Yes, Virginia, there is a better way to modernize public notices

The Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association’s proposed “modernization” of PA’s public notice law is a brazen attempt to translate the print paper monopoly into the digital age.

Publishers like LebTown have spent the past month speaking with lawmakers and lobbyists to explain the issues with HB 1291. PNA paid lip service to our critique, ignored amendments, and stuck to its guns, touting a flawed bill as progressive policy.

If only they had done more research. There are models of successful modernization that avoid PNA’s doomsday scenario: Agencies publishing notices on their own websites.

Maybe PNA doesn’t really want the best policy for public notices. Maybe they’re focused on protecting their members’ interests. That’s their prerogative as a trade group, after all. Although LebTown is a member, most digital publishers in the state have steered clear exactly because of this tendency to cater to the business interests of the legacy papers. LebTown is a member because PNA champions a free and independent press, but organization leaders are undermining that mission with unabashed protectionism.

Here’s the bottom line: Any law which allows legacy newspapers to drop print and retain their lucrative monopoly over public notices is going to be bad for taxpayers, and will do nothing to alleviate the exorbitant costs and dismal customer service endemic today. It’s time for PNA to wake up and realize digital publishers like LebTown aren’t just here to stay, but in many cases already the most read and relied upon local news outlets.

So, let’s clear the table. Let’s refocus the conversation.

Yes, Virginia, there is a better way to modernize public notices.

In 2024, that other commonwealth, the one Washington called home, became the first state to approve the publication of legal notices in online-only local news sites. The Virginia 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,” said VPA executive director Betsy Edwards, in a statement shared after the bill was signed into law last year. “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 publishers earning revenue, even if that’s how the big out-of-state newspaper companies view them. The reform in Virginia was squarely focused on better 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 a second option for notice distribution and increase choice and flexibility for agencies.

The Virginia bill keeps the existing right of newspapers to publish public notices while also laying out criteria for online-only news outlets 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

In Virginia, 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 reform, and ignore the fact that digital publishers are the present and future of local news, the legacy papers 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.