Last month, we exposed HB 1291, a bill designed to monopolize public notices by blocking digital media outlets.
The bill creates a rigged ‘digital newspaper’ category that exclusively benefits existing print media, preventing more efficient digital outlets from competing for public notices.
Digital publishers from State College to Conshohocken spoke out, forcing a meeting with lobbyists at the PA NewsMedia Association. Our proposed taxpayer friendly changes have not received meaningful feedback. The special interest lawyers say the process is neither fast nor simple while they continue to lobby for the bill behind closed doors. Time is in their favor, while taxpayers and our job-creating small businesses face the costs.
HB 1291 will inflate the price of public notices by preventing competition and propping up archaic companies. It strangles innovation, preventing more efficient public notice solutions. Giving former print newspapers the exclusive right to publish public notices online is like if Studebaker had been given the exclusive right to sell cars because it once sold carriages. Would we have gotten Ford? The government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers or protecting monopolies.
Beyond inflating prices, the bill threatens a perpetual newspaper lobby ‘tax’ on public notices.
The bill mandates a statewide public notice website – but this is no transparent government service.
The bill creates another monopoly by requiring the website be run by a narrowly defined association – a Harrisburg-based 501(c)(6) trade group at least 50 years old representing media organizations. Essentially, only PNA could qualify.
PNA already maintains such a site, PublicNoticePA.com, which states in its terms of use that PNA can charge newspapers a fee to upload notices and those fees may be modified.
PNA says it currently doesn’t charge its members to upload notices and that it won’t charge a fee to publish a public notice on the statewide website if the bill is passed. But we just have to take them on their word at that – the bill doesn’t prevent them from doing so.
What happens once this bill is passed and every public notice in the state is required to be uploaded? Do we really expect this trade group to do all that work for free, even for publications that aren’t paying dues to PNA?
PNA could end up imposing a newspaper lobby “tax” through a mandatory per-notice fee.
Taxpayers likely wouldn’t realize it if they did. The bill prevents publishers from charging an additional fee for publication on the statewide website, meaning the cost for doing so would need to be included in the total price rather than broken out separately.
On a single day in April 2025, PublicNoticePA.com published over 700 notices. At just $1-$2 per notice, PNA could generate hundreds of thousands annually in hidden taxpayer fees.
We applaud the legislators who’ve expressed interest in this bill, as public notices are sorely in need of modernization, but we urge them to consider the issues raised here and call a hearing so that digital publishers can detail the unintended effects of HB 1291.
Allowing this bill as it stands to become law would send a clear message that Harrisburg prioritizes outdated monopolies. We call on elected officials to recognize the implications of this legislation and to stand up for a public notice system that is truly for the public.
The stakes for local news, for taxpayers, and for transparency are too high to do otherwise.
Please share this with your local lawmakers, municipal officials, and county commissioners to raise awareness about the risk HB 1291 has on taxpayers and local news.
