Public Notice Excellence Matters: Why Getting It Right Protects Transparency
Public and legal notices are more than just another advertising category. They are a vital part of government transparency and one of the most important public services newspapers provide to their communities.
As threats to public notice requirements continue to emerge across the country, it is more important than ever that newspapers demonstrate the value of these notices by publishing them accurately, prominently, and in a manner that serves the public interest.
When a government agency, school district, township, city, county, or court places a notice in your newspaper, citizens are relying on that publication to alert them to actions that may affect their taxes, property rights, public services, or quality of life. Errors, omissions, or poor presentation can undermine confidence in the notice process and provide ammunition to those who argue that notices should be moved away from independent newspapers.
Make Notices Easy to Find
One of the most common mistakes newspapers make is allowing public notices to blend into classified advertising pages. While public notices may technically be classified advertising, they serve a fundamentally different purpose.
Readers should be able to quickly identify public notices without having to search through employment ads, garage sales, and miscellaneous classifieds.
Consider using:
Clearly marked “Public Notices” headers.
Consistent placement from week to week.
Distinct typography or layout treatment.
Adequate spacing that separates notices from other advertising categories.
The goal is simple: make it easy for citizens to find the information they need.
Accuracy Is Non-Negotiable
Every notice should be carefully reviewed before publication. Verify dates, times, legal descriptions, contact information, and publication requirements. Even small errors can create significant legal complications for the entity publishing the notice and can damage the newspaper’s reputation as a trusted public information source.
Remember that newspapers are often the permanent record of these governmental actions. Future researchers, attorneys, public officials, and citizens may rely on your publication years after the notice originally appeared.
Notices Are News
Public notices are also one of the best underutilized sources of local news.
How many stories are hiding in your notice pages right now?
A proposed zoning change, a large public construction project, a school bond proposal, a planning commission hearing, or a government budget amendment may all originate as public notices before becoming major community issues.
Editors and reporters should regularly review public notices for story ideas. In many cases, notices provide the first indication that something important is happening in the community.
Consider developing a routine where newsroom staff review public notices each week and identify potential stories for further reporting. Not only does this create valuable journalism, but it also demonstrates to readers that public notices are relevant and worthy of attention.
Demonstrating the Value of Newspapers
Public notices remain in newspapers because they provide independence, accountability, permanence, and broad public access. Every time a newspaper publishes notices professionally and prominently, it reinforces those values.
At a time when some policymakers are questioning whether notices belong in newspapers, publishers have an opportunity to show exactly why they do.
By making notices easy to find, ensuring accuracy, and using them as a source of community reporting, newspapers strengthen both their public service mission and the case for keeping public notices where the public notices.
The future of public notice depends not only on advocacy in state capitols and legislatures, but also on the daily commitment of newspapers to publish these notices in a way that serves readers and upholds the principles of transparent government.
The slippery slope of governments self-publishing legal notices
May 2, 2026 By NED SEATON
The Manhattan (Kansas) city government is floating the notion of no longer publishing legal notices. That means they wouldn’t have to notify you about what they intend to do, whether it’s raising your taxes or rezoning your neighborhood.
Well, technically what they’re proposing is to “publish” those notices on the government’s own website. The temptation to fake it or alter it would be too strong to resist, given that the government is run by flawed human beings, and so that would inevitably happen.
There’s also another temptation that would be too strong to resist — the temptation by individual government officials to personally profit from exclusive knowledge about what’s in those public notices.
Just remember back a few years for a local example to illustrate. In that case, the county government published a legal notice in 2018 about an auction of a house in the west part of Manhattan, just off Anderson Avenue near the intersection with Scenic. That house had been foreclosed upon. Because of the way the law works, that notice was published in a weekly print newspaper from the town of Riley, rather than The (Manhattan) Mercury. Good small-town newspaper, the Riley Countian. Love it. They ran the notice there because doing so was a little cheaper than running it in The Mercury.
