Newspapers and Public Notice

Newspapers and Public Notice Prepared for Matt Meyers, Capital Newspapers-Portage Division January 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS Public Notice Discussion.....................................................................Page 3 Wisconsin Newspaper Association A Perspective on Saving Public Notices...............................................Page 6 Wisconsin Newspaper Association Five Things to Know and Do to Retain Public Notice.........................Page 8 Tonda Rush, Public Notice Resource Center Ten Sales/Promotion Suggestions for the Upselling of Public Notice Advertising .......................................Page 10 Beth Bennett, Wisconsin Newspaper Association Arguments Against Shifting Public Notice to the Internet...............Page 12 Public Notice Resource Center

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PUBLIC NOTICE DISCUSSION Historical Overview For more than a century, some of the most important laws ensuring transparency in American government have been those that require that all units of government publish their activities in newspapers. These publications are commonly referred to as “public” or “legal” notices.

For the purpose of this discussion the notices will be referred to as “public” notices.

Generally, public notice laws in all states are essentially the same. The laws require units of government to publish their activities and the use of public tax dollars in public notices.

Newspapers benefit by providing vital public information and by being paid for the public notice advertising space.

The newspaper publication of public notices provides a system of checks and balances on government reporting. Private sector publication of public sector reporting has worked effectively for the following reasons: • Newspapers have traditionally been the most consumer-used source for government information; • The public notice laws requiring newspaper publication have ensured that an independent third party acts as the conduit through which the government information is filtered, thereby preventing tampering; • Newspaper publication has been economically appealing because the cost to government was minimal and the revenue to newspapers was important but not disproportionately high to other primary sources of revenue; • The public notice laws are mandatory, thereby defusing any disputes as to whether units of government are required to fulfill their disclosure responsibilities.

Changing Times Today, this system of checks and balances is in jeopardy. Many of the aforementioned conditions have changed. Historically, the newspaper industry has been powerful government lobby. The reason for its strength was simple. Newspapers were the most important medium of communication in their communities; they were an integral part of the community landscape; and, what the newspaper thought carried enormous cache with local politicians.

Against that backdrop, pubic officials typically listened to what newspapers had to say when it came to important pieces of legislation, such as, public notice legislation. Some of that cache still exists, but it is gradually changing.

The change in the public’s attitude toward newspapers means that it is becoming increasingly difficult to fight off attacks to eliminate the publication of public notice by newspapers in favor of Internet publication. In addition, local government lobbyists are banding together in support of the elimination of newspaper publication.

It is a simple strategy of strength in numbers for public bodies. Public bodies realize that public notices are systemic in nature. If the publication of one public notice statute is altered successfully, the dominoes will likely fall accordingly for others. There are far more local government lobbyists than newspaper lobbyists and this is a problem for the newspaper industry.

Newspaper management must counter this imbalance by actively lobbying government officials for the continued publication of public notices.

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What Has Changed *Newspapers are no longer the dominant medium they once were a few years ago. Circulation has dropped precipitously, advertising revenues have fallen off, and new media have emerged to challenge the newspaper industry. Consequently, there have been challenges to the assertion that newspapers are the most viable source for publishing public notice.

These circumstances have been exacerbated by the turnover in newspaper ownership and management. Community newspapers have historically thrived in part because of local ownership and management that in many cases went back several generations. With each changing of the guard, the local newspaper loses a piece of its connection to the community.

The link between the newspaper publisher and government officials has been the glue that holds the public notice franchise together. The involvement of newspaper management in the lobbying process has been a major strength for newspapers and it is gradually being weakened. In the state legislature, this translates into a loss of clout on key lobbying initiatives. *The Internet has made it easier and cheaper for consumers to get information. Newspapers remain the most reliable and credible source for government news. Government officials, however, argue that it is time for them to use new technology to publish notices thereby eliminating the cost of newspaper publication. *Much effort is being expended to embrace the Internet by newspapers today. These efforts are exploring a myriad of ways to integrate the Internet into the entire newspaper repertoire of products, information and services. Despite these efforts, few newspapers currently post their public notices on their own website. *Public notice revenue has become an increasingly important part of the newspaper’s revenue stream. Today, newspapers are perceived as being self-serving with regard to public notice rates. This perception has been exacerbated by the national recession. Many, if not all, units of government are hurting financially. Their ability to meet budgets and provide public services is increasingly being threatened. The cost of publishing public notices in this environment makes the notices an easy target for those who oppose newspaper publication. *Newspapers have been the only source for publishing public notices for more than a century. A mindset has evolved within the industry that public notices belong to newspapers – that they are “entitled” to the publishing rights to them. In today’s changing climate and challenging economy, this mentality has led to a resentment of the newspaper industry among government officials, as well as some state legislators. Rather than change their thinking about how public notices should be handled in today’s challenging economic environment, many in the newspaper industry opt for simply fighting off the ever growing number of attempts to eliminate the publication of the notices.

