Despite that fact that Connecticut newspapers in general are avoiding writing about what their publishers consider to be a huge issue for democracy, the truth is starting to come out.
CtMirror.org, a new online political site started by my friends who got the ax from The Courant, had in interesting interview this month with the executive director of the Connecticut Daily Newspaper Association, where he finally admitted what the massive PR campaign for continued mandatory notices in newspapers is all about:
“There’s no question some newspapers would go out of business,†said Jim Leahy, executive director of Connecticut Daily Newspapers Association.
I don’t want to see any newspaper go out of business. But the best way for newspapers to go out of business is to continue wrecking their credibility.
If Leahy wants a bailout for newspapers he should ask for it instead of leading a massive PR effort to fool taxpayers and the General Assembly into thinking that requiring the spending of millions of dollars a year in public notices in newspapers somehow protects democracy any more than posting the notices on the Internet. But then he and his publishers must agree to salary and bonus caps.
It is an outrageous claim and I challenge any proponent of it to debate me in public.
Speaking only for my own newspapers, including the daily in Torrington, we don’t need them to survive. They represent a very small fraction of our overall revenue.
I do believe strongly, though, that paid legal notices in newspapers (and via their online platform … see our prominent link at registercitizen.com for an example) is still the most effective and widest-distribution means of communicating important government decisions and pending decisions to a community.
Replacing this with having them posted only on a town Web site, or a bulletin board outside of the library or town hall, puts the public’s right to know in severe jeopardy. How is someone supposed to know when to look on a town Web site because a cell tower is going to be built down the street from them, endangering their property values? Are they supposed to develop ESP?
And wasn’t there an outcry last year from many municipalities that they did not have the time or resources to even maintain up-to-date Web sites? Can we guarantee that public notices (if they are even seen, magically, by people who know somehow exactly when they should be looking) will be put up and stay up on those sites vs. the third-party affidavit-like system that paid newspaper ads provide?
Matt DeRienzo
Publisher
The Register Citizen and Foothills Media Group
Torrington, CT
mderienzo@foothillsmediagroup.com