The Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association’s proposed “modernization” of the commonwealth’s law for public notices is an obvious attempt to move a print newspaper monopoly into the digital age.
Over the last month, publishers like StateCollege.com have spoken with lawmakers and lobbyists about the issues with HB 1291. But PNA has shrugged off suggested amendments and critiques, continuing to tout this unsound bill as progressive policy.
In fact, there are models for successfully modernizing public notices that avoid what PNA considers a doomsday scenario: allowing agencies to publish notices on their own websites and in a state-run database.
Maybe PNA’s concern isn’t having the best policy, but rather protecting their members’ interests. That’s their mission as a trade group. But any law allowing legacy newspapers to retain their lucrative monopoly over public notices, even after they’ve dropped their print product, is going to be bad for taxpayers.
So, let’s refocus the conversation.
There is a better way to modernize public notices.
Another commonwealth, Virginia, last year became the first state to approve the publication of legal notices in online-only local news sites. Upon passage, the state’s press association actually celebrated its collaboration with digital news sites.
“The Virginia Press Association believes that independent, third-party local news sites (print or online) are the best place to publish government public notices,” Betsy Edwards, VPA executive director, said in a statement after the bill was signed into law. “We supported this legislation because it utilizes local newspapers and news websites to provide the public with maximum transparency.”
Public notices are not primarily about income for publishers, even if that’s how the big out-of-state newspaper companies see them. Virginia’s reform focused on improving public access and aligning the law with modern news distribution and readership habits. The goal wasn’t to require anyone to use digital sites but to create another option for notice distribution, increasing choice and flexibility for municipalities.
The Virginia bill keeps the existing right of newspapers to publish public notices while also establishing criteria for online-only news publications to compete. These criteria include:
- Employing local news staff
- Being in business for at least two years
- Publishing regularly updated general news coverage
- Having a clear link to public notices on the homepage
- Obtaining approval to publish notices by a local court
News organizations and taxpayers alike benefitted by not falling for tired “print vs. digital” debates and instead making it “all of us vs. government websites.”
If PNA continues to block actual reform, and ignore that digital publishers are the present and future of local news, legacy print newspapers risk losing public notices entirely.
As one Virginia legislator put it, “With the sharp growth in local online news publications, print newspapers are no longer the only source readers turn to obtain information. Legal notices belong in a place that will be seen and, in many communities, that is an online publication.”
How’s that for common sense?
Please share this with your local lawmakers, municipal officials and county commissioners to raise awareness about the risk HB 1291 has on taxpayers and local news.
