The November Newsletter was delayed to allow updates on proposed Ballot proposals that may impact Public Notices, FOIA and OMA.
After the Election, Make Public Notice Part of the Conversation
The days and weeks following an election offer an important opportunity to introduce newly elected legislators to the role newspapers play in keeping their communities informed. For newspaper publishers and public notice advocates, that conversation should include the importance of preserving public notice in newspapers.
New lawmakers will arrive with competing priorities and varying levels of familiarity with public notice requirements. Reaching out early can help them understand that notices are more than a legal obligation. They give residents an opportunity to learn about proposed government actions, follow public spending and participate in decisions affecting their homes, businesses and communities.
Start with a congratulations and an invitation to talk. Share examples from your newspaper showing how notices alert readers to public hearings, zoning changes, proposed budgets and other consequential decisions. Explain how newspaper publication provides an independent record of government activity, outside the control of the public body placing the notice.
Make sure legislators also understand how newspapers deliver public notices today. Most newspapers provide digital notices as well, adding searchable, shareable online access to the permanence of the printed notice. Newspaper websites and statewide public notice sites help residents find information wherever they are, while print preserves a fixed record of what was published and when. Together, these services expand access and strengthen accountability.
That combination is especially important when proposals emerge to move notices exclusively to government websites. The question is whether the public will continue to have an independent, verifiable record and multiple ways to discover information that affects them.
Offer to be a resource when public notice legislation comes before them. Invite newly elected lawmakers to visit your newspaper, meet your staff and see how notices are received, published and made available to readers.
Do not assume a new legislator already understands this work—or that someone else will explain it. A practical conversation now can build the understanding and relationships needed to protect public notice when the next legislative session begins.
The Impact of Massachusetts Ballot Question 1 on Government Transparency
Massachusetts Voters Overwhelmingly Endorse Government Transparency
Massachusetts voters sent a resounding message on Election Day: the public deserves to know what its government is doing. With approximately 86% voting yes in preliminary results, voters overwhelmingly approved Question 1, expanding the state’s Public Records Law to cover most records held by the Legislature and Governor’s Office.
The measure will give residents, journalists and watchdog organizations greater access to records that help explain how government operates and spends taxpayer dollars. Scheduled to take effect in January 2027, it will open access to documents such as contracts, spending records and settlement agreements, strengthening the public’s ability to hold elected officials accountable.
The law retains exemptions for documents related to policy development and certain communications between legislators and constituents seeking help with government benefits, services or agencies. Those limits will shape its practical reach, but the overwhelming vote represents a clear public mandate for greater transparency.
For Michigan, the result underscores the urgency of reform. Michigan’s Governor’s Office and Legislature remain outside the state’s Freedom of Information Act, denying residents the same enforceable access to their records that applies to other public bodies. Massachusetts voters have made their expectations unmistakable. Michigan lawmakers should take that message seriously and open their own offices to public scrutiny.
The Impact of Utah Amendment A on Public Notice
Utah Amendment A, proposed for the 2026 election, could significantly affect the way citizens participate in state government. The amendment concerns the rules governing citizen-led ballot initiatives and proposes changes to the Utah Constitution. Its impact is important because ballot initiatives allow ordinary citizens to propose laws and influence public policy directly.
Its main goal is to modernize how proposed constitutional amendments are publicized. Currently, Utah requires amendments to be published in newspapers across the state for 60 days before an election. Amendment A would replace this requirement with publication through a method established by state law, including the Utah Public Notice website. Supporters believe this change would make information more accessible and reflect modern technology. However, critics worry that residents in rural communities, particularly those without reliable internet access, could miss important election information. This could reduce public awareness and transparency. Overall, Amendment A could make election information easier to distribute, but it also raises concerns about equal access to information and government accountability. Its success will depend on whether the new publication system reaches all Utah residents effectively and ensures that voters remain informed before making important decisions.
About South County: Legal ads don’t just benefit newspapers, they keep the public informed
By Bill Seymour August 15, 2026
What are those Town Council people in Westerly really doing with a proposal to eliminate newspaper legal notices?