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*In today’s world, with new competitors, economic pressures, and the rise of Internet usage, newspapers need to change their entire approach to publication of public notices.

Concepts such as sales, marketing, attractive packaging, creative pricing, and the treatment of government as a “customer” need to be examined with a fresh attitude.

Put succinctly, newspapers are no longer the only game in town. Newspapers are fighting

to retain public notices. If the industry wants to win the fight it must consider new promotion, layout and design strategies for the publication of public notices.

What Needs To Be Done?

The newspaper industry needs a cohesive strategy to counter the increasing attacks on public notice publication. Specifically, short term and long term plans should be adopted to address the following: • Integration of the Internet component into the existing statutory public notice publishing requirements; • Ensure fair cost containment for government with regard to public notice rates; • Change the mindset of the newspaper industry with regard to how they sell, promote and market public notices in their communities; • Energize newspaper management to become more engaged in the marketing solutions needed to preserve public notice; • Strengthen the role of newspaper management in the lobbying of public notice legislative issues; • Change the appearance and usefulness of public notices so that they are more consumer-friendly, as well as meaningful to local government units.

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A PERSPECTIVE ON SAVING PUBLIC NOTICES Overview Newspapers need to change the way they think about public notices or they will lose them.

The newspaper industry must stop being passive recipients of public notice advertising and become pro-active in informing, changing, promoting, and marketing the information contained in the public notices.

Historically, the publication of public notices was a simple process. The law required that local governments publish notices in newspapers. Any attempt to alter that simple equation was crushed by press associations and publishers because newspapers had the political muscle to do it.

The reality is that all of this has changed.

Newspapers have lost much of their ability to sustain the lobbying network needed to protect public notice publication. Many local relationships no longer exist. We are perceived by the pundits – rightly or wrongly – as a struggling industry. The Internet and digital media are viewed as new viable alternatives to newspaper publication.

In addition to all this, newspapers find themselves, along with all businesses and public institutions, in the midst of a financial crisis that has made publishing public notices financially expendable.

Consequently, the net effect of these changes has been an all-out assault on public notices in newspapers that promises to get worse before it gets better. However, newspapers can stem the tide and preserve public notices in the short term, as well as set a course that could secure public notices in newspapers long term.

But, to do that will require a major transformation by newspapers in how they publish and promote public notice advertising.

The following are some suggestions for addressing the future of public notice publication: 1. All newspapers must publish their notices on their own websites, in addition to publishing them on their printed pages.

2. The formats of public notices need to be revised so as to make them more readable and user-friendly.

Public notice publications are often not easy to read. The current format for publishing public notices worked for decades. But in today’s world, with increasing numbers of readers dictating how information is presented to them, newspapers no longer can give public notice formats a pass.

Newspapers can no longer use the excuse that it is up to government to change the formats because they are submitting the copy for publication. In the future, newspapers need to Page 6

take more ownership of this process and partner with local governments to suggest ways to provide maximum exposure to public notices in both print and online. To avoid doing this will be akin to providing our government with the gasoline and matches to start the fire that will lead to the elimination of the publication of public notices.

3. Newspapers need to launch a public relations and marketing campaign designed to add value to public notices beyond the responsibility of government to simply publish them.

This strategy will no doubt be controversial and will require a major shift in thinking by newspapers about public notices overall. It is a complex subject, but here are some quick bullet points to be considered: • Public notices publication is no longer an entitlement; • Public notices need to be “sold” like any other newspaper product; • Public notice customers (i.e. government officials) should be treated like other advertising customers; • Public notices need to be enhanced visually, wherever possible, like any other advertisement; • Public notices should be integrated into the whole newspaper product, including using the news pages to direct the reader to public notices where there are opportunities to do so; • Public notices need to be promoted and designed to drive reader interest to them.

