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. The legislation wouldn’t change current laws requiring most notices in the state to be published in local newspapers.
Although the fee-reduction penalty would be novel, the rest of Sen. Woodrum’s proposal would be similar to legislation passed in 20 other states requiring papers that publish notices in print to also post those notices free of charge on their website and/or their state press association’s statewide site.