Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Why was the passage of House Bill 1940 so important to the Missouri Press Association? Here are two examples.
Regarding the reduction of the publication period from three years to one year before a qualified newspaper can begin publishing legal notices, look no further than Trenton, Missouri. The Trenton Republican-Times, which had served Grundy County since 1864, abruptly closed on June 19, 2025. CherryRoad started a new paper, the Trenton Telegraph, on Sept. 11, but under the existing law that paper would have to wait until September 2028 to begin publishing legal notices.
Once Gov. Mike Kehoe signs HB 1940 into law, the Trenton Telegraph can start publishing legals as of Sept. 11 this year. Currently, residents of Trenton and Grundy County are having to find their legals in the Jamesport Tri-County Weekly in Daviess County and the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune in Livingston County.
Regarding the increase of time from 30 days to 90 days for a newspaper to restart publication, let’s look back at the situation in Willow Springs in the summer of 2019. Howell County News founder and publisher Kim Rich, after trying to sell the paper for more than a year, closed it in June. With the help of MPA Executive Director Mark Maassen, former Missouri State Treasurer Wendell Bailey made it a project to save the paper. Bailey, who is from Willow Springs, compiled a list of potential buyers and started making phone calls.
On day 24 of the 30-day clock, Bailey found a taker: Amanda and Ron Mendez, who agreed to purchase the Howell County News from Rich. Bailey had even cobbled together a special fund the couple could borrow from at no interest.
“With no newspaper experience at all, except the considerable help of Kim Rich, we had six days to publish our first issue,” Amanda Mendez said. “And we did it.”
The Mendezes, who had relocated from St. Louis to the Willow Springs area in April 2016, put out their first issue, a six-pager, on July 24, 2019.
“Kim postponed starting a waiting job for a week to teach us pagination, circulation, ad sales, local politics and everything else she could,” Amanda said.
“As I like to say, I’ve never been brave enough to ask how far down the list my name was. But we are the ones who said yes. From that moment, Wendell reminded me at least once a day of the requirements for keeping the legal status, until we put out that first paper. He knew how imperative it was not to lose the legal status.”
That’s a great success story, to be sure, but under HB 1940 a community would have two additional months to find someone to restart their newspaper or start a successor paper.
