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N J Abolishes Newspaper Public Notice Law Threatening Local

Leo Migdal
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n j abolishes newspaper public notice law threatening local

A decades-old law requiring towns and government agencies in New Jersey to publish meeting notices in newspapers was abolished last week, raising concerns that some local publications covering the state may be forced to... Print and online newspapers have long been paid by state and local governments to publish everything from town council meeting notices to planning board applications and other announcements. The fees were a steady source of revenue for newspapers, which provided a consistent site for meeting notices — also referred to as legal ads — for New Jerseyans who might struggle to find... Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law last week that ended the public notice requirement after years of battles and negotiations in Trenton over the issue. The new law will allow the government to bypass news outlets and post all public notices on their websites by March.

The state will also set up a central website with links to all the sites. Public entities no longer are required to publish meeting notices in newspapers under a new law Gov. Phil Murphy signed on June 30, 2025. (Photo by New Jersey Monitor) Legislation signed by Gov. Phil Murphy Monday evening ended the state’s decades-long practice of requiring publication of public notices in newspapers.

The measure comes after the Star-Ledger, the state’s largest daily newspaper, announced it would cease printing in February, along with other smaller papers the company owns. That left several municipalities and counties without an official newspaper to publish notices of town meetings, planning board applications, foreclosures, and bid solicitations, as mandated under the state’s Open Public Meetings Act. Now, under the new law, public entities will be required to publish or advertise legal notices on their official website beginning March 1, 2026, with digital publication of such notices optional until that date. The law requires that the websites be free and accessible, with a direct hyperlink to legal notices placed “conspicuously” on the homepage. The secretary of state also would help set up a website to include notices from public entities statewide. Public agencies will be required to display notices on the website for at least one week and store them in an online archive for at least one year afterward.

Local governments will not be required to maintain an archive until July 1, 2026, according to the measure. Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law a bill that will effectively end the use of media for public notices. These advertisements were legally required to be printed in newspapers to make the public aware of municipal and county meetings, planning board applications, sheriff's sales and many other official government actions. Under New Jersey law, they have appeared in print newspapers for decades. The reform was made necessary, its sponsors have said, by the end of daily print publication of The Star-Ledger, Jersey Journal, Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times, but short-term fixes that have been...

Legislation that allowed for online publication, which first expired in February and was extended, expired at the end of June. Now, through bipartisan legislation sponsored by state Senate President Nick Scutari and state Sen. Anthony Bucco, all governments and public entities will publish or advertise legal notices on their own official websites. Each government website will be required to display a clearly marked link to legal notices on its home page, and the listings would have to be available to the public for free. This will be mandatory beginning March 1, 2026, and optional until then. The state will also create a page under the secretary of state's portion of nj.gov with links to the legal notices page for each public entity.

Article originally published June 25, 2025 on law.com Link to Original Article by Charles Toutant With a temporary solution to New Jersey’s public notice predicament about to run out, state law lawmakers are weighing whether to eliminate most municipal government advertising in local news publications. A measure pending in the state Senate, S-4654, would allow municipalities to put public notices on their own websites, putting an end to the longstanding reliance on paid notice in newspapers. But a competing Senate bill, S-4484, would extend a law that allows municipalities to continue placing public notices in online news publications. Last year, New Jersey lawmakers enacted a stopgap measure allowing public bodies to publish public notices in news outlets in a digital-only format.

That measure was necessitated when several major newspapers around the state eliminated their print editions in favor of online publication. But that bill expires on Monday. When we last reported on New Jersey, the state faced a public notice crisis triggered by the news that the Newhouse media empire’s Star-Ledger, the state’s largest and most significant newspaper, planned to shutter... 1, along with a sister publication and several affiliated newspapers. The state legislature temporarily suspended the crisis on the final day of 2024, when it enacted AB-5151, giving itself two months to amend the Garden State’s public notice laws and come up with a... AB-5151 stipulated that existing official newspapers would continue to serve as the state’s heralds of public notice, and that notices could be published in those newspapers’ print editions or posted on their websites until...

