Newspaper publishers oppose a bill to allow meeting notices be posted online.
Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, sponsored the legislation to allow certain cities and counties to stop buying classified ads to announce public hearings.
An earlier version of the bill would have exempted all local governments, but Stam scaled it back to just towns in Wake and Mecklenburg counties after it met resistance.
Stam said the bill would give government a break on its expenses.
"Let's look for the things that would save counties and cities money while we're cutting the heart out of their budgets," he said.
Publishers and editors at the N&O and the Charlotte Observer lobbied against it, saying many people don't have Internet access. (N&O)
Comments
Newspaper Hypocrisy
May 6, 2009 - 11:04am — PoliticalJunkieThe sooner the leadership of newspapers like the N&O figures out that their future revenue will not be derived from print advertising the better off we're all gonna be.
Give it up. The printed classifieds will be extinct within 5 years.
Kudos to these local governments for standing up to the media and attempting to do away with this wasteful, anachronistic requirement.
It's not like the papers have the same market penetration they used to. I think it could be argued that if public notice is required newspaper classifieds no longer really reach the public writ large.