2023. That 11 percent boost over the next 18 months is the state’s first public notice rate increase in 26 years.
Making lemonade out of lemons in Florida
We have long feared the day the first state in the U.S. passes a law authorizing the government to post all or most public notice on government websites in lieu of newspapers. That day happened last month when the Florida House and Senate both voted largely along party lines to approve House Bill 7049.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is widely expected to sign the bill when it reaches his desk. The bill takes effect on Jan. 1, 2023.
[See a description of the key features of HB-7049 below this story.]
Midwest press groups seek to modernize public notice laws
(This article was corrected on April 28, 2022. See below for corrections.)
Press associations in four midwestern states are supporting bills that would update their states’ public notice laws.
Legislatures in Minnesota and Nebraska are considering bills that would require newspapers to post all notices on their press association’s statewide public notice website. Also in Minnesota, and in Missouri, lawmakers may respond to an evolving local media environment by relaxing standards newspapers must meet to qualify to publish notices. And in South Dakota, the legislature has already passed a bill with primary elements identical to the legislation being considered in Minnesota.
Ill-considered Florida bill on the move
Good news: By March 1, 2021, bills had been introduced in 20 states that would have moved all public notice, or a significant percentage of it, from newspapers to government websites. A year later we’ve seen similar legislation in only six states.
Bad news: The bill in one of those states — Florida House Bill 7049 — is a serious threat to become law. HB-7049 passed out of committee last Monday and is expected to be approved by the full House sometime this week.
So the battle over public notice in Florida comes down to the Senate, as it has in the past.
Public notice in Florida in peril once again
Our original headline for this story was “Newspaper notice off to good start in 2022.” But late last night we learned that Florida — a state that last year passed a progressive bill paving the way for the eventual migration of statutory notice to newspaper websites — was in play once again.
We haven’t had time to digest the 40-page bill, but it’s clearly designed to undo the work that went into last year’s historic legislation by moving public notice to government websites. The committee bill passed out of the Judiciary Committee this morning with GOP backing on a straight party-line vote.
Self-storage industry tries something new
The last time we checked in on the self-storage industry, it had helped pass new laws in four states relieving itself of the burden of informing its indebted customers via newspaper ads that it was about to sell their property. By some estimates, about 30 states have now enacted statutes providing self-storage operators with non-newspaper notice options that are woefully insufficient.
The private-equity dominated industry is back this year with legislation in at least five states that would give it the option to jettison newspaper notice of lien sales.