Nothing illegal. But everybody can understand that publishing that notice there effectively kept it out of much larger distribution in The Mercury, where it was actually relevant since that’s where the house is. Basically nobody affected would see it.
But guess who did see it? The elected county clerk, the guy who runs the inner workings of the county government. He knew about it. So he was the only one who showed up for the auction. Which means he was able to buy the house, which was worth about $126,000 at that time, for $1. I just checked the county property records — it’s now worth $188,000.
The free-house-for-a-power-broker deal was overturned by a judge on the grounds that it was unreasonable. But to be clear, it was not illegal. It was just a case of a human being taking advantage of knowledge. Anybody else could have done it, too. And to be clear, the person we’re talking about, Rich Vargo, has been a good public servant for many, many years. I’m not blaming him.
I’m using that example to illustrate a principle. When public notices get hidden, it’s a giant temptation in the direction of corruption, skullduggery, incompetence or self-dealing. And if you think publishing the notice in a small weekly paper in Riley was questionable, imagine if it was on a government website controlled by the very human beings — flawed as we all are — who stood to gain from insider knowledge.
The temptation would be greater, the risk bigger. Then you’d be talking about actual corruption, a giant liability risk for the government.
If you don’t think that would happen, you’re kidding yourself. It already did.
Ned Seaton is the publisher of the Manhattan Mercury, a sister publication of The Daily Sentinel.
https://www.gjsentinel.com/opinion/columns/the-slippery-slope-of-governments-self-publishing-legal-notices/article_686a25e9-24aa-46d7-9ead-106ae7a3ec58.html
Southampton Village Board Express Support for Bill That Would Change Legal Notice Rules
State bill would allow municipalities to post the notices online, bypassing newspapers
Dan Stark May 5, 2026.
The New York State Assembly and Senate are considering concurring legislation that would allow municipalities to post legal notices only on their official websites, breaking from a long-standing precedent of publishing notices in newspapers — a change that the Southampton Village Board has expressed support of.
Under New York State Open Meetings Law, municipalities are required to inform the public of meeting times, location and public hearings at least 72 hours before the meeting occurs by sending it to media outlets and posting it in at least one designated public location. If the Assembly bill passes, municipalities would be allowed to post these notices on their “.gov” websites only. Municipalities would have to pass their own local laws to do so.
If a municipality was to adopt it, they would be required to include the following statement on the website: “All legal notices required by state and local law will be posted on this website in lieu of being published in a newspaper. Such notices will be posted for the duration required by the applicable state or local law.”
At its last meeting on April 21, the Southampton Village Board unanimously voted to “express its strong support for the passage and enactment” of the pair of bills. Mayor Bill Manger said that the New York Conference of Mayors had sent the legislation around to municipalities to drum up support, as the bills are still in committee.
Manger said that if the village adopted a local law to go along with the bills, if passed, it would allow residents to “pull up immediately on the internet any notices that were being put out by the village and not have to wait until the newspaper comes out.”
Trustee Rob Coburn, who has been an advocate for more transparency and communication from the board, said that he was “comfortable enough with the implications right now” of supporting the move. He said that the potential switch could be beneficial to the village’s non-year-round residents.
Coburn also said that by switching to posting these notices online, residents could get in the habit of doing so, which would allow residents to know when special meetings of the Village Board and other boards occur.
Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni, whose district includes Southampton Village, said that he opposes the legislation.
“I’m sure that municipalities are already, or should be, posting these things on their website,” he said. “However, I don’t believe that the messaging would be as clear and deliberate out in the public as it is when you send it to your official publications from the municipality.”
https://www.27east.com/southampton-press/news/government-news/article_c25cc769-3a26-4b1e-ab21-5657c5653814.html
If you have a public notice story
or a bill that may be of interest.
Please send information to
Jim Tarrant at jim@pnrc.net.
TENNESSEE
SB 2450/HB 2114 Comprehensive study on the effectiveness and efficiency of public notice methods.
