Bill could let newspaper lobby collect millions in hidden public notice fees

We’ve written before about HB 1291, a bill that would extend the print monopoly over public notices. Digital publishers from State College to Conshohocken spoke out, but our proposed taxpayer-friendly changes have not advanced. Now we’re at a critical moment.

Although the bill has been amended, its core remains substantially intact: Continued protectionism of the legacy print newspaper industry. The bill is poised to hit the House floor. Each lawmaker we’ve spoken to genuinely cares about the public good, and we urge them to see through the newspaper’s lobby spin.

HB 1291 will keep the price of public notices high by stifling competition and propping up archaic companies. It throttles innovation, discouraging more efficient public notice solutions.

The government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers or protecting monopolies. Outlets like LebTown should be afforded the chance to compete.

This bill would not bring down the exorbitant prices rampant today for public notices. It actually creates a new revenue stream that could divert taxpayer money to prop up the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, which has cumulatively lost $469,822 since 2017 according to its 990 filings.

The bill mandates a statewide public notice website – but this is no transparent government service. The bill requires the website be run by a narrowly defined association, a 501(c)(6) trade group that includes the majority of the state’s newspapers of general circulation – a term elliptically defined in a way that, for example, excludes LebTown from being one so long as the Lebanon Daily News continues in print.

PNA already maintains such a site, PublicNoticePA.com, which states in its terms that PNA can charge newspapers a fee to upload notices and those fees may be modified.

What happens once this bill is passed and every public notice in the state is required to be uploaded? Do we expect this trade group to do that work for free, even for non-members?

PNA could impose a newspaper lobby “tax” through a per-notice fee.

Taxpayers wouldn’t easily catch on if they did. The bill prevents publishers from charging an additional fee for publication on the statewide website, meaning the cost for doing so would need to be included in the total price rather than broken out separately.

PublicNoticePA.com can publish hundreds of notices per day, even though posting isn’t yet required by law. At a few dollars per notice, PNA could generate millions annually in hidden fees.

We applaud the legislators who’ve pushed for and expressed interest in this bill, as public notices are sorely in need of modernization, but we urge them to consider the issues raised here and support amendments that level the playing field for digital outlets like LebTown.

Allowing this bill as it stands to become law would send a clear message that Harrisburg prioritizes outdated monopolies. We call on elected officials to recognize the implications of this legislation and to stand up for a public notice system that is truly for the public.

The stakes for local news, for taxpayers, and for transparency are too high to do otherwise.

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.