Throughout our nation’s history, government agencies have been required to alert citizens of certain government activities that may impact a local community, providing citizens with an opportunity to stay informed and take action when necessary. Newspapers have long partnered with government agencies by publishing public notices, enabling the government to be fully transparent and accountable to citizen taxpayers. In recent years, state legislatures – most recently in New Jersey – have proposed to move public notices out of printed newspapers and onto government-run websites.
Publishing public notices in newspapers informs a wide audience in a local community of a government agency’s action; reaching citizens that are passive information seekers that would not be aware of the fact that notices impacting the community are on a government agency’s website. Publishing public notices through the local newspaper also serves an important audit role as the newspaper acts as an independent third party able to legally verify that the government agency has given the public notice.
The News Media Alliance has created ads highlighting the importance of keeping public notices in newspapers. We encourage you to run these advertisements in your newspaper over time to help educate the public. Ads can be published as is, or you can add your own logo. If you have any questions about the ads, please email Lindsey Loving, Lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org.
