Something caught my eye recently in the Bristol (Tenn.) Herald Courier.  A story by reporter Mac McLean (tricities.com) underscored perfectly one of Tennessee Press Association’s (TPA) primary arguments against allowing public notices to be removed from independent print newspapers and placed in the trust of local and state government websites.

The Bluff City Police Department, in Sullivan County, allowed the domain name rights to its taxpayer-funded website to expire, despite repeated email warnings over a three month period from the department’s domain name provider.

Following the expiration date, all information on the site became immediately unavailable to the general public, and the site displayed a generic warning message that the domain would be available for sale beginning 42 days after expiration.

Following the 42-day period, a private individual who was disgruntled over receiving a speeding camera ticket acquired the rights to the domain name and used the site to post messages from others who disliked speed cameras.

One can’t help but wonder what official information was posted on the Bluff City Police Department’s website.  Information that apparently wasn’t missed at all by the public during the 42-day period that the site was down and showing only a message explaining that the rights to the site were about to expire or be sold.

As recent studies show (Pew Internet and American Life, December 2009), many folks – 60% of Internet users – just don’t routinely go to state and local government websites to find the important information contained in public notices.  Information such as foreclosure notices, meetings of school boards, and notices of construction bid lettings.  Those notices, thank heavens, are required to be published in independent newspapers where they are easily accessible to the public, archived, searchable, and reliable.

A quick check of the Tennessee Newspaper Directory, published by TPA, shows that there are two TPA newspapers in Sullivan County that are entrusted with carrying important public notices: Bristol Herald Courier, and Kingsport Times-News. The Bristol Herald Courier has been published continuously since 1865, and the Kingsport Times-News since 1916. That’s 145 years and 94 years, respectively, of bringing important government information to the citizens of Sullivan County.  Wonder how long Bluff City government has been in the information-providing business?

Now, newspapers are no strangers to the Internet.  We fully realize that a growing percentage of our readership chooses to search online for news, information, and entertainment.  Sixty-three percent of Internet users searching for news seek out their local newspaper’s online site, according to a 2009 study by the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism.  And newspapers have been quick to respond, with TPA members creating websites that offer our readers the best of both worlds – a print version and an online site to meet their needs and to bring them important public notices.

Tennessee Press Service, the business affiliate of TPA, decided to make it even easier for people to find public notices that have run in newspapers all across our state.  In 2007, TPS launched www.tnpublicnotice.com, a comprehensive public notice site that aggregates notices from our member papers across the state into one, easy-to-search place.  It’s updated daily, and it’s completely free.  Just another way the newspaper industry is making these important notices available to all citizens, regardless of whether they prefer a print product or an online site to receive their news.

We will likely have to fight attempts next year by state and local governments to save an insignificantly small amount of money by removing important public notices from printed newspapers and allowing those same governments to take a stab at making the notices available to the public through myriad state and local government websites.

Stop for just a minute and think about how many websites that could encompass.  In any given county, there could be a county commission website, a sheriff’s department site, county seat or mayor’s website, other municipality website(s), a school board website, police department website(s), county trustee or property assessor website – and that’s before even starting to list the dozens of state agencies and departmental websites!

Do you really want to rely on searching all those venues to find out what your government is doing?

Newspapers have been integral and independent watchdogs of government activity since the beginnings of our democratic society.  They have a proven track record of continuous publication, and pride themselves on never missing an issue.  You can walk into any newspaper today and search years of archives.  In fact, the average TPA member newspaper has been publishing continuously for more than 100 years!

Please remember the fate of the Bluff City Police Department’s website the next time you hear of a government’s attempt to move important public information to an obscure website under the guise of saving a few dollars.  There’s good reason that your community newspapers have been fighting so hard for your right to know.