TRENTON, NJ—Did you miss your town’s last public meeting? Did new construction go up in your neighborhood, and you had no idea? Don’t worry—you’re not alone. A century-old public policy, now New Jersey law, only requires towns, developers, and others in the public forum to post an official public newspaper in at least one print newspaper.
The problem is, that nobody gets the newspaper anymore, and this ancient policy negatively affects New Jerseyans’ ability to find out what’s happening in their community. When published, these notices are often obscured, in the back of the papers, and buried under pages of other public notices.
It’s a system that has outlived its purpose and is keeping many local newspapers on public life support. Now, state officials are moving to bring the process into the twenty-first century. And you can bet that the major media groups like Advance Media and Gannett will soon dispatch teams of lawyers to Trenton to fight it.
A new bill has been passed to amend the definition of a legal “newspaper” to publish all official notices and advertisements, now allowing for publications that are available electronically via the Internet. This legislation enables the State or local governing bodies to utilize qualified digital newspapers for public notices, expanding the accessibility of such information.
The bill maintains stringent criteria for electronic newspapers to be considered legitimate platforms for these notices. These requirements include being published in English, being based and published within the State of New Jersey, maintaining a general paid circulation with an average news content of not less than 35%, and having a continuous publication in the municipality where its office is located for at least two years. Additionally, the bill discards the previous mandate that eligible newspapers must be registered as second-class mail matter with the postal service, modernizing the criteria to reflect the digital age.