Another Nail in the Classified's Coffin?

Several state legislatures are considering changing their laws, so that some or all municipalities could forgo publishing legal notices in the local newspaper in favor of the web.

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities says that such a move will save governments thousands of dollars a year and the smaller cities of Missouri say they have limited access to community papers, so they are forced to advertise in the more expensive city publications.

While the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association argues that around 30% of their state's residents do not have access to the web and that legal notices only account for less than one percent of a municipality's budget. They also suggest that the loss of revenue could be devastating to the industry and because member papers already mirror the notices on the web, their site's higher traffic volumes might actually make the notices available to more people.

The State of Arizona is also considering a change.