Triad Newspaper Circulation Decline Makes Public Notice Modernization Laws A No Brainer

Owen Covington from the Triad Business Journal has this headline "Triad daily newspapers see continued circulation declines"  . In the article was some interesting tidbits about our local newspaper for example

 

"The News & Record saw Sunday circulation drop from 79,358 as of March 31, 2013 to 72,649 as of the same date this year, an 8.5 percent decline. It's average weekly circulation was below 50,000, declining from 54,452 last year to 49,496 this year. "

Then later in article other cities did not fare well either

It was a difficult year for all of the state's daily newspapers, none of which saw year-over-year increases in circulation, according to the AAM report.

The Charlotte Observer, North Carolina's largest newspaper, saw Sunday circulation fall from 191,962 last year to 179,698 this year. It's sister paper in Raleigh fared slightly better, with a decline from 179,214 in 2013 to 171,406 this year.

Over the past few years this blog has been notifying the public on the wasted taxpayer money being thrown at paid newspapers in regards to public notice laws in the State of North Carolina. One item that got the attention of the Guilford County Commissioners was the tax delinquency bill where we saw them save over $92,000 here is that report CLICKHERE

Let's dig deeper into the numbers the triad business journal has provided. As we see if you are really wanting public notices then you will need to get a weekly subscription to the Greensboro News and Record because they rarely show public notices on a Sunday edition which is it's most popular day they leave it for the obscure days of Monday and Tuesday for their public noticing. So let's take the population of Guilford County which is 506,610 and with the weekly circulation of 49,000 then that comes close to 10% of Guilford County residents are reading the News and Record in this County . I will even throw them a bone and double their readership to 20% for reading households of 2 who might read the paper. We also need to take into consideration the High Point Enterprise but did not have their circulation numbers for this report.

While doing a little google research I came across this from East Carolina University below :

A Decade of Change: Digital Technology and Internet Access in North Carolina

                                      1999 to 2010

                                               Kenneth Wilson, Ph.D.
                                       East Carolina University August 2010  

In the past decade, North Carolina has experienced an amazing transformation. In 1999, only 53 percent of households had home computers. By 2010 that figure has risen to 82 percent. In just eleven years, the proportion of homes without a computer has dropped 62 percent. In 1999, the proportion of all homes with Internet access was 36 percent but this has risen to 80 percent in 2010. In that same time frame, the proportion of homes without Internet access has dropped 69 percent .

We see that internet in the home has increased to 80% in North Carolina households while we keep on having to shell out taxpayer money to 20% of the population in Guilford County  to have public notices run in a paid paper when in reality we can save money to put this information online on government web sites all over this state.

It is time to modernize the public notice laws in this state and if you want to research more on this you can look under the public notice section with plenty written over the past few years. CLICKHERE

Also we need to remember that our good Senator Trudy Wade from Guilford County has a bill to help modernize Public Notice Laws in the State of North Carolina and needs our help in the short session . Will post more once we find out what is happening with the bill

Guilford County Commissioners Save $92,000 with a Bid Process for the Tax Delinquency Bill

Above is the bill for last years tax delinquency from the Greensboro News and Record which if you take this years numbers $86,406 divided by 14,500 = $5.95 per line compared to below where they had to do a bid process with 3 other paid papers  and it was $28,855 divided by 14,500 = $28,855. How can one paper with no bid process charge $86,406 now with a bid process go down to $28,855?

What the Guillford County Commisioners did was a huge step in tax delinquency process where in the past they advertised in both News and Record, High Point Enterprise and also the Carolina Peacemaker . Under state law they only had to advertise in one paid paper that is where we had the request for proposal shown below. This bill to the taxpayers went from close to $97,975 to having the Jamestown News post the tax delinquency bill for 2013 at $5,945 a savings of
$92,030.

Granted this state law should go away with the invention of the internet and county web sites providing this information 24 hours a day and seven days a week but will take a savings of $92,000 on this for the citizens of Guilford County.

Triadwatch is doing some further investigation into what the Mecklenburg County Tax Department pays in regards to the tax delinquency bill to see if they have a bid process and what it cost the citizens of Mecklenburg to advertise in the Charlotte News and Observer. Stay tuned.

