State legislatures have grown increasingly comfortable with the concept of transitioning public notice from printed newspapers to their digital versions. Nine states considered legislation in 2023 allowing some or all notices published in newspapers to be posted instead on newspaper websites. Eight states — including four new ones — have considered similar or identical bills in 2024.
More evidence for the trend: Legislation allowing local news websites or “online-only newspapers” to serve as public notice alternatives to newspapers have been introduced in six states this year. Several other states have considered or passed bills authorizing newspapers’ e-editions to do the same.
Print will continue to play a major role in providing official notice for as long as sizable numbers of readers still use it to get their news. But the move to digital notice is likely to pick up steam in the coming years, so we thought it would be useful to highlight 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.
