Last week, Louisiana became the first state to pass a law that will eventually make newspaper websites the primary platform for public notice. HB-650 requires local governments to post their notices on official newspaper websites beginning in 2027. They’ll also be required to publish print notices describing the subject matter and location of the online notices, but — in a reversal of present custom — the print ads will be free and the online notices will be the ads they pay for.
HB-650 passed both houses unanimously and is expected to be signed by Gov. Jon Bel Edwards when it reaches his desk.
The bill has a number of other provisions that take effect next year. One new mandate changes how public notice fees are set. Another requires official newspapers to publish local notices on their websites and on the Louisiana Press Association’s (LPA) statewide public notice site. There’s also a now-ubiquitous “errors and omissions” clause stipulating that publication mistakes made by newspapers don’t undermine the validity of a notice.
The legislation only affects local governments — parish police juries, city councils, school boards and other local bodies — so public-notice laws regulating the state government and judiciary won’t change for now.
Planning for the bill began when the state’s legislative session ended last summer. LPA promised lawmakers who agreed to table legislation the association opposed that it would develop a plan to modernize the state’s public notice laws. After forming a task force and embarking on a process that ultimately took nine months, the LPA Board of Directors decided it would be preferable to recommend major changes now to avoid the potential of a worse outcome later. Some fear this year’s statewide elections may result in a less favorable political climate for newspapers in the 2024 session.
The fee changes simplify and standardize the state’s complicated pricing structure. Maximum rates for notices are presently set using two different space-based methods — 100-word squares and agate lines — that apply separately to three different population tiers. LPA conducted a survey of public notice rates and found there was a great deal of confusion surrounding the current structure.
HB-650 simplifies that framework by organizing rates around the number of text characters in each ad, or by a standardized price-per-square-inch formula for display ads and other prebuilt notices. That structure, which newspapers and their local government clients can opt to use beginning Jan. 1, 2024, is particularly well-suited to pricing online ads when the transition to digital notice takes place three years later.
According to Executive Director Jerry Raehal, the new rate structure may eventually result in a revenue decrease for LPA members but he emphasizes it was part of a compromise designed to secure the future of public notice in the state.
“It’s a win-win-win for everyone,” Raehal says. “Local governments get some economic relief and a more transparent pricing model. Local newspapers get a path forward to retain public notices in a digital format, and a runway to prepare for the changes. And Louisiana citizens maintain easy access to government notices from a trusted source.”
Like the rest of the bill, the web-posting section applies only to local notices. (Louisiana already has a law requiring newspapers to post state-government notices on the LPA site.) It includes an unprecedented mandate compelling newspapers to have a website in order to continue to qualify to publish notices. Raehal says the last time he checked there were four LPA papers that don’t have a website.
Texas passed a web-posting law last month as well, requiring newspapers to post notices free of charge on their own websites and on the Texas Press Association’s (TPA) statewide site. The TPA-backed bill was approved by both the House and Senate with only one dissenting vote and was signed into law last week by Gov. Greg Abbott. Texas is the nineteenth state to adopt a web-posting mandate for public notices.