EDITORIAL: Online local news publisher to testify against monopolistic PA public notice bill
A Pennsylvania House committee will hear testimony Monday from online news publishers regarding HB 1291, which would unfairly restrict digital public notices to legacy newspaper companies
Public notices in a 1992 edition of the Shenandoah Evening Herald.
Online local news outlets like the Sentinel will be represented in testimony on Monday, Sept. 29, at a Pennsylvania House hearing called by the Local Government committee regarding HB 1291, a bill that purportedly modernizes public notices when it actually would hurt taxpayers.
The hearing begins at 10 a.m. Monday in Room 205 of the Ryan Office Building in Harrisburg. It will be live-streamed by the Democratic and Republican caucuses.
Representing online local news publishers in Pennsylvania will be Tom Sofield, publisher of Levittown Now, Newtown Now, and New Hope Free Press.
As the Sentinel has previously shared, HB 1291 would extend the newspaper monopoly over public notices into the digital age by creating a new category of “digital newspaper” that only applies to publications that currently or formerly had a printed edition. This grandfather clause would serve only to entrench the monopoly held today by these outlets, and prevent price competition by free newspapers and online-only newspapers for this vital public service.
Other issues with the bill have previously been reported by the Sentinel.
Read More:
- EDITORIAL: Proposed public notice modernization is step in wrong direction for local taxpayers
- Yes, Virginia, there is a better way to modernize public notices
Sofield’s prepared remarks are included below.
Testimony on HB 1291
Remarks by Tom Sofield, publisher of Levittown Now, Newtown Now, and New Hope Free Press, prepared for the Pennsylvania House Local Government committee hearing on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025.
Thank you, Chairman Freeman and members of the House Local Government Committee, for the opportunity to testify before you today.
My name is Tom Sofield, and I am the publisher of three online-only local news publications in Bucks County: LevittownNow.com, NewtownPANow.com, and NewHopeFreePress.com.
Our publications cover 15 municipalities and serve as a vital source of information for residents. Our Levittown site has been in operation since early 2013, our Newtown site since 2016, and the New Hope site was already 12 years old when we acquired it in 2023. Its previous owner started it in 2011 when the area’s print paper made cuts and eventually stopped printing, later even deleting their online archives.
For generations, the requirement that public notices be published only in print newspapers made sense. It was a system built for a time when the printed press was the primary source of community information. But times have changed. The landscape of news has been fundamentally reshaped by the digital revolution and the contraction of print newspapers.
The robust competition that once defined the print newspaper market has significantly diminished in my coverage areas in Bucks County and across Pennsylvania. The result of this greatly diminished competition, and the push by legacy and out-of-state newspaper companies to extract the remaining value of their print titles, has resulted in public notices being known by civil servants and local elected officials primarily for their inflated costs and limited reach.
I commend Chairman Freeman and the 21 co-sponsors of HB 1291 for recognizing the need to modernize this outdated system, and I appreciate all the lawmakers of both parties who have called for change and been willing to listen to small business owners like myself. The local government committee deserves to be commended for tackling this vital issue.
The issue of public notices might not be one people think about every day, but it is something that impacts the lives of every Pennsylvanian, every government, and every business.
In addition to my own publications, I represent more than 30 online-only local news sites across the commonwealth. Our outlets reach millions of Pennsylvanians and in many cases serve as the primary news sources for their municipalities or counties. When we are approached by municipalities, school boards, and other agencies which must advertise meetings and other actions, we must tell them that Pennsylvania law prevents us from selling what they want – fast, affordable, and effective legal advertising on the local news source read by their constituents. This is a common occurrence in our office. So far this month, we have received several calls about placing required legal notices.
We don’t have a 100-year-old industry group watching out for our interests. As we like to say, as online local news publishers, our special interest is the general interest, and it is our informed belief that HB 1291 will stifle competition and, ultimately, harm Pennsylvania taxpayers.
While the bill aims to enhance government transparency, its present form allows legacy print newspapers to transition to a digital-only model while clinging to a lucrative monopoly over public notices. This undermines competition that would drive down costs and benefit the public.
HB 1291 creates a new, artificially protected class of newspapers. The “digital newspaper” designation is exclusively reserved for publications that currently or formerly had a printed edition. This “grandfather clause” serves no purpose other than to protect the existing monopoly and block fair price competition from innovative, online-only news organizations like ours.
My publications, and others like them, meet all the requirements of the existing public notice law except for two: being printed on paper and sold at a fixed price. Instead of using ink and paper, our publications are accessible 24/7, easily translatable, widely read, and free to all, regardless of race, gender, or economic status. We don’t put our journalism behind a paywall.
LevittownNow.com, for example, is visited by 82 percent of all adults in our coverage area… a readership far exceeding that of any other print or digital local news publication in the area. Statewide, in 2024, we were among the top local news brands in the entire state.
By contrast, the two daily newspapers in our county, which are owned by out-of-state firms focused on extracting profit, have lost more than 90 percent of their staff over the past 10 years and print a combined total of no more than 5,000 copies on weekdays for a county of 646,000 people.
I and other online publishers believe that public notices should remain public and be published by news organizations, but the definition of “news organization” must be expanded to include publications like ours. We will offer more competitive prices, and our public notices would reach more local residents for a lower cost to taxpayers. We are news organizations and small businesses with staying power, and we employ local residents and are accountable to our local readers.
We know that some communities in the commonwealth may prefer print; others digital. We believe that free markets and local choice must be the guiding principles for any overhaul of Title 45, and that the most beneficial modernization of this law will allow online-only outlets to compete immediately. The current bill gives print newspapers monopolies in the marketplace simply for existing and invites fly-by-night operations and ghost papers to profit off taxpayers.
To ensure a fair and effective reform, we propose amending HB 1291 to allow all free and online-only newspapers to compete for public notices. A successful model for this exists in Virginia, which last year became the first state in the nation to approve the publication of legal notices in online-only local news sites. As part of a compromise, Virginia Press Association worked with digital news sites to create a system focused on better public access and aligning the law with modern news distribution and readership habits. We have spoken to the publishers involved in that change, which has been successful and created a larger marketplace for transparency and competition.
Virginia’s law lays out clear criteria for online-only publications, including:
- Employing local news staff.
- Being in business for at least two years.
- Publishing regularly updated general news coverage.
- Having a clear link to public notices on the homepage.
- Obtaining approval to publish notices from a local court.
This approach avoids the less ideal scenario of having public notices relegated to government websites, which I believe would lead to a loss of public oversight. Ultimately I believe that online-only publishers will deliver legal advertising that’s so affordable and effective that municipalities and agencies will prefer working with us rather than managing publication and website updates themselves.
By embracing a modern, competitive system, we can ensure public notices reach the largest possible audience at the lowest possible cost to taxpayers.
We are asking our lawmakers to seriously consider an amendment that opens the public notice market to fair competition in line with technology and readership habits of Pennsylvanians in 2025.
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