Illinois has enacted what appears to be the nation's first law requiring newspapers that accept legal notices to upload the notices to a statewide website collectively owned by the newspapers. The law adopts the strategy that newspapers across the country have been using for years to keep state legislatures and local governments from dropping paid legal advertising in papers in favor of unpaid notices online.
The bill passed unanimously and was sponsored by the Illinois Press Association, which sponsors PublicNoticeIllinois.com, to which about 80 percent of the state's newspapers already upload legal ads. Taxpayers are able to search it for public notices by keyword, by newspaper and by county, IPA reports. In Iowa, all of the public notices published in newspapers are posted at iowanotices.org, according to the Iowa Newspaper Association Bulletin, which reported on the Illinois bill today.
UPDATE, July 29: "While the news in Illinois is very positive for newspapers, the news in other states varies dramatically," Arkansas Press Association Executive Director Tom Larimer writes in the latest Arkansas Publisher Weekly. "Take New Jersey, where at least three different pieces of legislation would allow government agencies and individuals to post public notices on the Internet rather than in newspapers. There are other examples. New Jersey just happens to be the latest bad one." (Read more)
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