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Lawmakers weigh newspapers’ role in public notices as state officials outline digital option
Summary
At a City, County & Local Affairs Committee hearing, Arkansas Press Association leaders urged keeping printed newspaper notices and a free APA hub, while the administration said an electronic public-notice system could save the state 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' and merits further study.
Members of the City, County & Local Affairs Committee on Monday heard competing testimony over how Arkansas should publish legal and environmental public notices.
Representatives of the Arkansas Press Association told the committee that newspapers remain the most reliable method to notify the public and preserve an evidentiary paper trail. Rusty Turner, president of the APA, said, "Print can't be manipulated. It can't be hacked." He and Lynn Hamilton of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said APA member papers publish notices in print and also post them on a searchable APA site (publicnoticeads.com/ar), which they described as a free statewide clearinghouse.
"We've done so through expanding our digital footprints while remaining true to the print medium," Turner…
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