The closure of the Star-Ledger and other newspapers will leave some cities and counties without an appropriate official newspaper to print legally required public notices. (Getty Images)
New Jersey lawmakers are exploring how to distribute legal and other public notices as the print newspapers they have published for decades begin to go out of circulation.
Although the issue had long been simmering as online outlets replaced print circulation, it boiled over in late October when the owners of the Star-Ledger said it would happen stop printing physical copies of the paper and other papers starting early next year.
“I can tell you that every province has really struggled with the notice requirements in recent years because the traditional press has laid off some of its staff and it’s been difficult to reach anyone there and the machinations and dealings of having a legal notice published,” said John Donnadio, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Counties.
Lawmakers don’t have much time to take action on this issue. Local governments must designate their official newspapers when they reorganize in January, and those without options could face fines for failing to properly mark the gatherings. Any action taken by an administrative body during a meeting that is not properly noticed can also be annulled through the courts for non-compliance with the Public Meetings Act.
Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen) said Wednesday he believes lawmakers should make changes in the coming weeks before the start of the new year.
“We kind of saw this coming, and it’s just unfortunate that we had to wait until the 11th hour to fix it,” Donnadio said.
Although some rules vary depending on the nature of the notice, notices of public meetings, auctions, and other proceedings must be printed in newspapers published or distributed in their state and printed within the state.
But the winnowing of the print shops will soon leave some provinces without a newspaper.
Warren County filed a lawsuit Monday asking a state Supreme Court judge to overturn a 2010 ruling that said public notices must be published in print newspapers and not online outlets.
In documents first reported by the New Jersey spherethe county argued that upholding the decision would put the county in “a seriously unfortunate position of having to publish notices in a newspaper that virtually no one in the county reads.”
The Daily Record, a Morristown-based outlet that carries Warren County legal notices in addition to the Star-Ledger, has just 1,345 subscribers in the county, which has more than 45,000 households.
Legislative leaders have hinted at changes but have not yet said how they plan to move public service announcements into the digital age.
“I am committed to finding ways to modernize the process of distributing legal notices in a way that maintains the same level of transparency and accessibility,” said Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex). “As we explore different avenues, we will be mindful of the importance of treating all publications fairly so that the public continues to have access to the information they need.”
Richard McGrath, spokesman for Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), said the Senate is reviewing a number of proposals but has not yet made any decisions on what to move forward with.
Changes to the way New Jersey regulates public communications appear to have bipartisan support. Sen. Tony Bucco (R-Morris), his chamber’s minority leader, said he reached out to Scutari in hopes of pushing a bipartisan bill through the Legislature by the end of the year.
“As long as we can continue to provide transparency and protect these, I think we’re going to have to move to some sort of online reporting,” he told city officials Wednesday at their annual conference in Atlantic City.
Because public service announcements generate revenue for newspapers, the industry is ready to oppose any plan that would put their publication entirely in the hands of the government, and skepticism toward government could put the public on their backs, just as it did when Governor Chris Christie did. There is a push to end public notice publication requirements in 2016. At the time, Christie argued that this measure would save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. His critics charged that his effort was a vendetta against a press corps that had aggressively defeated his government.
The New Jersey Press Association is backing a proposal that would require outlets that distribute public notices to send them to an online clearinghouse, arguing that government websites are not an adequate replacement because they are often unnavigable.
“I know this because we have reporters. We do it all the time when we’re discussing multiple meetings: you’re trying to find an agenda, you’re trying to find minutes, it’s a mess. It takes work,” said Brett Ainsworth, president of the New Jersey Press Association. “You really have to look somewhere for information about the government.”
Officials have acknowledged that expanding public notices to online channels is a possible solution, but they have insisted that local governments be allowed to post the notices on their own websites or in a state-created database.
This would save money, they said, and staff time by eliminating the need to place advertisements in newspapers.
“It would be easier for local governments and staff, our purchasing officers and our public information officers and clerks to post it directly on their website,” Donnadio said. “Money is not the reason, although it would save money if provinces and municipalities could post messages on their own websites. That is not our main concern.”
Multiple lawmakers who spoke at the Atlantic City confab cited cost as one of the reasons for posting notices online, and while there was no clear consensus, some were in favor of removing newspapers from the reporting process.
“We need to invest in journalism, but I don’t think we should artificially support it through these reports,” said Assemblyman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), his chamber’s majority leader.
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