Project #2 – Legal Notices

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By Massachusetts law, public or legal notices (notices of public hearings, requests for bids, estate probates, etc.) must be published by state, city and town governments in a printed “newspaper of general circulation” serving their community. Those notices may also be published on the paper’s website (see MGL Part 1, Title 1, Chapter 4, Sec. 13), but if the publication is digital-only, it doesn’t meet the legal standard.

Northeastern University Journalism Professor Dan Kennedy made the case for change in a blog post (“Mass. law governing legal ads needs to be updated to include digital-only outlets,” April 2, 2022) after Gannett, which owns most of the suburban weeklies in the Boston area, announced that they were closing 19 print newspapers in Eastern Massachusetts and merging nine others into four. As a result, some towns including Acton have had to resort to placing their legal notices in the distant Lowell Sun, which has next to no readership in the towns in question — see “‘It’s devastating.’ As Boston-area weeklies close, towns ponder civic life without local news” (Boston Globe, April 8, 2022).

There are two parallel efforts that aim to change state law to remove the print-newspaper publication requirement for legal notices: statewide legislation and home rule petitions.

1. Statewide Legislation

Several bills to address this issue have been recently filed in the Massachusetts legislature (193rd session):

  • H.2098 sponsored by Assistant Majority Leader Rep. Alice Peisch of Wellesley (D-14th Norfolk), Rep. Carmine Gentile of Sudbury (D-13th Middlesex), and Kenneth I. Gordon of Bedford (D-21st Middlesex)
    • A hearing before the Joint Commission on the Judiciary was held on November 7, 2023.
    • Feb. 3, 2024: Reporting date extended to Friday June 14, 2024, pending concurrence
  • H.1723 filed by Rep. Smitty Pignatelli (D-3rd Berkshire)
    • A hearing before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary was held on November 7, 2023.
  • S.1137 filed by State Sen. John Velis of Westfield (D-Hampden and Hampshire)
    • A hearing before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary was held on June 27, 2023.
    • Feb. 8, 2024 — Accompanied a study order (i.e., died in committee)

These measures would benefit the budgets of state and town governments who are required to pay the asking price for newspaper ads, since online news sites would almost certainly charge less. And notices in online news sites, which are rapidly growing in readership, would reach more readers (the original intent of the law), because the circulation of paper newspapers has correspondingly plummeted in recent years.

Town governments support the idea

The Massachusetts Municipal Association, which represents the elected and appointed people who run the local governments of the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth, expressed “strong support” for H.1723 and S.1137 in a June 2023 letter to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary:

“For many cities and towns in Massachusetts, local online newspapers can better serve their immediate communities than larger print newspapers, which in many communities is the only allowable newspaper to publish legal notices. Local online newspapers are regularly a first resource for community members to stay informed of local events and issues. These outlets are a logical source for residents to access local legal notices posted by cities and towns.

“Further, with dwindling competition among print newspapers, the higher costs for posting legal notices places unnecessary stress on municipal budgets. Allowing for legal notices to be published by online-only newspapers will introduce additional competition to the market, likely reducing publication fees and the costs to municipalities.”

2. Home Rule Petitions

A home rule petition from a town asks the state legislature for local control over a specific matter that’s otherwise governed by the state. A town can submit a home rule petition if a majority of residents approve at Town Meeting. The petition organizers must collect signatures from at least 10 residents who are registered to vote in the town in order for it to be placed on the Town Meeting warrant.

Home-rule petitions that are currently under consideration by the Massachusetts legislature:

As of March 20, 2024, there are three home-rule petitions under consideration by the legislature. The deadline for reporting them out of committee is normally in February 2024, but all three have had their reporting date extended to June 14, 2024, which gives people more time to engage the committee with testimony and get legislators to sign on or otherwise advocate for the legislation.

  • H.4027 sponsored by Rep. Sean Garballey of Arlington (D-23rd Middlesex) and Sen. Cindy Friedman of Arlington (D-4th Middlesex) — a home-rule petition for the town of Arlington.