This could be one of the last issues of the Carter County Times you get to hold in your hands. House Bill 368, a measure that would strip newspapers of their public notice advertising from local governments, could be voted on as early as today.
If House Bill 368 passes, we will no longer be able to afford to keep this paper in business. It will have that kind of impact on our already thin advertising budgets. And our rack sales and subscriptions alone – much as we love our readers and subscribers – don’t generate enough revenue for us to keep the presses running.
Now, we can debate whether or not a newspaper should be so dependent on this particular revenue stream, and it’s a conversation worth having – but it doesn’t change the fact that the Carter County Times, and countless other small, independent newspapers do count on those advertising funds to keep our newspapers from slipping into the red.
But putting aside the loss of revenue for us, let’s look at what would be lost for you if HB 368 passes.
For one, transparency. And not just the transparency you’d lose when the newspaper quit covering local government meetings. HB 368 would allow local governments to publish everything they are currently required to make part of the public record on their local websites alone. This means that you would need internet access to view these records and notices – which include everything from the wording of new ordinances to contracts for goods and services the city is required to put out for bid. It would require folks to navigate websites that are already poorly maintained – the Olive Hill and Grayson websites, for instance, both still include the names of council members who are not on council and don’t include the names of all current council members.
It would also potentially allow cities and counties to go back in and make changes to bids, ordinances, or other content without maintaining a clear history of those changes. That is the benefit of print. Once it is set and printed, you cannot go back in and change the content to suit changing preferences or ideas. There is a physical record to hold elected officials to what they’d initially agreed to.
This is important, not because our local governments are necessarily corrupt, but because any large organization – like a city or a county – needs safeguards to protect from the development of corruption, or the appearance of it.
Another issue, as noted, is that it requires internet access. This puts public notices out of reach of the poor, who might read the local newspaper at the public library. It puts them out of the reach of the elderly and others who might not be as comfortable navigating the technology required to access these documents. And it puts them out of reach of those who live in the remote and rural areas of our county where we have trouble accessing steady and reliable internet connections.
But, if the loss of advertising revenue leads to the closure of this newspaper, readers will be losing so much more.
This newspaper provided coverage of public expenditures that enabled journalists associated with NBC to ask serious questions about the use of opioid funds for things like skating rinks. We did this without taking any editorial stance for or against the usage of these funds. We just told you how your elected officials voted.
We’ve provided coverage of the embezzlement of funds from the county tourism group, and efforts to recover those funds. We have every intention, if we can continue to publish, to continue providing coverage of that process as the former treasurer enters her expected change of plea.
We’ve gone to bat for citizens of the county and cities, to make sure their government is operating with transparency, so they know what they are voting on and when they are voting on it.
We’ve covered officer involved shootings in both Grayson and Olive Hill.
We’ve covered complaints against, and praise for, elected officials across the board and on both sides of the political aisle.
But if HB 368 passes, you will lose all of that.
We could continue to publish for a while without those revenues, but not for very long. Not without a significant increase in retail and other advertising to make up the difference. If we continued to publish, we’d risk running out of funds to print, and to reimburse our long time advertisers and subscribers for undelivered product – and that’s something we’re just not willing to do.
We’re not here to get rich. We’re not here to tell you what to think. We’re here to provide you with factual information – and a variety of viewpoints on our opinion page – so that you can be informed and make up your own mind. And we’re asking you today to call your representatives and senators and let them know you are vehemently opposed to HB 368, and the lack of transparency it would bring. Your right to know what your local government is doing depends on it.
