Courant charges more for legals ads than the LA Times

It's this kind of greed that undermines the solid case newspapers can make for continuing to require traditional legal advertising. George Gombossy deserves credit for highlighting the issue.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Wright, Nicastro back newspaper legal ads

Press release issue today:

STATE REPRESENTATIVES WRIGHT AND NICASTRO SUPPORT PUBLICATION OF PUBLIC NOTICES IN NEWSPAPERS, OPPOSE GOVERNOR’S PROPOSAL THAT WOULD CURB PUBLIC NOTICES IN LOCAL NEWSPAPERS

“Public’s Right To Know Is Primary Concern”

State Representative Christopher Wright (D-Bristol) and State Representative Frank Nicastro (D-Bristol) oppose a proposal by the Governor that would allow cities and towns to publish important public notices on town web sites rather than be published in local newspapers.

“The public’s right to know far outweighs any possible cost savings,” Rep. Nicastro said. “Keeping legal notice information from citizens is a dangerous precedent that we should avoid. Who knows what comes next?”

“I spend a great deal of time going door to door talking with constituents one on one and I am very much aware that not everyone, especially our seniors, have computers,” Rep. Wright warned. “Let’s not forget them and anyone else who may not be able to access the internet.”

“Elected officials and government at all levels must be accountable to the public and one way that’s accomplished is public awareness of local meetings and legal notices that impact public policy,” the Bristol legislators said.

The legislators understand that governments at all levels are dealing with tight budgets and that unnecessary spending must be constrained, “but, curbing the public’s access to public notices that affect there lives is not a way to go. Taxpayers need more information  about what there government is doing, not less.”


Update: Here's the link to the story in the Press.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Some mandate relief may be coming

The New London Day has the story.

I would say, though, that the idea of dropping printed legal notices in newspapers is a terrible one. It would eliminate the one tried-and-true method of letting the public know what's going on at city and town halls across the state.

If they all had busy, active, wonderful websites that residents routinely checked, I might agree that the requirement is archaic. But let's face it, most of the government's websites are a snooze and few people use them.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Here's some real state help for newspapers... Not.

State Rep. Bill Hamzy, a Plymouth Republican whose 78th District includes a portion of Bristol, is among three sponsors of a measure that would allow towns and cities to cease publishing legal notices in newspapers.

Instead, the proposed law would let them put the legal notices only on the municipality's website if they choose to follow that route.

Putting legal notices on the websites makes perfect sense, of course, but taking them out of newspapers would immediately preclude the sort of general access that papers intrinsically allow. After all, as state Rep. Frank Nicastro, a Bristol Democrat, has argued so forcefully lately, many older residents in particular don't have computers and don't go cruising the web.

Putting legal notices on the web only would strip the public of the opportunity to know easily what's going on with their local governments while simultaneously removing yet another part of the shrinking revenue stream that keeps newspapers alive.

I suspect that the many journalists who have complained that newspapers should never get special help from the government will somehow find a way to argue that this is a bad idea that should never be adopted.

That's certainly what I think.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com