• by Ray Schultz , January 5, 2024

The St. Lawrence County legislature in upstate New York has designated three newspapers as official papers for publishing local law notices and other matters required by law to be published.

This runs counter to the growing trend of taking the notices away from publications and publishing them on government websites -- a financial loss to publications that depend on this revenue. 

However, New York State law requires that counties designate at least two newspapers for this purpose, according to North CountryThis Week.

In 2022, in a move to depoliticize the process, legislators eliminated a rotation model that allowed Republicans to designate their favored publications and Democrats to list theirs, North Country This Week continues. 

“Our interest as county legislators ought to be getting our advertising in front of as many sets of eyes as we can,” said Jim Reagen, a former managing editor of Ogdensburg Journal who is now a legislator, in 2022.