Inside Scoop had a post on this issue CLICKHERE

Did You See the $80,000 Waste of Taxpayers Money in Today's Greensboro News and Record?

Did you happen to see the insert in the Greensboro News and Record today which is the yearly waste of over $96,000 of your taxpayers money. Triadwatch has a public records request for this years final figures from the Guilford County Tax Department which might take a month to get the bills from the Greensboro News and Record, High Point Enterprise, and Carolina Peacemaker with them publishing the tax delinquency of citizens in Guilford County.

Each county and municipality has to by law under North Carolina General Statute 105-369 publish this in a paid newspaper. How many of you actually cared about looking at this insert in today's paper? Some of these North Carolina laws are such a waste of taxpayers money and having public notices in a dying circulation is not the future of public notices in the State of North Carolina.

We do have our newest member of the North Carolina Senate from Guilford County Dr. Trudy Wade introduce her first bill as a primary sponsor Senate Bill #186 which happens to be a public notice bill and hopefully we can get some momentum behind this bill for it to pass and become law.

If there was ever a complete waste of taxpayers money all you needed to do was pick up today's Greensboro News and Record to see the 21 page insert of tax delinquency in Guilford County but one thing that is known is you can see this on a 24-7 basis on the Guilford County Tax Department Web Site . Hopefully you are lucky to pick up today's paper to see this 21 page insert because tomorrow you will not see it at all and as we can also see from the updated Greensboro News and Record web site public notices are so important to them that they did not make one section for public notices be a part of their revised web site. We can see that the Charlotte Observer partnered with legal notice.org  to provide this information for their web content and added a public notices section. Will we see any changes from our local paper? I doubt it.

This blog post brought to you by triad citizens against government waste.

Dump Public Notice in Greensboro News and Record Save Guilford County Taxpayers Money with a Local Bill for State

Triadwatch wrote a letter to the Guilford County Commissioners and is in process of contacting our North Carolina State Representatives to save the taxpayers of Guilford County on money that does not need to be sent to the state mandated under the law local papers in Greensboro News and Record, High Point Enterprise and Carolina Peacemaker. Here is the letter sent to our Guilford County Commissioners:
____________________________________________________________________________

Dear Guilford County Commissioner,

 I want to save the taxpayers of Guilford County money that does not need to be spent. This past year i did a public request for information on just how much Guilford County spent in advertisement in regards to tax delinquency and Gregory French Assistant Tax Director sent me this attachment you will find in this e mail. In the attachment the tax department under North Carolina General Statute 105-369 spent $97,949.98 with the break down of advertisement going to the Carolina Peacemaker for $7,724.80, High Point Enterprise $9,878.40 and Greensboro News and Record $80,746.78.

Talking with Mr. French he told me that the tax delinquency for Guilford County is already available on the Guilford County web site 24 hours a day and seven days a week under the area of on line tax services then search tax bills then a header called delinquent bill search.

I would like to have our Guilford County commissioners work with our state delegation to have this North Carolina General Statute repealed for Guilford County because we as a tax department already provide this information on line for all the citizens to see.

Please advise me on how we can save Guilford County taxpayers money on this issue. We have seen a lot of states all over the country propose public notice laws to save cash strapped budgets. Many of these state laws were enacted before the Internet came into existence and hopefully we can in Guilford County propose a bill to lead the state in reducing even something as small as the tax delinquency bill for our citizens.

Have a great day!

________________________________________________________________________________

 Below you will see the invoices from the three newspapers which total over $97,000. After speaking with the Guilford County  Commissioners this past week during speakers from the floor there was a rebuttal from Commissioner Coleman on that the tax department has a fee on top of their tax bill that covers this invoice. I want to say to the Commissioners and every other taxpayer in this county that i don't care if you are a tax delinquent or pay your bills on time this advertisement in the local paper is a complete waste of money anyway you look at it. This bill was first introduced in 1939 well before the Internet came into play and now we have our local tax department have this information available everyday on their web site. It is time for our State representatives to pass a bill to exempt Guilford County from N.C. State Bill 105-369

 

 

2012 tax delinquency bills for guilford county nc by

Repost on Government Waste for Posting Tax Delinquency in Local Paid Monopoly Called Greensboro News and Record, High Point Enterprise and Carolina Peacemaker

