Legislation requiring state agencies to publish official notice on their websites was killed last week in committees in Indiana, Georgia and West Virginia.
After passing the House last month by a comfortable margin, Indiana HB-1312 was defeated in a Senate committee by a vote of 8-2. The bill allowed every public notice in the state to eventually be posted on a state-agency website. It was rejected a week after the Hoosier State Press Association (HSPA) organized a statehouse rally at which “more than 100 Indiana publishers, editors, reporters and subscribers gathered outside the Senate chambers” to oppose the bill, according to Johnston County’s Daily Journal.
Press association websites essential for survival of newspaper notice
Legislation designed to move all official notice to a single state-agency website has been introduced this year in Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, New Jersey and West Virginia. The bills in Indiana, Georgia and West Virginia are already dead (see story above) and those in Idaho and New Jersey appear unlikely to pass.
But these types of bills probably pose the most serious long-term threat facing newspaper notice. They are fully subsidized by taxpayers and force newspapers to compete with the most well-resourced organization in every state: The executive branch of the state government.