It seems more of a censorship issue — censoring the public from knowing what they are up to — than some cost-saving move requiring a rollback in public information.
As my colleague Emma Grunwald in the Westerly Sun explained, one council member questioned where to publicize ordinances after the council realized it was spending a total of $20,112.41 on advertising costs from July 31, 2025, to July 23, 2026.
It was stated during the council meeting that the amount spent this year was lower than some previous years, when it was up to $30,000 or $40,000 for advertising the ordinances.
The member argued that putting their ordinances in the newspaper was an “antiquated” way of getting the notices out to the public.
Rhode Island law still requires municipalities to publish many consequential legal notices —particularly zoning, comprehensive-plan, and development notices — in newspapers circulating within the affected community, often in addition to website postings and direct notice. But the requirement is statutory and issue-specific, rather than a universal rule applying to every municipal notice.
There is an important exception, as shoehorned in a subtle way in Westerly. R.I. Gen. Laws § 45-6-1(c) says that advance notice of the proposed adoption, amendment, or repeal of a municipal ordinance or regulation may, in general, be provided on a Secretary of State website “in lieu of newspaper publication.”
That provision does not override more specific statutes such as the zoning and land-use laws that expressly require newspaper publication.
It’s an exception that allows municipalities to hide major changes from residents and thwart public outcry at public meetings. How can anyone come forward when their municipality makes the discovery of information harder and more difficult?
With all due respect, reading the Secretary of State’s website every day with a copy of “Morning Joe” isn’t routine; looking at the newspaper still is for many people.
The strongest evidence in 2026 supports keeping legal notices in independent local news outlets while also publishing them online, rather than replacing newspaper publication with government websites or even simply digital alone, given at a minimum discrimination against poor people who cannot afford internet access or struggle to understand the benefits of reliable, evidence-based web research.
The most directly relevant research is unusually timely. A 2026 working paper by Kimberlyn Munevar of Texas A&M, Anya Nakhmurina of Yale School of Management, and Delphine Samuels examined Florida’s decision to let local governments move public notices from newspapers to county websites.
They found that governments using the website option significantly reduced newspaper notices, particularly for public hearings, planning and zoning matters, and elections; website traffic did not meaningfully increase, public-meeting attendance fell, and commercial zoning permits increased in a pattern consistent with reduced citizen opposition.
The researchers concluded that removing newspaper notices reduced information about local government and diminished citizen engagement.
That finding goes directly to the central argument: Posting something online is not the same as effectively notifying the public.
A notice buried on a municipal website or some other online portal requires residents to know where to look, remember to look, and repeatedly check for something they may not know is coming. Newspaper publication places that information in an independent channel people already use for community information.
Pew Research Center’s 2024 national survey reinforces that distinction. While 66% of Americans said they often or sometimes got local political news from local news outlets, only 32% said the same about local-government websites; 68% said they at least sometimes followed local government and political news.
At a minimum, that means a government-only notice system relies on a source that most citizens do not routinely consult for local political information. Online information anywhere for the matters of legal notices would produce even fewer numbers.
The digital divide has narrowed, but it has not disappeared.
Pew reported in 2026 that 16% of U.S. adults are smartphone-dependent, meaning they have no home broadband connection; the rate rises to 34% among adults with household incomes below $30,000 and 17% among people 65 and older.
The Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey counted more than 6 million U.S. households with no internet access at all. A public-notice system confined to government or other websites therefore creates a measurable access disadvantage for some of the people most likely to be affected by tax sales, zoning changes, public hearings, and other legal proceedings.
There is also broader evidence that independent local newspapers increase civic participation.
Jackie Filla and Martin Johnson, writing in Urban Affairs Review, studied municipalities in the Los Angeles region and found that voters with less access to local-government news were less likely to vote in municipal elections. Their conclusion was straightforward: access to local public-affairs reporting contributes to political participation.
https://www.independentri.com/news/article_866dbca6-bb5b-4304-a049-14a5ea4cc2e2.html
‘I’m a Twenty-Five-Year-Old Who Just Bought My Local Newspaper’
A former intern bought Georgia’s Monticello News. Weeks later, he grew subscriptions by 30 percent.
