States Begin to Permit Web Posting for Legal Ads, Public Notices

Abstract

Editor & Publisher reported recently that many newspapers were adding public notices to the list of those items posted on their Web sites.1 Publishers said they hoped this expansion of services would dissuade state legislatures from changing the laws that require publication of legal notices in newspapers. Although the small circulation newspapers are usually hardest hit by the loss of legal ads during downturns in commercial advertising, the large circulation newspapers report substantial revenue streams from legal notice clients and are eager to retain the system.2Since the late 1990s, many of the larger circulation newspapers created Web sites for posting legal notices as a way of dissuading local government from moving into the venue. Several newspaper group consortia also formed to create Web sites for public notices. A large site is http:/ / publicnoticeads.com used in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah, launched four years ago. Most newspaper publishers were still treating the Web posting as an addition, not a replacement, for newsprint publication in 2002. News organizations did not claim a significant revenue stream from the additional Web postings of legal notices.3Individual state organizations, like Pennsylvania, also are hosting sites for legal notice postings in response to the state legislature inquiries.4 Pennsylvania has traditionally required that legal notices be published in certain, designated newspapers in order to meet the statutory mandate of providing the public with knowledge about government activities.5 And the concerns about the costs and effectiveness of its historical statutory notice practices are not unique to Pennsylvania. Nearly half of the nation's states not only reviewed the venues required for statutory notice, but also made changes in those laws during the past two years. Some legislatures continue to review the necessity of publishing public and legal notices in newsprint. This article reviews the changes that 21 states and the District of Columbia made recently in their legally binding practices for distributing public notice information.BackgroundPublic notice through newspaper publication has served both state and federal government in the United States since the organization of the nation. As early as the first session of the first Congress, the public has been kept informed about government activities through both traditional news stories and legal advertisements in designated newspapers.6 Although newspapers are not the only way to learn about the activities of municipal, state and federal agencies, it has been the single venue specifically identified by all 50 states.7The reasons most often mentioned for posting public or legal notices in newspapers include:* Newspaper accessibility to both the reading public and the government* A relatively inexpensive distribution mechanism with documented subscribership* A relatively stable format for evidence and records.8The key concern now most frequently mentioned is that actual notice may be less certain when newsprint publication of legal notice is the primary means of distribution. Actual notice connotes the warning or alert provided by newspaper publishing must be done so that it communicates pertinent fact by an authorized person about government business to an appropriate constituency.9 Since legislators are now considering other venues for public notice, there are apparently some who believe newspapers are no longer serving that function adequately, though all 50 states and the District of Columbia continue to require newspaper publication as notification for much of the public's business.10Newspaper associations, like American Court & Commercial Newspapers, have frequently devoted national meeting sessions to concerns about legal and public notice requirements.11 The National Newspaper Association compiled several reports during the 1990s about the state laws and the shifting statutory mandates. …