Public notice bill would maintain ‘status quo’ in Schuylkill, ‘would not harm’ Sentinel, PNA testifies
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - The Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg on March 21, 2023.
HARRISBURG – If a proposed bill passes, local municipalities would not be able to publish public notices in The Shenandoah Sentinel or competing online-only outlets and satisfy legal requirements until three other print newspapers completely disappear, a representative of the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association testified at a hearing Monday morning.
The House Local Government Committee convened a hearing in Harrisburg to hear testimony on House Bill 1291, which proponents claim would bring municipal public notice requirements into the digital age.
Currently, municipalities are required to publish public notices regarding meetings, ordinances, and other actions in a print newspaper of general circulation.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Robert Freeman (D-Northampton), adds provisions for notices to be published online in a “digital newspaper,” if a print paper doesn’t exist, or a free newspaper of general circulation if neither exist.
“Under the bill, a ‘digital newspaper’ would be an online newspaper formatted similarly to a printed newspaper which must meet specific statutory criteria regarding its purpose and its ties to the community or be a digital descendant of a printed newspaper,” Freeman’s co-sponsorship memo reads.
Rep. Dane Watro (R-Schuylkill/Luzerne), whose district includes Shenandoah, specifically mentioned the Sentinel as he set up a question posed to Melissa Melewsky, Media Law Counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, who testified on the trade organization’s behalf.
“An online local newspaper, would this hurt them,” Watro asked. “We have one of the fastest growing sources in upper Schuylkill County, the Sentinel, that a lot of my constituents get their information, local, so on and so forth, that’s where they go for their source of local information such as borough meetings.”
“If there’s a print newspaper in the area, the bill would require print on the printed newspaper’s website, and on the statewide public notice website,” Melewsky testified. “So that news organization, they wouldn’t be harmed by this. The current system is maintained. The status quo is maintained.”
“Would they be able to go ahead and advertise underneath their source,” Watro asked.
“If there comes a time when there is no more print-distributed newspaper, then yes they would, the bill would account for that, but as long as there is a print distribution newspaper, we believe, and the bill stands for the proposition that the most exposure reaches across the digital divide, including print, digital, and a statewide website,” Melewsky said.
In essence, for the Sentinel or similar digital outlets, like Skook News and Coal Region Canary, to accept public notice advertisements that fulfill the law’s requirements, three different newspapers — the daily Pottsville Republican-Herald, the weekly South Schuylkill News in Schuylkill Haven, and the weekly Valley View Citizen-Standard in the Hegins Valley — would all have to completely cease publication both in print and online.
“Has the news media organization been meeting with some of the people who have raised concerns regarding the legislation, in particular the online providers,” Freeman, who serves as majority chairman on the committee, asked Melewsky.
“We have,” Melewsky claimed. However, the Sentinel has not been invited to, let alone been party to, any such meeting, despite raising concerns both on ShenSentinel.com and in rebuttal letters to columns the PNA published in the Bloomsburg and Shamokin daily newspapers. “Yes, we have been meeting with online news organizations, we have met with the local government associations, and we will continue to meet with those groups as the legislative process continues because we want this to be right not just for our members but for Pennsylvanians as a whole.”
Rep. Brett Miller (R-Lancaster), minority chair of the board, asked Melewsky about specific language in the bill. The bill would require a statewide public notice website to be maintained by a “statewide association representing print and digital news media organizations.”
“This entity has to be a 501(c)6, has to be headquartered in Harrisburg, has to include members of the majority of newspapers of general circulation, has to have been in existence for at least 50 years,” Miller said. “That sounds very specific.”
Miller asked Melewsky if the association believed that the law followed Article III Section 32 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, effectively singling out the PNA as the only association that can fulfill the requirement.
“We fill that it’s appropriate for that description to be reflected in the bill because we currently are paying for and administering that website and we have done so for about a dozen years,” Melewsky said.
Miller asked Melewsky if she had data regarding the amount of taxpayer dollars municipalities are spending on public notice advertising.
“I don’t have that data with me today and I don’t know that it is ascertainable,” Melewsky said. “Because when we sample both local agencies and the newspapers that serve them, we come up with very different numbers, and we saw that reflected in Rep. Watro’s testimony here today.”
She referred to testimony from Watro, who said Schuylkill County spent $223,343 in 2021, $181,000 in 2022, $222,000 in 2023, and $189,000 in 2024. So far in 2025, the county has spent $142,000, Watro said.
In June, Coal Region Canary published a column, breaking down how much the county spent on legal advertising in 2024 by company. The total number differs slightly from Watro’s — $177,108.88. The lion’s share went to the Pottsville Republican-Herald with $83,694.32, the Canary reported.
“No newspaper that’s serving Schuylkill or Luzerne County is making those numbers [Watro mentioned] on public notice advertising,” Melewsky claimed. She also claimed that half of public notices are privately funded, including for zoning and planning. She specifically cited estate notices and corporate filings, which have no tie to municipal government.
Representatives of government associations, representing boroughs, townships, school boards, and county commissioners, all testified in opposition of the bill as written.
“We have long supported legislation that provides counties and other local governments with a menu of options to modernize outdated advertising requirements, reduce cost to taxpayers, and improve access to public information,” Frank Mazza, director of government relations for the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said. “We’re just looking at options.”
“House Bill 1291, while we certainly appreciate it looking at modernizing Pennsylvania’s outdated public notice laws, we still think the bill falls short of real flexibility and cost savings for local governments, and that is purely by still relying on legacy print media as the vehicle for meeting statutory requirements,” Mazza said. “That’s a concern for us.”
Mazza said that there is an opportunity to find a way forward to provide municipalities options to “improve the system and improve transparency amongst governments and ultimately the people.”
He said counties would benefit from the ability to consider online-only news websites without a legacy print tie, social media, and more.
“All these different options I think can be right-sized to fit the community,” Mazza said. “What we’re really seeking I think is having that ability to look at the various options, look at our community, see what those needs are, because, yes, in Elk County, there very much is probably a lack of reliably accessible broadband to be able to go online and reliably use the internet for their day-to-day lives, and in that instance, the paper that represents Elk County might be the right course to make sure the public is duly informed.”
“We’re looking to meet people where they are,” Mazza said. “We emphasize that modernization should not eliminate print options where they remain effective, but counties and local governments more broadly should not be forced to purchase costly newspaper ads as the gateway for transparency.”
He urged all stakeholders to work together to find solutions to meet the needs of Pennsylvanians.
You can view the entire hearing below:
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