Newspapers no longer the place for meeting notices

Technology sure has changed things. Generally for the better. But some would rather remain stuck in the past. The changes in technology are leading some units of government in Wisconsin to push for the ability to post required meeting notices online, rather than in the newspaper. For years, newspapers were the media of record, where notices of meetings, ordinance changes, minutes of meetings and other notices were published. But newspaper subscriptions have dropped significantly, so it is not clear how many people are even seeing the meeting notices, even if they bother to look for them. Meanwhile, the internet has continued to grow, reaching more people. And it is much cheaper to post legally required notices online, rather than paying to put them in the paper. It costs each municipality about $5000 a year to post their meeting notices in the paper. Some cities pay much more. Madison budgets more than $100,000 a year to post its notices in newspapers. A legislative study committee this month will begin looking into requests that the requirement that notices be published in the local paper be allowed to be posted only online instead. That makes sense. The government saves money, and with 80% of U.S. households now are served by high speed internet, more people can be reached than just those few still reading newspapers.