The Indiana Publisher

Editorial Board News and Tribune (Jeffersonville) For years, legislatures across the country have been search- ing for any excuse to remove public notices from newspapers of record. For years, those same gov- ernment bodies have been making headway. During that same span, newspaper readers have been lulled into believing that the governmental motive of "saving taxpayer dollars" is pure. PURE IN MOTIVE? Hardly. Pure nonsense? More likely. Fact: Newspapers count public notices (also called legal notices) as a revenue stream. Revenue used to pay for the service of delivering important information about actions of government to its constituency without editorial spin or editing — as prescribed by state law or regulations. Fact: Newspaper print cir- culation continues to decline. Overall readership, however, thanks to digital access, is increasing. Fact: Other forms of infor- mation dissemination have grown since the advent of a printed newspaper edition. Many publishers make the mistake of hanging their hats on the argument that removing public notices from newspapers of record (and associated web- sites) will be financially dev- astating. In truth, nobody cares about that — except newspaper publishers. The reality is that we have been adjusting our business model for years to remain relevant. If, God forbid, legislatures are successful in removing notices from newspa- pers, we'll reinvent ourselves yet again. And yes, the good ones will remain relevant — somehow. For those still reading, here's what you need to know … gov- ernment bodies, by and large, really don't want you to know what they are doing behind closed doors. They'd rather you remain ignorantly blissful. Some of those entities feel that way because, frankly, they don't want the hassle of hearing you complain about how they spend your money. Others have more devious intentions, like punishing the news media for less than posi- tive coverage. A recent example of the latter is the Florida legisla- tive action that calls for public notices to be stripped from some Florida newspapers in favor of county websites. According to a report in the Tampa Bay Times, critics of the move think it's a jab at publica- tions that sometimes publish stories and editorials critical of the Republican leadership in Florida. Proponents, however, counter that it shouldn't be the state's job to make local gov- ernments subsidize newspapers. RIGHT HERE IN INDIANA, legislators continue to pull similar shenanigans with the same arguments. Penny wise and pound fool- ish. Public notices in Hoosier newspapers cost each taxpayer just $1.06 per year, according to a study by the Hoosier State Press Association. For individual government bodies in every county across the state to effectively and efficiently post public notices online, they would have to cre- ate a website for placement and hire staffing to ensure every public notice is posted. As it stands today, newspa- pers of record — with circula- tion in print and online — have a longstanding, accessible, verifiable, archivable and, most importantly, independent pro- cess to inform the citizens of Indiana. According to HSPA rep- resentatives, it is "unduly burdensome to expect people to seek out numerous govern- ment websites to be updated on the ongoings of their local government." Newspapers have always provided public notices in a consistent, consolidated, and manageable location — and are the experts on the legal requirements for effective pub- lic notices. Public notices in newspa- pers inform Hoosiers of actions of their government to ensure accountability, encourage participation and protect the government from the percep- tion of partiality. And, HSPA operates indianapublicnotices. com, which aggregates all of the public notices from the 140- plus member newspapers. To offer them on govern- ment-run websites or social media as an alternative would be akin to the fox guarding the henhouse. And what should be most important to our elected offi- cials is that 63% of Hoosier adults believe public notices should appear in local newspa- pers even if it costs them sev- eral thousand dollars a year. Page 4 April 2022 See Scholarship, page 5 Local newspaper public notices keep the fox out of henhouse ... government bodies, by and large, really don't want you to know what they are doing behind closed doors. They'd rather you remain ignorantly blissful.

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