The CEO of a company that publishes nine newspapers in eastern Kentucky said a bill passed by the state House of Representatives would hurt not only local newspapers, but also the public they serve. Jay Nolan said HB 368 would do away with a 50-plus year-old state law requiring local governments to publish legal and meeting notices in their newspaper of record. Instead, they could put them on their websites.
“The problem with that is it's not transparency. If you're getting a notice out to the public, you want to spend as much notice as you can. So the system now, it's not only in the newspaper, but it's on our E-editions, in our public sections of our newspaper, for people to see.”
Nolan said a study by the Legislative Research Commission showed paying newspapers to publish public notices costs very little.
“The LRC found that the average government agency to provide the notices in the newspaper for their public notice cost was expending less than a half of one percent of the agency's budget.”
The bill is backed by the Kentucky Association of County Officials and the Kentucky League of Cities. Nolan said its effect on local newspapers would result in less coverage of government meetings – which, he said, some government officials would welcome.
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