Rise in online news prompts debate over publishing legal notices

The Hartford Courant’s publisher Richard Graziano testified before a skeptical (state legislature’s) Planning and Development Committee on Friday (Feb. 1) in opposition to two bills that would remove a requirement that towns post their legal notices in a daily newspaper. Photo by Hugh McQuaid – on CTNewsJunkie

By Hugh McQuaid | CT News Junkie

The Hartford Courant’s publisher testified before a skeptical (state legislature’s) Planning and Development Committee on Friday (Feb. 1) in opposition to two bills that would remove a requirement that towns post their legal notices in a daily newspaper.

Both bills would give towns the ability to publish advertisements of their legal notices on their website.

One also would give them the option of posting in a weekly newspaper.

The Courant’s publisher, Richard Graziano… argued against the change, saying that it was a matter of open access to government through an objective third party. He said that posting the notice only on a government site leaves it open to tampering, alteration, political bias, or publication after the legal deadline.

Several town leaders testified in support of the bills, including… Rep. Melissa Ziobron [Dist. 34 – East Haddam, East Hampton, part of Colchester].

Ziobron is a freshman Republican who doesn’t serve on the committee but proposed one of the bills.  She said there are no daily newspapers in her district. She said there is a weekly newspaper [RiverEast] that covers 13 towns in the area but few people read it.

“I can tell you the majority of my residents don’t even pick it up . . . It actually becomes litter, which is very unfortunate,” she said.

Ziobron wasn’t the only legislator to complain about newspapers becoming litter.

To read the full story, please click here — http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/its_newspapers_versus_municipalities_again/#When:19:59:38Z

Posted February 3, 2013 as excerpted by HTNP News Editor Brenda Sullivan

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