4. Public notices in newspapers will not survive without a seed change in thinking by newspaper management.

This will not be easy. Newspapers have enjoyed the privilege of publishing notices for more than a century without much opposition. This is a new era. Despite the formidable challenge that a change in mindset entails, a clear, aggressive and all-encompassing plan for a change in how newspapers manage public notice business must be put in place. Public notice publication will be preserved if a change is accomplished in how newspapers handle the business. No change will surely lead to the loss of public notices business.

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FIVE THINGS TO KNOW AND DO TO RETAIN PUBLIC NOTICE

By Tonda Rush, Public Notice Resource Center FIVE THINGS TO KNOW 1. The Internet cannot yet replace printed notices. It is vulnerable to manipulation, loss of content and technological change. It cannot easily provide a reliable, enduring record. Even though Internet experts say there are ways to ensure today’s electronic notices can be read tomorrow, no one can predict the cost or likelihood that the information will be properly maintained and carried into future applications. The printed notice has what the archivists call “fixity.”

2. Publishers like to point out that not everyone is on the Internet. That’s not our best argument, but it’s true. The Pew Internet and American Life Project have concluded that some people just aren’t going to use the Internet. Whether they can’t afford it, are technophobes, can’t get broadband access, or simply don’t like the idea, at least 20% will never read a public notice online.

3. Government Web sites are not free. The argument over whether municipalities can save money by posting their own notices on their own websites is specious. Of course web postings -- whether on a government site or on a newspaper site — create a lower incremental cost than running a printing press. The price of print will always look more costly over the short run. But the government sites do have a cost, in development, in maintenance and, above all, in obscurity. Before going down that path, ask for a report of the viewers of government site that excludes all of the .gov users and the famous indexers, like Google and Yahoo. There won’t be many.

4. Even if those sites were free, it’s a question of getting what you pay for. They don’t accomplish the same things as a newspaper notice. They are not independent of the political forces that run them. They are not easily archived. They are not easily verifiable. They are often not accessible. They typically aren’t kept up to date very well. Go to your local official Web site and make a screen print of the broken and outdated data. Put in new ink cartridges first.

5. It really is about transparency. Newspapers fight hard for public records. But in an era of smaller newsroom budgets, some information needs to be pushed out by governments, not pulled out by enterprise reporting. That’s what public notices do. They give readers their own decisions whether to read or not. If they don’t, the sin is in the reader. If they do, it’s because newspapers have several centuries of history in building readerships. No one can say that about any website, government or private.

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FIVE THINGS TO DO 1. We have to get over ourselves. We cannot simply lecture from the editorial pages. Besides the fact that politicians don’t fear the editorial pages as they once did, that’s not how laws are made. Publishers have to talk to lawmakers about public notice. Yes, we get paid for them. The bridge contractor gets paid to build bridges. There is no difference.

2. This may be a surprise to some, but weekly newspapers are newspapers. They aren’t dying. Neither are the hundreds of niche and neighborhood newspapers, any of which may be the expected place to find public notices. Now that some dailies are leaning toward less frequency, maybe we can overcome a certain elitism about community papers.

3. Public Notice isn’t our last entitlement. It isn’t an entitlement at all. I’ve witnessed newspapers large and small jacking up rates beyond tolerance, as other revenue streams falter.

We need to treat the public notice advertisers like any other valued customer.

4. Read them. Look for great examples of things that happened because of newspaper public notices. The examples are out there, but pitiably few are reported in our own newspapers. Yet great stories lurk. Ask Adrienne Packer of the Las Vegas Review-Journal how she unearthed a developer’s attempt to turn cemetery-only zoned land into a lucrative commercial site.

5. Be the paper of record. The really good public notice papers know the laws, when notices must be run and how they must appear. They help the public bodies meet their obligations. They make notices noticeable, so people can find them and promote their value.

When all of this is mastered, we need one more public-spirited step. Post the notices about public business on the newspaper Web site. For free.

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TEN SALES/PROMOTION SUGGESTIONS FOR THE UPSELLING OF PUBLIC NOTICE ADVERTISING

By Beth Bennett, Wisconsin Newspaper Association

1. Sell public notice advertising like you would any other form of advertising in your newspaper. Remember to service the account the same way that you would service any other major advertising account.

