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Bill to expand digital venues for public notices draws debate over news deserts and newspaper revenue
Summary
House Bill 3,431 would broaden which digital news outlets qualify to publish legally required public notices. Small-town mayors and local digital publishers supported the change; newspaper publishers and the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association warned it could undercut local journalism revenue and urged caution.
Representative David Gomberg told the committee the bill modernizes Oregon’s public-notice statute to allow established digital news organizations that meet standards of locally original content to publish legal notices. He said closures and consolidation of print newspapers have left many communities without a local printed paper that residents read.
Mayor Christopher McMoran of Philomath said his city has no local print paper but does have a digital outlet, the Philomath News, which the city uses to reach residents. “We are forced to publish our public notices in the Corvallis Gazette-Times or the Albany Democrat-Herald,” McMoran said, noting those papers are…
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