NOTE: THIS IS A REPOST FROM LAST YEAR AND TRIADWATCH IS IN PROCESS OF GETTING A PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST IN REGARDS TO THIS YEARS NUMBERS FOR THE GOVERNMENT WASTE OF POSTING THE TAX DELINQUENCY of GUILFORD COUNTY IN THE PAID MONOPOLY LOCAL PAID PAPERS IN GREENSBORO NEWS AND RECORD, HIGH POINT ENTERPRISE AND CAROLINA PEACEMAKER. GREENSBORO NEWS AND RECORD HAD THE 2012 TAX DELINQUENCY in TODAY'S PAPER for 3-14-2012  

Triadwatch did a public records request with the Guilford County Legal Department in regards to public notices in local pay newspapers. One of the questions asked to the Guilford County legal department was this;

On March 23, 2011 in section C of the Greensboro News and Record there was a tax delinquent part of the paper that consisted of over 20 pages of tax liens from the Guilford County Tax Department . I would like to know specifically how much this 20 page part of the paper cost the taxpayers of Guilford County

Robin Keller Paralegal with Guilford County got in touch with the finance department  and this is what she e-mailed me back with;

"Regarding your question concerning the cost to run the delinquent tax listing on March 23, 2011, in the Greensboro News and Record, the amount was $86,740.29. I was also informed by our finance department that some or all of this cost is reimbursed when paid through an advertising fee that is added to the delinquent bills."

The finance department says that some or all of this cost is reimbursed but to me this is a wasteful use of taxpayers money. Does anyone really care about the tax delinquency in Guilford County? Should the county have a up to date database online for all to see on a daily basis for tax delinquency? I also found out that not only was this $86,000 invoice in the Greensboro News and Record but it was also in the High Point Enterprise as well and will update as to that amount as well and if the 2 papers are similar in costs  than this bill could be doubled to $172,000.

Public notices in local papers consists of a variety of issues from  foreclosure notice, general legal notice, notice of creditors, notice of hearing, notice of meeting, notice of sale, and request for bids. The public notices request was also sent to the City of Greensboro which has provided me with a lot of information in regards to the Carolina Peacemaker and the Greensboro News and Record. In future post this week i will show you just how much  money it is costing the taxpayers of this county and the city of Greensboro to advertise in the local papers of choice which is Carolina Peacemaker and Greensboro News and Record.

One of the main reasons to bring up this issue of public notices and the wasteful spending of taxpayers money  on a weekly basis is because there are some bills in the North Carolina Legislature who want to keep up with the technology age and do away with this expense. One of the bills wants  public notices shown electronically online this bill is called CITY/COUNTY ELECTRONIC NOTICE #472 CLICKHERE and there is also the same bill on the Senate side of the North Carolina Legislature Senate Bill #773 CLICKHERE

We have seen all over this state the local newspapers write editorials to keep this taxpayer funded money pit flowing to the local newspapers. We also had the Greensboro News and Record with help from the N.C. Press Association display a full and half page ad titled "Would you let a fox guard your hen house" CLICKHERE and it is the middle ads opposing house bill #472.

We also see a few more bills that are being considered at the state level for example

House Bill #307 Local Electronic Notice ,
 An act to allow the county of Wake and the towns of Cary, Clayton, Wendell, and Zebulon to use electronic means to provide public notice in lieu of publication.

House Bill #361 Currituck Electronic Notice,
An act to allow Currituck County to provide electronic notice of public hearings

The reason for this post was because as we see from the Greensboro News and Record Editorial titled "Help Public See Notices" CLICKHERE . They never once said how much this information is costing the taxpayers of Guilford County . After that editorial it was apparent that a public records request was in order and in the coming week we will post the pdf files on the invoices for the past year and a half in regards to the Carolina Peacemaker and the Greensboro News and Record .

As we see with the tax delinquency bill of $86,720.49 this is just one of many public notices that are costing us plenty over a years time and this could be handled in a manner on city and county web sites all over this state with parameters in place that will make the hen house more transparent and not costing us money to put in local newspapers .

Below is Part #1 of 6 documents that will be discussed this week in triadwatch in regards to this issue because it is time the local newspapers get off the government trough .