Several proposals to amend the state’s public notice laws have been introduced since then and a few others carried over from the 2024 session. The latest proposal, introduced late last week, is an extraordinary bill that was previously supported by the New Jersey Press Association (NJPA). It diverges in several key respects from standard practices that have been adopted in other states. NJPA President Audrey Harvin wrote to the association’s members on Jan. 21 to “strongly encourage” them “to reach out to your local legislators to support our bill. The bill # is S4064.”

An NJPA representative now tells us the version of S-4064 that was ultimately introduced “contains significant differences” from the association’s position and that it is no longer accurate to say the group supports the... Nevertheless, S-4064 contains provisions originally included in a proposal submitted last year by NJPA, and the group continues to support those elements of the bill. New Jersey’s long-standing requirement for government agencies to pay to publish public notices in newspapers is facing elimination under a new proposal from legislators in Trenton. A bill, S4654, sponsored by state Senate President Nick Scutari, D-Union, would allow the government to bypass news outlets and post all public notices on their websites by March. That state would also set up a central website with links to all the sites. Public notices, also called legal advertisements, have been a steady source of revenue for local newspapers for decades.

The current law required local governments to purchase space in print publications for everything from meeting notices to planning board applications and other announcements. Over the last few months, public notices were also allowed to be published online in digital newspapers after the Star-Ledger, the state’s largest newspaper, ceased print operations in February. The New Jersey Press Association, the nonprofit group that advocates for the state’s news organizations, said it supports the passage of an alternative bill, S4484, sponsored by state Sen. Andrew Zwicker, D-Middlesex. Newspapers have long been the repository for legal notices issued by the government. No longer, under a new bill from the Senate president.

(Getty Images) New legislation from the state Senate president would allow public entities to stop publishing legal notices in news outlets, a move that would end a practice critics say makes little sense in the 21st-century... Senate President Nick Scutari’s bill would permit governments to post legal notices on their own websites starting March 1, 2026, and require the secretary of state to help set up a website that would... The state’s public notice requirements came under renewed scrutiny with the February demise of the Star-Ledger, formerly the state’s largest newspaper (the paper’s owners still produce an online edition). The paper’s end left many public entities without a local newspaper to publish their notices in. Newspaper publishers have long fought to retain the state’s requirement that legal notices get printed in news outlets, saying published legal notices allow the public to keep tabs on their leaders’ actions.

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A decades-old law requiring towns and government agencies in New Jersey to publish meeting notices in newspapers was abolished last week, raising concerns that some local publications covering the state may be forced to... Print and online newspapers have long been paid by state and local governments to publish everything from town council meeting notices to planning board applications and other a...

The State Will Also Set Up A Central Website With

The state will also set up a central website with links to all the sites. Public entities no longer are required to publish meeting notices in newspapers under a new law Gov. Phil Murphy signed on June 30, 2025. (Photo by New Jersey Monitor) Legislation signed by Gov. Phil Murphy Monday evening ended the state’s decades-long practice of requiring publication of public notices in newspapers.

The Measure Comes After The Star-Ledger, The State’s Largest Daily

The measure comes after the Star-Ledger, the state’s largest daily newspaper, announced it would cease printing in February, along with other smaller papers the company owns. That left several municipalities and counties without an official newspaper to publish notices of town meetings, planning board applications, foreclosures, and bid solicitations, as mandated under the state’s Open Public Meet...

Local Governments Will Not Be Required To Maintain An Archive

Local governments will not be required to maintain an archive until July 1, 2026, according to the measure. Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law a bill that will effectively end the use of media for public notices. These advertisements were legally required to be printed in newspapers to make the public aware of municipal and county meetings, planning board applications, sheriff's sales and many other...

Legislation That Allowed For Online Publication, Which First Expired In

Legislation that allowed for online publication, which first expired in February and was extended, expired at the end of June. Now, through bipartisan legislation sponsored by state Senate President Nick Scutari and state Sen. Anthony Bucco, all governments and public entities will publish or advertise legal notices on their own official websites. Each government website will be required to displa...