Last month, I received an email. Dear PA Local News Publishers, it started. It was from Tom Sofield, Publisher of LevittownNow.com.  

“I’m reaching out to discuss an issue that I know many of us have encountered: Pennsylvania’s outdated and uncompetitive Public Notice laws,” it read. As a relatively new and small local news publisher, it wasn’t an issue I was immediately familiar with, but as I would soon learn, one I had most certainly encountered, or more appropriately, had not.

Currently, a decades-old state law mandates where public notices, like the ones townships are always touting at the beginning of public meetings, can appear. Notices announcing public meetings, proposed ordinances, requests for proposals, and other official business must be advertised by local governments, but they can only be advertised in certain print publications that meet strict, often outdated, criteria.

Since most communities only have one such option, if they are lucky, local governments are forced to pay noncompetitive advertising rates. I am told that public notices are often some of the most expensive ad space in a newspaper. At the same time, as print subscriptions plummet, the public is often not seeing the notices at all.  

It was not a problem I was aware of before I received the email, but it did explain why, after years of covering public meetings, I had yet to see one of these much-touted notices. I haven’t received the print paper in years. 

The below article from LebTown publisher Davis Shaver explains why a proposed bill currently making its way through the state legislature won’t go as far as it should to make these notices truly public. 

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PNA-backed HB 1291 would hurt taxpayers by bringing the print newspaper monopoly of public notices into the digital age.

In an age before the internet, it made sense that agencies and other parties were required to post public notice of meetings and significant actions in the local print newspaper. This worked for many decades while competition in the print newspaper market remained strong, but today with a greatly diminished printed press, public notices are best known by municipal leaders, lawyers, and residents for price gouging and pitiful customer service.

Now, a new bill backed by the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association (PNA) presents itself as bringing this notice requirement into the digital age. The PNA-backed bill – HB 1291, introduced by Rep. Robert Freeman – is co-sponsored by 21 other state representatives. Freeman and his colleagues deserve to be commended for their willingness to support legislation that modernizes the Newspaper Advertising Act. But not everything is what it seems. In its current form, HB 1291 would hurt PA taxpayers.

Competition is an American virtue, and HB 1291 is an affront to this democratic value. PNA spins the bill as increasing government transparency, but at best it would have a negligible impact on transparency. Really, the bill exists to allow print newspapers to cease their printed editions, while maintaining lucrative monopolies over public notices in their local markets. The goal is to prevent upstart outlets [like Hello, West Chester] from ever entering the market for public notices, despite our broad reach, commitment to journalism, and lower cost structure.

Publishers of online-only and free newspapers statewide are appalled at this attempt by legacy print titles to chisel their monopoly over public notices into law for the digital age. The PNA-backed bill would create a new class of newspapers, one purely protectionist in nature. This new category – the “digital newspaper” – ALMOST describes outlets like Hello, West Chester and others across the commonwealth that pioneered local journalism in the digital form. Under HB 1291, if a printed newspaper was not available in a local market, public notices could instead be placed in a “digital newspaper.”

But this category of “digital newspaper” has a devious carveout. It only applies to publications that currently or formerly had a printed edition. This grandfather clause would serve only to entrench the monopoly held today by these outlets, and prevent price competition by free newspapers and online-only newspapers for this vital public service. 

What taxpayer would want local governments forced to choose the more expensive, less valuable option due to a historical quirk that one title used to be in print and another didn’t? Taxpayers deserve better. PNA leadership has said “it is your right to know the plan for how your hard-earned taxpayer dollars might be spent.” It is also your right to make sure those taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently. HB 1291 continues to try to protect the newspaper monopoly when there is no longer a reason for it other than for the newspaper lobbyists.

This measure will inflate the price of public notices by preventing competition and propping up archaic companies – many of which are owned by big out-of-state corporations and hedge funds that suck money from local economies as they cut staff and lay off reporters.

Any revision to the Newspaper Advertising Act must embrace the free market principles at America’s core and allow online-only and free newspapers to compete. If HB 1291 was amended to allow free newspapers and online-only newspapers to compete regardless of whether there was a printed newspaper or a “digital newspaper” descendent, it would unlock a new era of competition for public notices, increase access, and drive down prices.

The State House Local Government Committee is expected to consider the bill this month.

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If you agree that more competition would be a good thing for public notices, please let your state legislators know your thoughts by emailing them today.

Tell Rep. Pielli you want more competition for public notices (Use this prepopulated form letter to get you started.)

Tell State Sen. Carolyn Comitta you want more competition for public notices. (Use this prepopulated form letter to get you started.)