Detailed news coverage of the criteria required for newspapers to qualify to publish notices is rare. But last month we found two stories focused largely on that issue. Together they illustrate the policy implications of the choices legislators make when they enact public notice eligibility requirements.

The first story comes from southeast Georgia, where The Brunswick News reported on the closing of the Waycross Journal-Herald, a 105-year-old daily newspaper that published its last issue on Monday, Sept. 30. Stories about newspapers closing are not uncommon these days. But focusing, as The News did, on the challenge facing public officials in neighboring counties who need to find an alternative “legal organ” is unusual.