Newspapers Bring Public Notice to the Front Section
(From Public Notice Research Center, Of Record) An August story by Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Jeff Adelson struck exactly the right chord with newspaper publishers in Louisiana and elsewhere: the newsroom reported on one of the public notices carried elsewhere in the newspaper.
The lead story in the August 21, 2013, edition of the newspaper highlighted the upcoming selection of committee members to the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority – East – and included a graphic of the public notice running on Page 9E of the same day’s newspaper.
PNRC has long urged newsrooms to cite and link to public notices when stories cover matters where public notice is required. The links and cites permit members of the public to evaluate for themselves whether notice was adequate and also encourage better attention to newspaper public notices.
"The Advocate did what we all long for with public notice," says Pamela Mitchell, executive director of the Louisiana Press Association in Baton Rouge. "What a day maker!"
Meanwhile, on September 11, the Journal-Times in Grayson, Ky., tied a public notice into a story on a request for an increase in water rates from the Rattlesnake Ridge Water District. "In a public notice published in today’s issue of the Journal-Times, the district outlined a proposed across-the-board rate increase of 29 percent for all customers," wrote staff writer Joe Lewis.
And in Cape Girardeau, Mo., a story by Erin Ragan in the Southeast Missourian reports on a plan by the city to obtain a community development block grant for its planned business park. "A legal notice published in Wednesday’s Southeast Missourian indicated the city soon will request a release of grant funds from the Missouri Department of Economic Development," Ragan wrote.
Tearsheets from the August 21 issue of the Advocate are available here.
Rattlesnake Ridge seeks 29% water rate increase – The Journal-Times, Grayson, Ky., (9.11.2013)
City applies for grant for business-park development – The Southeast Missourian, Cape Girardeau, Mo., (9.13.2013)