October 6, 2026 By Liz Skalka
Photos courtesy of Evan Newton / Illustration by Katie Kosma
“I’m a twenty-five-year-old who just bought my local newspaper, and here’s my first edition,” Evan Newton posted to his TikTok account this summer. Newton, from rural Monticello, Georgia, had just bought the weekly Monticello News, where he’d previously been an intern, and made himself the editor and publisher. His TikTok announcement soon received more than fifty-six hundred views, well over the paper’s total print circulation, of roughly two thousand across Jasper County. Six weeks in, Newton had managed to grow print and digital subscriptions 30 percent.
When we spoke recently, Newton attributed his early success in part to summaries of the print paper he’d been posting on TikTok. “Especially people that are my age that aren’t picking up print newspapers anymore,” he said, “maybe they see what’s happening on social media and will be like, ‘I should pick up a newspaper.’ I’ve seen evidence of that already.” A teen recently approached Newton at a high school football game and told him, “I didn’t even know that Monticello had a paper, and now I’m trying to get one every week.”
Newton was video-calling me from the Monticello News headquarters, a small red house off the town square that the previous publisher still owns; there’s a residential tenant upstairs. Newton—who, as the paper’s only full-time employee, serves as the main reporter, opinion columnist, and designer—works out of an open space in close proximity to his few colleagues: one part-time employee who handles ads and another who juggles legal notices and occasional writing duties. “Maybe in the future I can find some doors to put up,” he told me. “We’ll see.”
At Georgia College & State University a few years ago, Newton was more interested in film than journalism, but he discovered his love for covering local stories during his internship at the Monticello News. Newton liked the experience so much that Kathy Mudd, the paper’s former owner, tried to sell him the publication two years ago. “He’s young, he’s energetic, and he has a passion for it,” Mudd, whose family bought the paper in 1975, told me. Newton, however, felt that he didn’t have enough experience. He changed his mind after becoming the managing editor of the Covington News, which serves a larger community in an adjacent county. “I began to see what was happening in journalism,” he said. “You have small papers being bought out by conglomerates. That was around the time that Kathy reached out to me again. She said, ‘I’m seventy, and I’m ready to retire. Here’s my offer.’ And she gave me a great offer.”
Newton wouldn’t say what the offer was, only that he put up his own savings toward the cost. He continues to pay Mudd to lease the paper’s office and to fulfill the terms of their owner financing agreement. I asked Newton whether the paper was profitable. “It can be. At times it is, at times it isn’t,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have bought it if I didn’t think that we could get it to be profitable. I think we’re on the right track to get there. I really, really do.” He hopes to keep selling more subscriptions, which, along with the proceeds from legal notices, is one of the paper’s major revenue drivers.
Thanks to an almost overnight bump in ad sales, Newton already has more pages to fill with local news, of which there’s plenty: crime stories, the announcement of a new Domino’s, data center development. “You’re not going to be able to find out what’s going on in Jasper County on any of the TV stations or in the Atlanta paper. But you’re going to find out about it here. It’s resulted in some success here in the short term, and I hope in the long term,” he said. Mudd told me that she’s happy Newton opted to gain experience before taking her up on her offer. “He’s still got a learning curve, and I’m going to go in today and make a couple of suggestions,” she said. “But he’s doing a terrific job. People really like the paper.”
Newton hopes to hire another full-time employee; his goal is eventually to own several local papers. “I would just tell people, if they had any interest, either in local journalism or if they wanted to go out and buy their local paper, just do it,” he said. “I mean, it’s a lot of hard work, but just go out and do it. Be a part of what’s going on.” He had another message: “I was asked the other day if local journalism was boring, and I was like, ‘It may be boring, but it’s necessary.’”
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Liz Skalka is a freelance journalist based in Maryland. She’s written for HuffPost, Politico Magazine, NOTUS, the Toledo Blade, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New York Post, and the Stamford Advocate.
Newspapers and Legal Notices: A trusted partnership in public transparency
Mark Codner | The Newcastle Pacer Oct 10, 2026
This is part of a series of columns from the Oklahoma Press Association commemorating National Newspaper Week, which runs from Oct. 5-11.
