Newspapers and newspaper websites are where the public goes to get news about their government — not government websites. The West Central Tribune Newspaper in Willmar, the Albert Lea Tribune, and the Rochester Post Bulletin each had over 1 million visits to their websites in just the month of December, 2010.

Newspapers across the state have significantly higher numbers of visits to their websites compared to government websites.

Local governments know that newspapers get the message out best. When local governments and politicians want to publicize issues of concern, they don’t post it on their website — they go to the media.

Advocates for taking public notices out of newspapers claim that it will save money — but local government has never substantiated this claim. The money spent on putting public notices in papers is statistically insignificant compared to the local government’s budget. And the expense of designing, operating, properly maintaining, and updating a website are significant, if done right. These costs are now covered by newspapers.

Newspapers agree that public notices should be on the Internet. That’s why we sponsored legislation that passed into law 7 years ago to mandate that all newspapers must put them on their website at no additional cost, in addition to placing them in their print editions.

Many citizens do not have ready access to the Internet, or prefer not to use it often. AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons, representing more than 700,000 Minnesotans 50 and older, has a position opposing removal of public notices from newspapers.

Do we really want government to have sole responsibility and control over the dissemination of its own notices? Newspaper publication prevents government from deciding when and how the notice is published, and whether it is changed after it is published. Public notices in newspapers are also a critical check and balance on potential government errors.

Public notices in newspapers are the permanent records of what a public body does as well as the notification of what it intends to do. There is no archival history to government websites as there is with newspapers. Years from now, any citizen could go to a newspaper and read what the government did.

— Minnesota Newspaper Association