N J Public Notice Law New Plan Could End Newspaper Publishing

Leo Migdal

-Dec 6, 2025, 6:52 AM

n j public notice law new plan could end newspaper publishing

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. 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. With the end of daily print publication of The Star-Ledger, Jersey Journal, the Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times, New Jersey lawmakers set out to revise the state's system for the publication of... Public notices, sometimes called legal advertisements, are 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... Under New Jersey law, they have appeared in print newspapers for decades. Late last year, state lawmakers created what they called a temporary fix that has allowed public notices to be published on New Jersey news organizations' digital platforms.

Legislation that allowed for online publication, which first expired in February and was extended, is set to expire at the end of June. With that expiration now on the immediate horizon, state Senate President Nick Scutari has introduced legislation to reform the way government entities on all levels advertise a legal notice of any kind. Scutari’s bill would require all governments and public entities to publish or advertise legal notices on their own official websites. The bill says each government website would 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... Learn how new legislation may modernize compliance NJ’s public notice rules set for major changes

Learn how new legislation may modernize compliance Public notice requirements in New Jersey are changing. And, if you are an applicant, developer or municipality – or work for or with any of them – it is important to be aware of where the rules stand today and what might... What led to the change? Although there have long been complaints about the somewhat archaic nature of newspaper publication requirements, print publication has always been how municipalities and members of the public appearing before public bodies were required to... Indeed, various New Jersey statutes, including the Open Public Meetings Act and the Municipal Land Use Law, have mandated that municipalities and applicants publish notices advising of public meetings, ordinance adoptions, zone changes and...

A bill that would end the requirement to publish most legal notices via news outlets is headed to the governor’s desk after both legislative chambers overwhelmingly approved the legislation on Monday. The mandatory legal notices served as a significant revenue source for many newspapers in the state, but many residents in the state do not have access to print newspapers, a situation that worsened when... The legislation, if signed into law, would allow local and county governments to instead publish the notices on their official websites. Some localities, like Warren County, say no outlet qualifies as a local newspaper. The Senate voted to approve the bill 36-0. The Assembly voted 69-2 with two abstentions.

GOP Assemblymen Brian Rumpf (R-Little Egg Harbor) and Don Guardian (R-Atlantic City) voted against the legislation. Legislation passed earlier this year essentially punted the issue today, the last day before the Legislature adjourns for the summer. According to a recent NJ Spotlight News article, New Jersey’s largest newspaper, The Star-Ledger, recently announced its intention to end its print edition, sparking widespread discussion about the future of public notices. Historically, municipalities and certain private entities (such as those involved in infrastructure projects) have been required by state law to publish legal and public notices in a print newspaper. Now, state lawmakers are considering legislation that would permit these notices to be posted online instead. This proposed transition could have significant implications for local governments, engineering firms, and other stakeholders.

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. 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) By SOPHIE NIETO-MUNOZRepublished with permission of N.J.

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. 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.

N J Public Notice Law New Plan Could End Newspaper Publishing

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