Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a bill that would allow the legislature more time to address the issue of legal advertisements and public notifications that resulted from the Star-Ledger and other print newspapers ceasing publishing on February 2.
A hastily drafted bill that allowed the Star-Ledger to keep accepting the profitable public notice ads—some refer to them as subsidies—until March 1 was signed by Governor Phil Murphy late last year.
The newspapers were originally granted an extension until the end of 2025 under today’s measure, but the New Jersey Globe was able to win late revisions that changed the deadline to June 30 before the Legislature adjourns for the summer.
A new requirement has been added to the amendments: the legislature wants newspapers or online news outlets that wish to receive public monies through legal notices to give them the information they need to determine their course of action.
Newspapers would be given thirty days under the proposed law to furnish them with information on the number of paid print digital subscriptions by municipality, the number of newspapers sold daily by retailers, the amounts billed for legal advertisements and public notices since 2020, broken down by public entity, and the average retail price of digital and print subscriptions. In short, the legislature wants the media to defend their use of taxpayer funds.
Newspapers in New Jersey were predicted to earn almost $80 million from legal notices nine years ago. Newspapers conduct verified audits of their readership on a regular basis.
