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Keep Public Notices in Newspapers
Jump directly to these topics:
Put your public notices online—NOW!
Do you know why it's so important?
Here are some quick reasons why you should help keep Public Notices
in Newspapers:
- Some
states have already passed laws allowing Public Notices
to be published on Web sites instead of in newspapers.
- Our approach is a proactive way to prevent publishing Public
Notices on the internet.
It's easy to get started. Just start sending a hard copy of your newspaper to the following address: Michigan Press Association
C/O NewzGroup
409 W. Vandiver Dr.
Bldg. 3, Ste. 100
Columbia, MO 65202
For more information, Public Notice ads and editorials, please go to http://mipublicnotices.com
or contact Mike MacLaren (mike@michiganpress.org)
or Lisa McGraw (lisa@michiganpress.org)
at 517.372.2424.
The DOs and DON'Ts of public notice publication
for community newspaper publishers
As state legislatures and public officials take steps to eliminate
public notice requirements—or begin putting notices on line—local
newspaper publishers risk losing an essential element to their role as
community chroniclers.
How publishers respond to this threat will have an enormous impact on
the future of public notice requirements. While publishers understand
that providing proper notice of government or other legal actions is
essential to democracy, your readers and your legislators may not.
Here are a few DOs and DON’Ts to help publishers tap the power they
have to influence the outcome of this continuing debate.
Download the list!
DO … tell your readers—regularly—about
the importance of public notices and your role in publishing notices.
DO … give public notices a
prominent—and permanent—position in your newspaper.
DO … make public notices easier to
read and to understand.
DO … train your staff on the
importance of public notice.
DO … use public notice as a source of
news stories.
DO … let customers know you’re the
public notice expert.
DO … work with MPA to monitor public
notice legislation.
DO … support public notices in your newspaper by sending a copy of your newspaper to http://mipublicnotices.com.
DON'T … treat public notice as just
another classified advertising category.
DON'T … assume your readers know
you’re the source for local public notices.
DON'T … put your least-experienced
staff member in charge of public notices.
DON'T …think that this is only about
revenue for your newspaper.
For more information...
* To learn about the public notice database, visit http://mipublicnotices.com.
* To sign up to protect public notices in newspapers,
visit Michigan Press Association’s web site at www.michiganpress.org.
* To view the legislation affecting newspapers that
Michigan Press Association tracks for its members, visit www.michiganpress.org and
click on For Members, then Government Affairs.
* To get more information on anything relating to
public notices, please contact:
Michigan Press Association
827 N. Washington Ave.
Lansing, Michigan 48906-5199
Phone: 517.372.2424
Fax: 517.372.2429
E-mail: mpa@michiganpress.org
MPA has provided talking points for public notices. Download the brochure.
Talking Points- Newspapers v. National Internet Services
-UPDATED-
11-15-07
• How many people have access to the Internet, especially in rural areas, minorities and the poor? Is the state going to supply computer and Internet access to everyone? What about people who don’t want to use computers? Many sectors of society would be disenfranchised if public notices were only on the Internet.
• Proof: Public notice in a newspaper provides automatic proof of publication by an independent party in a permanent format. Internet technology keeps changing; leaving electronic archives vulnerable…or inaccessible. Can your laptop read data from a Commodore 64 tape drive? What if we had changed the law 20 years ago to allow public notices stored on that tape drive? Stable and safe” computer formats become obsolete in just a few years. What happens when we can no longer read the data we stored in that format?
• How can public officials prove the public notices were run on the Internet? Banks and courts prefer written proof (i.e. tearsheets and affidavits). Public bodies and officers of the court need to prove due process by publishing their legal proceedings. There is no medium except the local newspaper than can present continuous opportunity to publicize important legal matters.
• Public notices are important not only to inform citizens of upcoming actions today—but for future residents to research past deeds. Having these notices appear on the printed page of a newspaper keeps them easily archived in a format that everybody can see.
• People cannot be accurately informed unless there is a publication that is issued with absolute regularity; one in which folks historically know they can find information.
• Online publication alone remains an unstable means to achieve the purposes of public notice. People can hack into the Web site and servers go down all the time.
• Barriers to entry on the Internet encourage fly-by-night operators seeking opportunistic access to a new “market” of public notices.
• Many newspapers provide notices online, to supplement accessibility. These postings enhance the elements of public notice, and are part of a more established process.
• How will the government publicize where public notices are on the Internet and at what cost?
• The Internet is an active medium. You have to know where you are going to find specific things. The newspaper is a passive medium people are presented with information every day in their newspapers.
• Newspapers provide over 15,000 tax-paying jobs in the state of Michigan. Eliminating public notice from newspapers and putting them on an Internet site run by an out-of-state company will eliminate many of those jobs and force some newspapers out of business. People like to talk about how Internet notices will save the government money. What about all that lost tax revenue?
• A recent survey* of registered Michigan Voters says:
Should the legal notices continue to be placed in local newspapers or should they be allowed to be placed on a government Web site on the Internet?—69% believe they should continue to be placed in local papers.
The survey went on to ask where they thought most people would be more likely to notice legal ntoices and read them if they were interested—on government Internet Web sites or in area newspapers?—69% felt people were more likely to read them in the newspaper vs. 20% who were more likely to read them on the Internet.
66% of those surveyed were very/somewhat concerned that if legal notices were placed only on Web sites in the future instead of printed in local newspapers, that government would have a greater opportunity to conceal information from the public.
60% of those surveyed trusted legal records to be placed in the area newspaper, which is independent of government rather than have the legal records be placed on a government Web site.
70% of registered Michigan voters surbscribe to one or more newspapers or purchase one or more newspapers at the newsstand which they read every day, or at least most days.
*EPIC-MRA October 2007
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