With our professional training, our code of ethics and standing as a neutral third party, newspapers have been entrusted with the important task of publishing notices required by law.
It is a job we do not take lightly.
That’s why during Oklahoma Newspaper Week we are proud to remind readers of the essential role newspapers play in keeping their communities informed and connected.
We believe nothing is more important than ensuring communities have access to legal actions and intentions that could affect their property or rights.
For some time, I have heard a complaint that legal publications are not easily accessible. I’ve heard the complaint that one must buy a newspaper in order to read the legal notices they publish.
This is simply not true, and it hasn’t been for a very long time.
An online search for “Oklahoma legal notices” on Google will pull up the website oklahomanotices.com. This is a service of the Oklahoma Press Association and is paid for by member newspapers.
All legal notices published in a legal newspaper can be accessed 24-hours per day, seven days a week. These are not just the most current legal notices.
These are legal notices for the past 12 months.
For whatever reason, many in the public don’t realize this option is available and has been since 2007. The notices are searchable by various terms, by publication and by date.
This year, we were granted by the State Legislature the first raise in prices for legal publications in 20 years. We thank our state legislators for their work on this very important and fair compensation.
Also in this legislation is a requirement for newspapers to publish the legal notices on their websites so they’re available to subscribers and non-subscribers.
This will go into effect soon. Notices should be available to anyone who goes online to their legal newspaper website.
Legal notices keep the public informed. As we receive these notices, your local newspaper not only publishes them, but also follows up on the information as decisions are made by city and county officials.
We want you to know what is happening in your community.
Newspapers keep public notices in public view
Carrie Sidener October 18,2026
You deserve to know when a public decision could change your neighborhood, your tax bill or your child’s school — and you should have an opportunity to speak up before officials decide.
For generations, news organizations like ours have helped make that possible by publishing public and legal notices in our printed pages alongside the local news you rely on. More recently, we’ve extended that access through our e-edition and digital channels.
We bring those announcements to an established audience, backed by deep community roots and a name readers know and trust. Those strengths matter when websites, newsletters, social media and new outlets compete for your attention.
They also matter when public agencies weigh the cost of publishing notices. Price is part of that calculation. So is the value of reaching people through a news organization with an established place in their community and a long history of service.
Our place here took generations to build. The newspapers that now make up our Lee Enterprises family in Virginia trace their roots back as far as 1850.
The Free Lance-Star traces its roots to the Free Lance, first published in 1885. The combined Free Lance-Star name dates to 1926, marking a century this year under the name familiar to generations of local readers. Among the significant reporting was the controlled demolition of Embrey Dam over the Rappahannock River.
That history carries a responsibility to earn your trust every day. Through award-winning journalism and comprehensive local coverage, we investigate problems, celebrate achievements and press leaders for answers. We check facts and correct mistakes. Our name stands behind our work, and you know where to find us and how to hold us accountable.
We deliver that journalism through printed newspapers, websites, e-editions, newsletters and social media. And our reach in this community and across Virginia is unmatched.
Together with our sister publications, we delivered more than 510,000 printed newspapers in seven Virginia markets over four weeks in September, averaging nearly 128,000 copies a week. Local articles on our websites in nine Virginia markets drew more than 657,000 pageviews in the latest full month reported. Our main social media accounts had a combined following of more than 755,000 as of Oct. 1, including people who follow multiple accounts.
We delivered 56,803 printed copies of The Free Lance-Star over four weeks in September and local articles generated more than 56,000 website pageviews in the latest full month reported. Our social media accounts had a combined following of more than 89,000 as of Oct. 1.
For public notices, those established audiences serve a practical purpose. They help announcements reach people whose homes, livelihoods and finances may be affected.
In Fredericksburg, Stafford and Spotsylvania, a decision in one locality can affect commuters and families in another. A rezoning proposal near a county line or a plan to widen a road can have consequences well beyond the property involved.
Virginia’s public notice laws help keep you informed about those decisions through announcements of zoning hearings, proposed budgets and other public business.
