ShopTalk - August edition

From the President's Desk

A total of 21 people gathered earlier this month to discuss legal notices and why they matter - and while there was no consensus among its participants, the future of such notices was the centerpiece of discussion.

The New Mexico Press Association hosted the meeting in Albuquerque, as per an agreement made in the last legislative session. State Sen.
David Ulibarri had agreed to pull a New Mexico Broadcasters Association-supported memorial to study the possibility of running legal notices on the air (as an option to the newspaper publication
requirement) after the NMPA said it would host a roundtable discussion during the summer. The result was an Aug. 11 meeting that included six state senators, three broadcast officials, an Association of Counties representative, Secretary of State Mary Herrera, Sarah Welsh of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, NMPA Executive Director Phil Lucey and seven NMPA board members.

Also invited was Bradley Thompson, president and CEO of Detroit Legal News Inc. and a co-founder of the Public Notice Resource Center. He made a presentation that provided context and significance to the discussion on legal notices.

Of all the groups invited to attend, only the Municipal League and the School Boards Association were absent. That was unfortunate, since they have both expressed support for the NMBA proposal to broadcast legals as an option to newspapers.

NMPA members came away with some added insights regarding this ongoing issue. I'll highlight two such insights:

· We need to build a coalition of support to protect public notices from being watered down by broadcasters and others who think newspaper publication is inadequate. The facts are on our side that newspapers provide the best possible service for getting such notices before the public, and there are a lot of associations - those who depend on the fair, third-party dissemination of such information - who agree with us. We need them on our side.

· Other than the broadcast option, another issue remains on lawmakers' minds: that of posting legals on websites. The fact that we already have an NMPA legals website resonates with some of them, but this may not be enough. The Illinois Press Association has taken a proactive approach, leading in the passage of a state law that requires newspapers to post legals on their website. Some of us are now thinking we should look into the possibility of doing the same thing in New Mexico.

Overall, I think we accomplished something at the meeting. We demonstrated our willingness to talk reasonably about the issue - not just from a revenue point of view but as defenders of the public's right to know, via the legal notices process. And we also made clear our opposition to the broadcast option, which would be cumbersome, complicated and contrary to the public's interest.

I hope that all NMPA members will pay attention to this issue; it's important not only to our industry but to the public as well. In fact, I would encourage you to take another look at the NMPA public notice ads that we sent out in January and again consider running them. Our readers need to be aware of the public value of such notices, and this issue isn't going away.

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Don't forget to block off some time for our Nov. 12-13 convention at the Tamaya Resort. Under the leadership of NMPA Vice President Karen Moses, we've secured a fabulous facility at great rates, with programs that will be both fun and informative. You'll be missing out on a lot if you don't make it.

Tom McDonald
2010 President, New Mexico Press Association

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Tom McDonald, editor and publisher
Las Vegas Optic; Las Vegas, New Mexico
505-425-6796; tmcdonald@lasvegasoptic.com