If a Notice Is Printed and No One Is Around to See It, Is It Still Public?
If you’ve ever attended a public hearing or watched one on YouTube, you’ll have noticed that the municipality’s lawyer always starts the hearing by stating she advertised the meeting in the local paper. Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Law, which governs meeting procedure and transparency, requires that all government entities advertise their public hearings at least 24 hours in advance.
It’s not just public hearings that have to be advertised; it’s any meeting where a quorum of members is present. This includes regular, special, and rescheduled meetings. And it’s not just Boroughs and townships that have to advertise their meetings, it’s also county and state agencies, public schools, redevelopment agencies, and zoning hearing boards. Essentially, any agency that has the authority to take official government action. They also have to advertise government projects open to bid.
And with good reason, citizens should have the right to weigh in on decisions made on their behalf, and companies should have equal access to bid on an open project. They can’t do that if they never know a meeting is taking place or a bid is open.
Yet, I don’t know about you, but until I started researching this article, I had never seen one of these public notices for myself.
“I have been working in Pennsylvania local government since 2008, and this is a matter that has come up numerous times,” says West Goshen Township Manager Chris Bashore. “With the decline in newspapers, the options for meeting the advertising requirements are limited.”
And that indeed is a big problem.
Pennsylvania’s Public Notice Law
Under the law, agencies must publish the notice in a “newspaper of general circulation,” which is defined as:
A newspaper issued daily, or not less than once a week, intended for general distribution and circulation, and sold at fixed prices… without regard to business, trade, profession or class.
It must also be printed.
Well, a lot has changed in the newspaper industry since state legislators wrote that definition in 1976. Now, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the law, legislators are proposing an update.
The two big reasons agencies, digital publishers, and other proponents cite in demanding change are price and reach. Convenience and better customer service are also often mentioned, but for the sake of space, we’ll focus here on the biggies.
The High Cost of Limited Access
For each notice, municipalities pay a set fee that varies by publication and notice size. Newspapers set the prices usually based on “column inch” and circulation, but since there is very little competition left under the current definition, agencies are often stuck with that asking price. I’ve heard horror stories of print publications left open simply to collect public notice fees or of tiny townships forced to place ads in the Philadelphia Inquirer because it was the only publication left that met legal requirements. Fortunately, West Chester municipalities have not yet been forced to such extremes, but the costs do still add up.
Last year, West Goshen spent roughly $17,500 on legal advertising. From 2020 to 2024, they spent $74,000 on public notices, a small fraction of an annual budget that tops $41 million, but still not necessarily a smart investment, especially when we consider reach. (We’re coming to that).
“If the options were expanded, these funds could be reallocated or realized as a savings to the community,” says Chris.
Westtown, which is roughly half the size of West Goshen, has similar expenses. This year, the township has budgeted, $9,500 in the general “advertising” fund and $5,000 for Zoning Hearing Board/Planning Commission notices. West Chester has consciously worked to reduce its “legal advertising” budget by consolidating multiple ordinance actions into a single advertised instance.
This year, the borough has budgeted just $5,500 on legal advertising, down from a high of $15,000 three years ago. Still, West Chester Borough Manager Sean Mettrick finds the process “an inconvenient nuisance” that costs the Borough time and money. However, he understands there is also a need to protect the public from a government that would prefer to operate in secrecy.
“I am in favor of some minimum public notice standard. I don’t believe print media should be the only option,” he said in an email. Which brings us to argument #2.
The Changing Print Landscape
The Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, of which West Goshen, East Goshen, East Bradford, and Westtown are all members, recently circulated an op-ed titled “Allow local governments to publish notices where people are looking.”
According to a May 2024 Pew Research Center report, only 9 percent of Americans stated they “prefer” getting their local news from print newspapers. This plunge has led many local newspapers to shutter their print editions leaving whole counties with a single qualifying outlet. Chester County is no different.
“To the best of my knowledge, the only options in this area are the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily Local News,” says Chris.
The Daily Local News, once a pillar of the community, is now owned by Digital First Media, a holding of hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Since Media News Group merged with the Journal Register Company (then owners of the DLN) to form the new Digital First Media (DFM) in 2013, the DLN staff has quietly dwindled.
There are currently just three reporters on staff. Fran Maye was the last Managing Editor listed on staff. He retired from the position in March 2023. There is no longer a physical “newsroom.” Reporters for the most part work remotely. DFM maintains a printing press and offices in Uwchlan, which DLN shares with other regional DFM entities, including The Times Herald, Reading Eagle, Delco Times, Mainline Media News, and Journal Register.
According to the Alliance for Audited Media, the average weekday print circulation for the paper has plummeted to 2,688, from a high of more than 38,000 in 1986.
The Best Bet at Access
The main opponent of the change, not surprisingly, is from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association (PNA), and its members. While they too support changes to allow digital-only options, they only support a change for publications that previously had a print edition.
“The question isn’t whether to update the rules, but how? Harrisburg is currently weighing two options, one of which would strengthen public notices, and the other of which would hand them over to the governments they’re supposed to help hold accountable,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Opinion Editor, and PNA member Brandon McGinley wrote in June.
The question now seems to be, do we remove newspapers from the equation altogether and let municipalities publish notices directly to their websites? This is an option under Senate Bill 194. It’s a move PNA members argue would be even more limiting than the current situation.
“Few people use government websites, and fewer still just show up at government buildings. The effect of [SB194] would be to ensure that only people who are already looking for information about government activities would see it,” Brandon wrote.
Or do we open it up to digital options? Seemingly a good compromise, but the current version, House Bill 1291, proposed by Rep. Robert Freeman, D-Northampton, would only apply to communities that don’t currently have a printed newspaper of general circulation. Those communities could then fulfill their transparency obligations by having notices published in a digital publication.
West Chester Weighs In
In West Chester, this would mean no change (the bill would require that newspapers also publish the notices on their websites. DLN already makes digital versions of the notices available through a database sponsored by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, although I’m guessing you didn’t know that.)
So, what would townships like to see?
“In terms of customer service and reach, utilizing such means as the municipal website and social media would help expand how information is disseminated,” says Chris.
Sean agrees. “We publish meeting videos, agendas, approved minutes, and attachments on our website. I think in this day and age, every municipality should be required to maintain a website. I wish there were more options than print media to satisfy the public notice standards under the law,” he says.
There is also a third option: open ads to any digital news publication serving the area. In many areas, these independent publications better serve the community than conglomerate-owned legacy counterparts.
Legislators will likely need to make a decision one way or another soon. As local digital news publisher Davis Shaver, who’s been following this story for the past couple of months, tells me, “local government desperately needs relief from the print public notice monopoly.”
This story was part of a longer West Chester newsletter featuring all the news and events of the week. Curious what else is going on? Subscribe now to get the full story. New issues come out on Fridays!