2. Call on public officials/law firms — make placing public notice advertising easy for them. Periodic on-site calls will provide sales staff with the opportunity to identify upcoming events, sponsorships or functions that are of interest to the public notice advertiser.

(See #’s 4 & 5).

3. Assign public notice advertising calls and sales to a specific individual(s). It is important that the public notice advertiser have a connection to a person in ad sales.

4. Upsell public officials on additional advertising…identify sponsorships, events that the public official may want to advertise to the public.

By way of example, food giveaway’s, bike safety courses, child seat inspections, vaccinations, phone/electronic address/ USPS directory information for departments within the public officials office. Suggest that the public official consider distributing a monthly, quarterly or annual newsletter via newspaper insert.

5. Upsell law firms on additional advertising…identify sponsorships, events that the law firm may want to advertise to the public.

By way of example, little league sponsorships, special event sponsorships, community support sponsorships, charitable sponsorships, congratulatory ads for school sporting events, students of the month etc.

6. Suggest that public officials and law firms place their logo…address…contact information in all public notice advertising. It will better promote the public official and provide better branding for the public official and the law firm.

7. Remember that public notice advertising does not have to be published in the classified section of the newspaper. Depending on the nature of the notice suggest that the content be published elsewhere in the newspaper…promote better readership of notice in a display ad. Examples---public hearings, special meetings of units of local government and state agencies, food giveaways, vaccinations, candidate forums etc.

8. Work with your editorial department to arrange for a story on an upcoming public event that is being noticed in that day/week’s edition of the newspaper.

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9. Work with editorial and production to have the public notices that appear in that day/ week’s edition of the newspaper indexed on the front page or wherever your newspaper provides content indexing.

10. Promote and link to the state press associations statewide public notice website in print and on your newspaper website. Place your public notice advertising on your newspaper’s website. Always remind the public notice advertiser of the “value added” that comes with their ad appearing on the local and statewide websites. (See www.wnanews.com for public notice website advertising toolkit)

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ARGUMENTS AGAINST SHIFTING PUBLIC NOTICE TO THE INTERNET 1. Public Notices in local newspapers are vital to the proper functioning of democratic government. a. The government has a fundamental responsibility to ensure adequate notification to the public of its actions. That responsibility cannot be abandoned in favor of cost savings that may prove to be elusive in light of a decrease in effective public notice. b. Allowing government officials to post legal ads takes away third-party neutral interest, and removes any independent proof of publication. c. Furthermore, placing the responsibility of notifying the public in the hands of government officials carries with it a potential for abuse. For example, it may create the temptation to change or manipulate the timing of public notices.

2. Newspapers are a more effective medium by which to reach the public. a. The vast majority of public notices now arrive at citizens’ homes or businesses on a regular schedule and in a context that compels readership (amid local news, features, and other important information). b. With an online format, guaranteeing or measuring readership is very difficult, as opposed to newspapers, which are required to demonstrate readership by providing records of paid subscribers, maintaining postal permits, or submitting to outside subscription audits. c. Local newspapers have become the traditional medium for public notices, and this is exactly where the public expects to find them. (In fact, some commercial services, such as those serving the construction industry, actually mine public notices, and then pass on valuable information via email notification lists.) d. An Internet site can appear only on one computer, to one reader at a time. On the other hand, a newspaper can be read and passed along to other readers.

3. Newspapers are more accessible to the public than the Internet. a. The public won’t see legal notices if they don’t have computer, and large segments of society lack the financial means to purchase a computer. b. Newspapers offer readers a single, convenient location at which to find public notices.

On the contrary, allowing individual government entities to publish notices on their Page 12

respective websites would create a myriad of different locations on the World Wide Web. 4. The Internet is highly unreliable as a source for valuable information. a. The stability of newspapers as a medium for public notices is unquestionable because it is in print. The Internet, on the other hand, remains highly vulnerable and unstable.

Power surges, computer problems and downed servers can prevent access at any given time. c. Government agencies cannot ensure that information located on a server is secure.

Due to the presence of hackers, Internet legal ads are open to alteration. Printed legal ads provide a record of public notices that cannot be altered. d. Interested parties cannot prove that they were properly notified of an impending action. On the other hand, newspapers provide sworn affidavits that ads were published along with physical tearsheets of the ad as printed.

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