Call Your Legislators: Stop Corporate Welfare For Newspapers
Legislation that ends the requirement of “Legal Ads” being published in newspapers, in favor of the ads being posted on government websites, is on the calendar in both the Senate and Assembly on Monday, the last day of the current legislative session.
Call or email your legislators right now and ask them to vote YES on S-2072 in the Senate and A-2082 in the Assembly. You can find your legislators contact information here.
Classified ads in newspapers have gone the way of the horse and buggy. The Internet has made them obsolete. On most days Legals Ads make up the vast majority of the once thick classified section. The private sector has already voted. Taxpayers and those with proceedings before a court or board should not have to subsidize an antiquated practice.
Posting Legal Notices on municipal, county and state websites will lead to more people seeing them and will save the public between $12 and $70 million per year, depending upon who you believe. The newspaper industry says they ads cost only $12 million per year. Proponents of the bill says they cost $70 million.
More from my site
Opinion: End Corporate Welfare For Newspapers
APP: Public contracts should be online. Why not public notices?
A Message From Governor Chris Christie On Posting Legal Notices Online
No Vote In Assembly On Legal Ads Bill
Should State And Local Government Bail Out Newspapers?
THE STORY NEW JERSEY NEWSPAPERS DON’T WANT YOU TO READ
MMM Year in Review – February
O’Scanlon Testifies Against “Use Our Kids as Pawns to Enrich Corrupt Companies” Legislation
Water privatization bill removing public vote requirement moves to Christie’s desk
Bill to give DEP authority over waterfront access clears committee
I’d love to see the Obama Park Press after these get stripped. What’s that paper about 3 pages per day now?
Right you are OPP. This legislation would be the death knell of that liberal piece of garbage.
Not too mention hundreds of jobs and those people will be on the unemployment line and the state will still pay. Yes, lets just eliminate jobs…the republican way.
The hypocrisy of the mainstream media on this issue has burned me up for years. It’s corporate welfare. It’s a waste of taxpayers money. It should be mandatory — not optional — to post these notices on-line to increase transparency and public access to this information. In fact, the state should have a website set up for all levels of government to post them so it can be an easily searchable database, with specific headings and search terms (ie: contracts, ordinances, professional appointments, budget, planning board, etc.) And it will be archived forever. The days of paying to publish these in newspapers should have been over a decade ago.
As for our local hypocrites, the Asbury Park Press will always demand everyone else give up their own rackets at the taxpayer expense, but they won’t on this issue. And as much as I love Diane Gooch, the co-owner of the Two River Times with Mickey Gooch, it cracks me up that these two fiscal conservatives take advantage of this ridiculous government subsidy at their paper while deriding all other forms of government waste. That’s why nothing gets fixed in this country. It’s always cut the other guy’s sacred cow, not mine.
This is long past due. I can’t wait to see if any of our local legislators don’t support it. My recollection of the last vote in the Assembly is that Declan O’Scanlon — to his credit — voted for it. Sean Kean voted against it. (What a surprise.) Amy Handlin, another hypocrite of the first order who long posed as a bogus reformer as a Freeholder to not jeopardize her ambitions for higher office by alienating the GOP machine, wasn’t around for that vote.
Last time, this bill never made it to the Senate. Art, I hope you list how everyone in the Monmouth delegation votes on this issue.
Dan Jacobson
Actually, Amy Handlin may have been in Trenton the last time the Assembly voted on this. And perhaps she did vote for it. I may have to stand corrected on that. So if I got it wrong, my apologies. I do recall Sean Kean definitely voting against it a few years ago. He may have changed his vote if it came up again. Again, I’ll stand corrected if necessary on that one.
Nonetheless, Handlins is still a hypocrite of the first order. And Sean is still a pussy.
Dan Jacobson
Rick – a liberal on the unemployment line is our only hope to educate them on the importance of our capitalist system and what it means to them personally that companies be allowed to grow and prosper on their own without government subsidies. The Republican way is to allow companies to flourish without government meddling. You obviously like having the taxpayers prop up pathetic liberal rags like the APP.
