Pennsylvania’s current laws regarding legal notices require that boroughs, townships, school districts, and the county itself post public notices of their meetings, hearings, budget negotiations, contract requests, and other information in local print newspapers (the law defines these newspapers as “newspapers of general circulation”).
Digital publications, such as Gettysburg Connection, are not allowed to be designated as the newspapers of record used for this purpose.
A new bill backed by the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association (PNA) would go even farther by allowing print papers to publish notices digitally but at the same time continue denying digital-only publications the same access.
Specifically, the proposed bill (HB 1291) requires:
- “Publishing of public notices in printed newspapers of general circulation, where one exists,” and
- “If no printed newspaper of general circulation exists, allow public notices to be published in a ‘digital newspaper of general circulation,’ which is a digital descendant of a printed newspaper.“
In short, the proposed bill creates the new category of “digital newspaper of general circulation” but requires that only publications that currently have or formerly had a printed edition can use it. It would prevent Gettysburg Connection from publishing legal notices while the Gettysburg Times exists in print, but would also prevent us from publishing them even if the Times were to go entirely digital.
In Adams County, the law would effectively continue the current monopoly held by the Gettysburg Times into the distant future.
Gettysburg Connection believes that 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 with print publications.
Please tell our state representative, Dan Moul, and our State Senator, Dan Mastriano, that more competition would be a good thing for public notices, and that print publications should not be given rights denied to digital publications.
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Email Moul here: dmoul@pahousegop.com
Email Mastriano here: dmastriano@pasen.gov
Charles (Chuck) Stangor is Gettysburg Connection's Owner, Publisher, and Editor in Chief. I would like to hear from you. Please contact me at cstangor@gettysburgconnection.org.
Does this make sense when we have a growing population of plain people or large sections in our community with very poor or non-existent broadband? We have people with Gettysburg addresses that are still using dial up.