Last summer, the APA board established the Public Notice Awareness Committee charged with developing a comprehensive effort to preserve access to public notices for Alabama citizens, and to build awareness of the importance of public notice to our communities.

The committee and staff embarked on an aggressive schedule holding six regional meetings around the state last fall. Thank you to the newspapers in Thomasville, Haleyville, Albertville, Troy, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa for hosting our meetings.

The APA board approved steps to continue these efforts.

First, APA is proposing legislation that mandates uploading public notices to newspaper websites and to alabamalegals.com. This legislation also sets the maximum rate a newspaper can charge at its lowest commercial classified rate. It further requires newspapers to offer the same discounts, etc. for those placing public notices as they offer any other commercial customer. This is making its way through the Alabama Legislature now.

Second, as part of the effort to build awareness among readers, newspapers ran a series of ads touting the importance of the public’s right to know about the actions of government and others in their communities. A new set of ads will be available soon.

Finally, APA conducted a statewide readership survey to gauge the public’s interest and awareness of public notice. The results showed 77 percent of the respondents OPPOSE putting public notices only on the Internet. And, it showed newspaper readership is as strong as it was 12 years ago.

To download Public Notice house ads click on the BamaNet logo. You will have to login to BamaNet and the files are in the Public Notice folder under Ad Department.