The bill mandates that the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR), a state agency that studies issues affecting local governments, conduct a comprehensive study on the effectiveness and efficiency of public notice methods, particularly examining whether newspapers of general circulation are still the best way for governments to inform the public. The study will also look at how public information access has changed over time, the impact of declining newspaper readership and publication frequency, the costs and capabilities of governments to manage online public notice systems, and how taxpayer money is currently spent on newspaper publications, with a consideration of whether citizens should have to pay to access these notices. Furthermore, TACIR will investigate the role of broadband internet access, especially in rural areas, and review public notice practices in other states to identify technological advancements and their effects on transparency, accountability, and civic engagement, consulting with various stakeholders like local governments, newspaper publishers, and open government advocates throughout the process, and will ultimately report its findings and recommendations to the state legislature. Enacted.
COLORADO
HB1095 Digital Publication for Legal Notice
24-70-103. Requisites of legal newspaper. (5) When any legal notice is required by law to be published in any newspaper, the newspaper publishing the notice shall, at no additional cost to the person or entity placing the notice, place the notice on a statewide website established and maintained by an organization representing a majority of Colorado newspapers as a repository for the notices. THE STATEWIDE PUBLIC NOTICE WEBSITE MUST INCLUDE A LIST OF NEWSPAPERS THAT SATISFY THE REQUIREMENTS OF SUBSECTION (1) OF THIS SECTION, IDENTIFIED BY COUNTY. (6) WHEN ANY LEGAL NOTICE is required by law to be published in a newspaper pursuant to this section, the newspaper shall also make the notice available on its website without charge, and the newspaper shall not require payment or subscription to its physical or digital print in order to view the notice. a newspaper satisfies the requirement of this subsection (6) either by posting the full text of the notice on its website or providing a link on its website to a location where the full text of the notice is available, such as the statewide public notice website established pursuant to subsection (5) of this section. Governor Signed.
CALIFORNIA
AB2323 Publication: newspapers of general circulation.
This bill requires that any public notice legally mandated to be published in a “newspaper of general circulation” – a newspaper that meets specific criteria like having a paying subscriber base and publishing regularly – must now appear in both the newspaper’s physical print edition and on its internet website or electronic version. Furthermore, newspapers are prohibited from charging any extra fees for the public to access these legally required notices online or for posting them on their website, though they can still charge for other content on their site. Assembly, Passed. Ordered to the Senate.
MISSOURI
HB1940 Changes the law regarding advertisements and orders of publication in newspapers.
This bill modifies existing Missouri laws concerning advertisements and election notifications published in newspapers. It introduces a provision for bond issuances, stating that if no election contest is filed within a specific timeframe after a bond is issued, all conditions for its issuance under chapter 115 will be considered met. The bill also updates the timelines and methods for notifying election authorities about upcoming elections, allowing for email or facsimile transmission of notices and adjusting deadlines for candidate filings and ballot changes. Furthermore, it revises the requirements for newspapers to qualify for publishing public advertisements and legal notices, reducing the required consecutive publication period from three years to one year, with provisions for successor newspapers and those suspended due to wartime service. For larger cities, the bill also shortens the required continuous publication period for newspapers to be eligible for publishing public notices from three years to one year. Delivered to the Governor
NEW YORK
S07053 Authorizes counties to post local laws and notices via the internet where such county doesn’t have a newspaper published within the county.
This bill amends the county law to provide an alternative method for publishing official notices and local laws in counties without a local newspaper. Specifically, the bill creates an exemption to the existing requirement that counties publish legal notices in a designated newspaper. Under this new provision, if a county does not have a newspaper published within its boundaries, it may instead publish local laws and official notices through an official county website or another state-run digital platform. This change addresses the challenges faced by rural or sparsely populated counties that may lack a local newspaper, ensuring that residents can still access important government information by providing a digital alternative for public notices. The bill would take effect immediately upon passage, offering counties without local newspapers a flexible and accessible method to communicate official information to their residents. Passed Senate, Sent to Assembly.