The stakes extend beyond meetings. Court notices alert people to proceedings so they can respond, raise an objection or assert a claim. Invitations to bid on government contracts open public spending to competition and scrutiny. Other notices concern ordinances, resolutions and actions already taken.
Whatever the subject, an announcement can only inform you if you encounter it.
Government agencies and other websites also publish notices. Those announcements can go unseen if you don’t know where to look or what to search for. They also compete for attention with an enormous volume of other online content.
Publishing notices alongside local reporting gives you another way to discover them. While reading the newspaper or e-edition you might recognize your street in a zoning announcement or spot a bidding opportunity for your business. You don’t need to know about a proposal beforehand to learn that it affects you.
Readers need that opportunity in formats they can use. Our e-edition offers a digital replica of the printed paper, including its legal ads and public notices. Our public-notices website provides another way to find these announcements.
And print remains essential. It serves people who lack ready internet access, including some older adults, people with limited incomes and rural residents with limited service. It also serves readers who prefer paper or find lengthy notices difficult to navigate on a phone’s small screen.
Census Bureau estimates for 2020–2024 show that 9% of Virginia households lacked a broadband internet subscription. Access at work or a library doesn’t mean someone can routinely check government websites from home.
You shouldn’t need an internet connection, a smartphone or a computer to stay informed about your community.
Printed back issues and digital archives preserve announcements outside the government’s own files, allowing residents, journalists and researchers to examine what was announced and when. That independent record supports scrutiny long after a hearing ends or a vote takes place.
From the first announcement to the historical record, newspaper publication helps keep public business open to public scrutiny. We’re proud to provide that service.
You can put it to work today. Read public notices in this newspaper, in our e-edition or at fredericksburg.column.us/search. Check the details, note the deadline and ask questions. Whether you support a proposal, oppose it or need more information, take the opportunity to be heard.
Whatever others choose to cover, we’ll keep reporting this community’s stories and holding its leaders accountable. We’ve served you for generations. We’re not going anywhere.
Thank you for reading and supporting your community newspaper.
Sidener is editor of The Free Lance-Star. Contact her at (540) 374-5408 or email csidener@freelancestar.com.
https://fredericksburg.com/news/local/article_8b1a97ee-1161-471b-98ae-b8098ece4915.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.
Current Legislation (Click to View the Map ) or Click Image Below.
LEGISLATION
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania SB194 This bill amends Pennsylvania’s legal notices and public officers laws to provide local government units with more flexible options for publishing advertisements and notices. The legislation allows local governments to satisfy legal publication requirements through methods beyond traditional newspaper printing, including posting notices on their own publicly accessible websites, county websites, or other websites dedicated to public notices. Local government units must also physically post notices at their principal office or primary meeting location. To implement these alternative publication methods, a local government must first adopt a resolution declaring its intent and initially publish a notice about the change using existing methods. The bill defines key terms like “alternative publication method” and “local government unit” and requires that units retain copies of notices for at least three years. Additionally, the legislation maintains existing requirements for legal journal publications where applicable and mandates that counties designate a main contact office for receiving public notices within 90 days of the act’s effective date. The changes aim to modernize public notice procedures by embracing digital communication while still ensuring transparency and accessibility of government information. Removed from table. PNMA has opposed.
CALIFORNIA
AB1957 Mortgages: foreclosure.
This bill updates California’s foreclosure laws regarding residential properties with one to four units by restructuring who is authorized to participate in post-foreclosure sales and refining enforcement mechanisms. Specifically, the legislation renames “eligible tenant buyers” to “eligible tenant bidders” and narrows the broader category of “eligible bidders” by removing individual prospective owner-occupants, redefining the group to consist solely of eligible tenant bidders and eligible community bidders (such as qualified affordable housing non-profits, community land trusts, and public entities). Furthermore, the bill empowers state and local authorities—including the Attorney General, city attorneys, county counsels, and district attorneys—to enforce these housing preservation statutes by seeking civil penalties, including a penalty equal to one-third of the property’s fair market value against any party that improperly submits a bid without legal entitlement. Enacted.