TPA continues work on public notice laws

With bill filing going full-bore for the legislative session, Texas Press Association’s Mike Hodges and Donnis Baggett report that the pace is as brisk it has been in the past. They expect that 8,000-9,000 bills will be filed by the March 14 deadline.

By BILL PATTERSON, TPA President

We’re seeing the usual bad legislation from elected officials who regularly push to end public notice in newspapers, and from those who would weaken the hard-won anti-SLAPP law that helps media and private citizens defend themselves from groundless nuisance lawsuits. And as usual, we are fighting those measures vigorously.

That said, so far it appears we’ve seen fewer bad bills that would weaken access to public records and public meetings. And that’s good news.

“Legislators pay attention, so they’re aware of the national uproar over decades of political gamesmanship, declining government transparency and accountability,” Donnis said. “On top of that, the growing distrust of government and politicians is making public officials at all levels a little gun-shy. They may sense it’s a bad time to ask legislators to make their jobs easier by keeping citizens in the dark. Let’s hope so.” 

As they read bills, TPA staffers look for language regarding transparency, accountability, public notice and any tax or regulatory changes that could affect Texas newspapers and their readers. They’re looking not only for the bad ones, but also good bills that we can support. At this point about fifty bills are being tracked. Of that number we support about 75% and have about a dozen that we oppose.

As we’ve discussed during the last several sessions, TPA and our member newspapers must stay on top of changes and opportunities related to publishing public notices, especially in the ever-changing digital landscape.

This session, our longtime friends Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, and Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, will carry legislation that would allow governmental entities that lie within a county with no remaining print newspaper to meet their legal requirements for public notices by posting the notices in an approved digital-only newspaper.

Here’s why: As print and distribution costs skyrocket and more rural newspapers consider switching to digital-only publication, there will often be no general-circulation print paper left in their county that’s legally qualified to print notices. Under current Texas law, you must have a print edition in order to qualify for paid public notices, so going digital-only would mean losing your eligibility. Clearly we don’t want that to happen.

We asked Sen. Kolkhorst and Rep. Hunter – respected legislators who have supported us unflinchingly throughout their careers – to file legislation to protect general circulation newspapers as they make this transition. The wording of their bill is still in the works, but it will strongly discourage digital-only startups and allow TPA members to keep their notices without new competition while they make the transition.

For a digital-only newspaper to qualify for public notices under the bill, it must have been in business in the market at least three years, have local staff in the jurisdiction, cover local news, have audited paid circulation, update with fresh news and publish at least 50 times a year, upload to TPA’s aggregated statewide public notice site, etc. –  all things that TPA member newspapers already do and have done for years.  These requirements – especially the requirement that the digital-only paper have been in business in the market doing these same things for three years —  would be a very steep mountain for a startup to climb.

Other states are also working to update their public notice laws as our industry fights to remain competitive and in tune with how citizens are consuming news content. 

Changes such as these will continue to be essential to our survival. The Public Notice Resource Center is a great source for you to keep up with what’s going on around the country, and I encourage you to spend some time on that site, www.pnrc.net for more information.

We’re cautiously optimistic about the 2025 session. But the final results we see will depend largely on how much help we get from our members when it’s needed most. We’ll count heavily on help from united grassroots Texas newspaper executives publishers in the weeks ahead. Please be willing to step up when you’re asked to make a phone call, send an email, or testify in Austin at a committee hearing in Austin.

Thank you for all you do for the citizens of Texas and your community.