Public notice legislation introduced so far in 2024 suggests state legislatures are growing increasingly comfortable having news websites serve as an alternative source of official notice. And that comfort seems to have cooled their ardor for moving notices from newspapers to government websites.

As of the end of last week, new legislation authorizing local news websites or newspaper websites to provide statutory notice in lieu of print had been introduced in at least six states, while bills sanctioning the move from print newspapers to government websites had been introduced in only two states — and one of them is already dead.

That’s a dramatic shift from last year, when legislation allowing government websites to substitute for newspaper notice had been introduced in 12 states by early February. Legislation is often difficult to easily categorize so it’s unwise to place too much significance in a single year-to-year analyses. But there’s no denying the numbers so far are striking.

The most serious efforts to authorize news websites to distribute public notice are underway in Virginia and Indiana.

Virginia

Virginia HB-264/SB-157 allows online-only news publications to compete with official newspapers for the opportunity to run public notices if they meet a rigorous set of qualifications, including a dedicated domain name, a local news staff and regularly updated local news coverage. Their license to serve as official publications also must be approved and certified annually by a local circuit court.

The legislation is supported by the Virginia Press Association, which for the past several years had helped defeat bills authorizing local news websites to provide official notice. VPA concluded it needed to come to the table this session or lose control of the process, says VPA Executive Director Betsy Edwards. “We had run out of ways to say no,” she says, noting the bill’s Democratic sponsor promised to make its passage a priority this session. His threat was bolstered when his party took back control of the House in the state’s 2023 election and he was appointed chairman of the committee that would initially consider the bill.

“Our overriding goal was to allow local news sites to publish notices,” explains Edwards. “Newspapers will still publish ninety-five percent of them, but as long as the news sites meet the strict parameters in the bill – we’re OK with them competing for the rest.”

HB-264/SB-157 began as a proposal hammered out by a VPA committee that in addition to key members and staff included the publishers of the four local news websites that expect to qualify to publish notices if it is signed into law. The Senate version passed by the upper chamber by a vote of 36-3 last month and after its House companion sailed through committee it is expected to be approved by the lower chamber this week. It would make Virginia the first state to authorize local news websites to publish notices.

Indiana

Indiana HB-1204 authorizes some newspaper websites and e-editions to provide notice in lieu of print newspapers. It passed the House unanimously last week and was immediately referred to the Senate. It allows government units to post notices in the e-editions of official newspapers published in print less than four times per week, and in the e-editions or on the websites of papers published fewer than three times per week. The bill also incentivizes those in the latter cohort that don’t have a website to get one, since it authorizes local governments in those jurisdictions to post notices on their own website if there isn’t a qualified newspaper website on which to publish them.

The Indiana Senate is considering a different measure easing eligibility requirements for official newspapers while increasing circulation minimums. SB-252 expands the potential universe of official newspapers by reducing the continuous publication mandate from three years to one, and enlarging the jurisdiction within which a newspaper must be “published” from a specific city, town or township to the county in which the municipality is located. It also has the potential to simultaneously shrink the official-newspaper universe by increasing the state’s average paid-circulation requirement from 200 to 500 and expanding the paid circulation threshold of 2 percent of the county population to all newspapers in the state, not just those in counties with population less than 40,000. SB-252 unanimously passed its first committee hurdle last week.

It’s important to note that the tenor of public notice legislation in Indiana has changed significantly. Two years ago it was one of the handful of states that appeared likely to be among the first to make the move to government websites. Now there’s a real chance it will be a pioneer in advancing newspaper websites as a potential successor to print.

Tennessee

In Tennessee, a local-news-website bill was introduced last week that has the virtue of maintaining existing newspaper notice. HB-2114/SB-2317 requires notices that must be published in newspapers to also be published “on a news and information website, if available.” To qualify, such websites must be headquartered in the county of jurisdiction and report “news of general interest to the community” that is updated at least once a week. The Tennessee Press Association hasn’t taken a position on the bill.

Meanwhile, TPA is gearing up to fight HB-2430, which reduces the state’s foreclosure-notice requirement from three newspaper publications to one while mandating that each notice must also be posted on the Secretary of State’s website at a cost of $100. It allows that government website notice to completely replace newspaper notice if no official newspaper is published in the county or there isn’t one willing to publish the ad at its regular classified advertising rate. HB-2430 is backed by the Tennessee Bankers Association, which has scaled back its immediate ambitions after failing to move legislation in previous years that would have completely eliminated foreclosure notices in newspapers.

South Dakota

The South Dakota Legislature is close to passing one bill allowing free-circulation newspapers to qualify to publish notices and another that automatically raises public notice rates each year to keep pace with inflation.

SB-75 requires free newspapers to maintain a minimum of 200 paid online subscribers and a print circulation of at least 500 copies to be considered official. They are also required to publish an annual independent audit verifying their print and online circulations. The South Dakota NewsMedia Association opposed a similar bill last year but agreed to support this year’s version after its sponsors agreed to add the audit requirement. After passing the Senate unanimously last month SB-75 was also approved by a unanimous vote in the House on Friday. It now goes to the governor for her signature.

SB-152 replaces the annual review of public notice fees — which is supposed to be conducted by a state agency but rarely is — with a process that raises rates every year by the lesser of two percent or the annual rate of inflation computed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is also backed by SDNA and was unanimously approved by a Senate committee last month.