"I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you." (removing public notices from newspapers?)

Effort to change

By Doug Anstaett, Kansas Press Association

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

"I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you."

Ever heard that one? Of course you have. We hear it often, as elected and appointed officials alike tell us they have a better idea about how to deliver governmental services to the citizens of our state and nation.

You're about to receive a huge dose of this snake oil from some of them about their idea to move public notices from the trusted, independent and printed pages of the state's newspapers to a governmental Web site controlled by them.

They'll boast this new idea will save taxpayers money, that it will make more of what government does accessible to the masses and that it will do a better job of keeping you informed about what your government officials are doing.

Don't believe them for a minute.

For one thing, this idea about switching publication to a government-controlled Web site is not new; it's been around since the advent of the Internet. And the arguments against such a move are many, which indicates why not a single state in the union has seen fit to do it.

Why, you might ask, should public notice continue to appear in newspapers?

http://www.tonganoxiemirror.com/section/viewpoints/story/10092

esp. the older population. geesh.

For that matter, even those who can afford the paper get their news from TV. So, how is printing legal notices in the paper an advantage again?

If it's going to be a public notice, then it out to be as widely available as possible.

What position do you THINK the Kansas Press Association would take? Besides, does ANYONE actually read the "legal notices" section of the paper? It's absurd that in 2006 we still think that printing something in 6 point type buried amongst the personals and used-car ads constitutes meaningful legal notice. It's wasteful, and I'm glad they're moving it to the Internet.

every day. Go figure.

official paper that gets to print the legal notices. If the government or any one else wants to put them on the web, fine. But here anyway the law has to be changed to make a web site the 'Official' site. Leave the legal & public notices in 'hard copy' in the 'Official' newspaper. It's harder to change letters and words on a printed page than it is a electronic web site.


BTY, lots of people do read them and some quite throughly and religiously.