On Thursday both the Assembly Appropriations Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee amended and advanced legislation that would permit the use of qualifying newspapers for public notices and legal advertisements until June 30, 2025, regardless of format. We anticipate that both the full Senate and full Assembly will consider A-5343/S-4136 at next week’s voting session.
In addition to changing the deadline from December 31, 2025, to June 30, 2025, the amendments require the news media who print public notices and legal advertisements to submit information to the Governor and Office of Legislative Services (OLS) within 30 days of enactment. The information would include number of paid digital subscriptions by each public body; number of unpaid digital and print subscriptions by each public body; number of newspapers sold daily by retailers; amounts billed for the publication of public notices and legal advertisements in print or electronic format from 2020-2024 by each public body; average retail price of digital and print subscriptions; number of daily page views for webpages on the online newspaper’s website for public notices and legal advertisements are published from January 1, 2024 to effective date of bill; and any other information requested by the Office of Legislative Services (OLS).
The League was joined by the New Jersey Association of Counties and New Jersey School Boards Association in testifying in support of this temporary measure. We continue to work on long-term solutions that will permit municipalities, counties, and school boards to publish public notices and legal advertisements on the public agencies’ websites.
We need your help. As we advocate for the ability for towns to publish such notices on their municipal websites, we are repeatedly asked how much municipalities are spending on publishing such notices. Please take a few minutes to complete a survey on costs from 2020 through 2024. Also, if you have not done so already, consider adopting the sample resolution supporting legislation permitting publication of legal notices on municipalities’ websites.
Contacts: Lori Buckelew, Deputy Executive Director, lbuckelew@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x112, and Paul Penna, Director of Government Affairs, ppenna@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x110.