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Ad campaign focuses on need to protect public notices in newspapers and readers' right to know

You have the right to know what's happening in your community.

A new marketing campaign being rolled out by America's Newspapers highlights the need to protect public notices in newspapers and readers' right to know.

Newspapers can download this series of print and social media ads at no cost.  The print ads include space for the name or logo of the newspaper publishing them. 

The ads, produced in partnership with Sandpaper Marketing, call on readers to let their state legislators know that they value being able to access notices in the newspaper and that they are worth the investment.

If you have any difficulty accessing the files, email Greg Watson at America's Newspapers.

Yes, I want to access the print and digital ads from America's Newspapers!

 

Updates from around the country
The boards of directors of the Public Notice Resource Center (PNRC) and American Court and Commercial Newspapers (ACCN) announced that they have selected the Michigan Press Association to manage the joint affairs of the two groups when the contract with their current management company ends on April 2.
Legislation that would move all or most public notice in three states to government websites passed significant milestones last month. Bills in Indiana and Kentucky were approved by the Houses of Representatives in those states by comfortable margins, while another in Idaho’s lower chamber barely squeaked by.
February 28, 2025 - Governments in Colorado would get extra days to fulfill citizen requests for public records under proposed legislation that passed its first committee vote last week. News media would get preferential treatment, which caused one lawmaker to vote against the measure.
February 28, 2025 - A bill giving the legislature [in New Jersey] more time to deal with the public notices and legal advertisement crisis created after the Star-Ledger and other print newspapers ceased publication on Feb. 2 passed the Senate, 36-0, and now heads to the Assembly.
New Jersey lawmakers are racing to update public notice laws before a temporary extension expires on March 1, 2025. The urgency follows The Star-Ledger’s announcement that it has ceased its print edition, raising concerns about where legal notices will be published in the future.
December 4, 2024 - The status of newspaper notice in New Jersey was thrown into uncertainty when Advance Publications announced on Oct. 30 that early next year it plans to close a production facility and the print editions of several significant newspapers in the state, including the state’s largest paper, the Star-Ledger.
November 20, 2024 - The move to digital notice is likely to pick up steam in the coming years. In this article, the Public Notice Resource Center highlights three recent bills approved respectively by officials in Louisiana, North Dakota and Virginia that may serve as models for other state legislatures in the years to come.
The Argus Leader and its parent company, Gannett, have filed to drop a lawsuit that could have reinstated them as the legal newspaper for the City of Sioux Falls (South Dakota).
October 11, 2024 - The public’s ability to know about its government is fading in Washington, despite the state’s landmark Public Records Act. That’s happening for several reasons. One is because there are fewer watchdogs fighting for transparency, as the local-news industry declines.
October 1, 2024 - California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed a public notice bill that was supported by the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) and passed both houses of the legislature by wide margins.
September 4, 2024 - West Virginia state Senator Jack David Woodrum told attendees at the West Virginia Press Association convention last month that he may introduce a bill that would reduce fees for papers in the state that fail to publish notices on their own website and on WVPA’s statewide public notice site, according to a report on WVPA’s member website.
July 19, 2024 - A Minnehaha County judge declined to order a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that would have reinstated the Argus Leader as the legal newspaper for the City of Sioux Falls.
July 9, 2024 - The Argus Leader is suing the City of Sioux Falls to reinstate this institution as the city’s official newspaper.
June 20, 2024 - The publisher of a weekly newspaper in a rural Colorado county has sued another newspaper in hopes of getting legal clarity about an obscure but important aspect of the local print news business. At issue is what specifically it takes to become a county’s official “newspaper of record.”
June 20, 2024 - The Wichita City Council decided Tuesday to use its own website as the city’s official newspaper — a move that will save the city $120,000 annually.
Public Notices: Keeping Citizens informed
March 23, 2021 - By a vote of 8-3, the Florida Senate’s Judiciary Committee voted March 22 to send legislation to the Senate floor that — if approved — would authorize legal notifications in Florida, in certain cases, to be published on a website established by the Supreme Court, in lieu of newspaper publication. SB 402 also specifies that website publication constitutes proof of publication, unless otherwise determined by a court. 

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Let your state legislators know that you value being able to access notices in your newspaper and that they are worth the investment. There is a cost to keeping citizens informed, but the costs of not doing so are much higher!

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Download a two-page PDF from the Public Notice Resource Center: "Why Public Notice Should Remain in Newspapers"