Statutorily required notice goes by a number of different names. There’s “public notice”, of course. “Legal notice” is a big one. “Legal ads” is also used quite often. And then there’s plain old “legals”, as in “the legals”.

Ask someone in the newspaper business what they’re called and you may get any one of those answers. Ask someone outside the newspaper business the same question and the response is likely to be, “Huh?”

There are a number of reasons for the public confusion over public notice advertising, including the fact that the newspaper industry can’t agree on a name for them. Branding 101 would suggest that’s a problem.