It is so sad that formerly independent newspapers use precious editorial space to admittedly protect their own business. It is nothing more than a bully pulpit. If the trucking industry wanted to use that space to lobby for their own industry, this newspaper would not print it citing it as commercialization. There is a site that is INDEPENDENT, that PROVIDES E-MAILED ALERTS, MAPS TO ZONING ADDRESSES, SCHEDULES FOR HEARINGS, and AFFIDAVITS TO PROVE THAT NOTICED PUBLISHED. http://free-public-notice.com/about-us . And instead of tens of thousands of dollars per year, they charge $2,000 per year for as many notices as you want aggregately saving the local governments of this state millions. Government does belong to the public not to the newspapers. We all now understand despite what newspapers provide, that their time has passed and our state laws should move with the times. There are many more citizens with access to the internet than there are who subscribe to newspapers. When the market works everyone gains. Look at what happened when Craig’s List offered a better service for much less money. Classified Advertising left the newspaper to go on line. Same with public notices. this issue is not unique to our state and has been covered well at http://legal-notice.org/blog
One more show of compassion, eh PR? I guess you must figure that republicans don’t work in the newspaper industry. How enlightened. Now, I don’t think you’re that stupid (ok, maybe a little), but I would venture to guess that there are quite a few people who would vote republican that work at the APP. Just law of averages would have to tell you that. They can just go screw and wait on the unemployment line too. Also, don’t you think there MAY be some people out there that do not have access to a computer to be able read these notices? Oh, yeah, right, being a republican, you would never, ever think that some people might be less fortunate than you. They just need to get a job and then buy a computer so that they can read the adverts online. Its the Amercian way…Right?
Rick is right we don’t want all those printers and journalists on the unemployment line with the wheelwrights, coopers,blacksmiths and buggy whip makers not to mention,the ice man, the milk man, the guy that collects the change from the pay phones and key punch operators!
We’re lucky Government wasn’t so powerful around 1900, or we’d still have subsidies for buggy whip makers and wheelwrights.
And did you think about the people who don’t have access to a newspaper?? I think there’s a lot more people who don’t read newspapers today than people who don’t use a computer.
Glad you republicans are not too out of touch…there are over 270K people employed by the newspaper industry in the US today. How many blacksmiths do you think there are?
Actually is a good point about some (especially seniors and low income) people not having internet access.
Rick Ambrosia said at 9:43 am on January 9th, 2012:
Glad you republicans are not too out of touch…there are over 270K people employed by the newspaper industry in the US today. How many blacksmiths do you think there are?
Well then maybe we should require that anyone who wants to sell a car or house, anyone who wants to hire someone or sell sensual massage services advertise in newspaper classifieds.
Your argument is week Rick. This bill won’t impact the whole counrty, just NJ. How many NJ residents does the newpaper industry employ?
This bill in and of itself won’t cause the closure of any newspapers.
Bob English said at 10:03 am on January 9th, 2012:
Actually is a good point about some (especially seniors and low income) people not having internet access
Bob, it really is not a good point. How many of those poor and seniors are buying the app for $1.00 per day? Of those, how many are reading the Legal Notices?
Not many. Those who really want the information will find a way to get it. Use a neighbors computer, go to the library.
I agree its probably a limited amount of people at the same time if the notices are not going to be in the paper, accommodations (mailed upon request?) should be made for those that still want the info and for one reason or another do not have access to or know how to use a computer.
We’re not talking about selling cars Art, we’re talking about legal notices. Talk about a “weak” argument. (proofread Art, proofread). And even if it impacts only 100 people throughout the state, I still think that’s too many to be put out of work.
I’m sorry Rick. I thought you were talking about jobs.
You think a public expense of $20 million to $70 million is worth 100 private sector jobs?
You’re just being contrary. By the way, this is a bi-partisan sponsored bill.
Again Art, its not just jobs, but people that don’t even own computers. And according to your article, its $12 million, not $20 million. Bi-partisan bills have been known to be wrong in the past, and this one is no different.
OK, I get it, you’re looking for some extra revenue because the next argument will be that the municipal and state websites don’t get enough traffic, so they will have to pay for an independent (I say that loosely) blogger to post the notices.
Here’s what I’ve been saying all along…
http://www.app.com/article/20120109/NJOPINION01/301090007/A-step-backward-government?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|p
Nice Rick, cite the paper that stands to lose out on its gravy train. You know why I will applaud the inevitable demise of that liberal rag, the APP? Because they are a joke with no credibility posing as a newspaper. They are not the paper I knew as a kid and every citizen is better off when a dishonest, misleading yellow rag goes under. Not to worry, we still have the WSJ, NY Post and Washington Times for reliable reporting.