That’s the big news*, at least from my point view. The bill being discussed – meh, not so much – to me – but Dean Singleton is gonna be pissed.
The bill does deserve a little debate, even though its passing is pretty much inevitable.
UT Sen. Steve Urquhart (can you imagine how many electrons we’d save if he’d replace the “qu” with a “k”? Easier to spell, too) – Anyway – UT Sen. Steve Urquhart is proposing a bill that would have the state design and host a function that, up until now, was the province of the Newspapers.
You remember newspapers, don’t you? I remember getting the newspaper until the NAC started throwing them in the gutter every morning.**
Legal notices, hosted and posted by the state for a “small” fee as an option to paying the hundreds of dollars charged by print media. Sounds like a great idea, right? I’m not 100% on it.
Lets break it down.
PROS –
Smaller Fee vs. The Paper – good for foreclosure and bankruptcy
More public and searchable
It will cost the papers a lot of money
Breaks the print media monopoly on legally required bad news
CONS –
It’ll be seen as an attack on print media
More public and searchable***
It will cost the papers a lot of money
– Papers die a little faster
– Investigative journalism dies … more, I guess
– TV And Radio don’t do journalism
I think you see my point. Newspapers are running on an insanely bad business model, and, as a business, they deserve whatever happens, right?
I can’t separate the historical role the press is supposed to have, and my habitual desire to protect that role; and the desecration of that role by the media groups that buy a bunch of papers and then gut the staff, drive the agenda and kill investigative journalism.
Why should I work to save an industry owned by a dozen different right wing asshats who’ve run their properties into the ground?
___________
* It drives me nuts that the Republicans own the technology lead in this state. Democrats, in nearly every other state, would be embarrassed at how poorly the Utah Dems handle new media.
** How did that cost cutting measure help circulation, eh?
*** Sometimes a person might not want their public notice to be forever a part of a Google search on their name. I don’t, and I love googling my name.
The truth is that newspapers get it. If Sen. Urquhart had made a simple phone call or questions of legislators who are familiar with the idea would have shown that the Utah Press Association agrees on the the need to expand the reach and accessibility of use of public notice.
However, we believe that public notice should be both in newspapers and on the Web. For the past two years, with the agreement of former Senate President John Valentine and Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan, Utah’s newspapers have developed a new centralized Web site that is now in beta testing.
Also, for several years we have maintained and continue to maintain, utahlegalnotices.com. Both of these Web sites have been searchable by key words. The new Web site will be RSS feed capable and a fully searchable database of statewide public notices. One will also be able to subscribe to e-mail feeds on a particular key word.
We believe that we have developed one of the most sophisticated legal notice Web sites in the United States. The Utah Press Association has also pledged to create an advertising campaign that would help citizens better understand and access public notices.
As has been the case for centuries, public notice is best served by a third-party, independent source. There should be a be check and balance on government power. In other words, should the fox be watching the henhouse when it comes to legal notices? Also, should the government be in the business of creating its own communications bureaucracy?
Also, there are real costs associated with creating and maintaining a public notice Web site. Currently, along with the initial startup costs, the Utah Public Meeting Notice Web site has at least one full-time staff and ongoing costs through the Utah Department of Archives.
Joel Campbell
Utah Press Association
Legislative Monitor