Public Notices 1 Carolina Peacemaker

High Point Enterprise on Guilford County Commissioners Redistricting

Guilford County Commissioners 2011 Redistricting Map for 8 District by Keith Brown

High Point Enterprise has a article titled "County Officials Unveil District Maps", CLICKHERE

High Point is part of what Keith Brown, who contributed a map for Triad Watch, calls a fish-hook” strategy making a district that links to Greensboro to form a minority-majority district.

“The Alston plan creates a district that runs from High Point through Jamestown and into Greensboro,” Brown said. “We don’t like that.”

Brown’s plan, and the two other county maps, also take the same district path, but Brown claims his treatment is not as severe.
Read more: High Point Enterprise - County officials unveil district maps


Let me explain a little bit further with this scenario. We have a district that needs to be majority minority because of the voting rights act. In High Point you can only get 44% majority minority and need to be over the 50% plus 1 this means that this district that was in High Point needs to add more people. So the feasible way to go is east to get precincts through Jamestown and into Greensboro.

Doing this from High Point into Greensboro opens the door for the map makers to go under this majority minority district to make a fish hook looking area where some of the southern part of High Point remain in another area for the "High Point Hook" as i call it to happen.

As you see in the map that I turned into the Guilford County Commissioners you do not see me allow this High Point Hook. But if you see plenty of the other maps CLICKHERE it does especially the chairman Skip Alston plan.

Say no to the High Point Hook around the voting rights act majority minority district in High Point

OUR VIEW: Seven-member board would better serve us, High Point Enterprise on Guilford County Redistricting

OUR VIEW: Seven-member board would better serve us: "Back before the 1980s, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners was functioning sufficiently with just five board members. But because of population growth and desires for racial diversity on the..."

$96,288.47 City of Greensboro Wasteful Spending on Public Notices in Greensboro News and Record

Triadwatch did a public records request from our local municipalities in regards to public notices in our paid print media outlets. This consisted of asking Greensboro, High Point  and Guilford County  governments just how much taxpayer funded money actually on a yearly basis went to public notices in the papers.

The City of Greensboro provided pdf files that showed the actual invoices of what has happened in the past year and a half. Above you will see the 4 files on the invoices to the City of Greensboro from the Greensboro News and Record.

Last week we provided the total amount given to the other paid local paper in Greensboro called Carolina Peacemaker which totaled $31,665.96 here is a link to that story CLICKHERE

We also had a post on triadwatch which talked about on the Guilford County side of government where we had the tax delinquency bill for one ad in the Greensboro News and Record cost $86,740.29 
CLICKHERE  for that post.

We are still in the process of getting more information from the Guilford County attorney's office in regards to the public notices and the invoices . We also have some numbers from the City of High Point that will be shared tomorrow.

Now let's tale a closer look at the Greensboro News and Record and the invoices provided from the Public Affairs office of the City of Greensboro.

Part #1 Greensboro News and Record Invoices $39,935.29
Part #2 Greensboro News and Record Invoices $24,701.37
Part #3 Greensboro News and Record Invoices $20.192.67
Part #4 Greensboro News and Record Invoices $11,459.14

TOTAL=  $96,288.47

When you add up the bills from the Carolina Peacemaker and the Greensboro News and Record since January of 2010 the City of Greensboro has paid out over $127,954.43 in public notices. One thing to note from the invoices that is very interesting is that the Carolina Peacemaker has it's own notary on hand at no charge to the City of Greensboro but when you look at the Greensboro News and Record invoices it has a $15.00 notary charge for every invoice sent to the City of Greensboro .It would be great to get the explanation on how one doesn't charge for a notary but the other does. Plenty of money could be saved if they didn't have to charge the $15.00 or it could be that someone at Carolina Peacemaker see this post and starts charging the city for the public notices.

Why does this matter because we have a full throttle assault from the print media in trying to block a bill from happening in the North Carolina Legislature to let local and county governments post public notices on their own web sites and save taxpayers money all over this state. Locally we have seen the Greensboro News and Record post an editorial on this subject and also have a full page ad in paper in regards to this issue they got the ads from the NC Press Association and here is a link to the site with all the ads they wanted to put in papers all over this state CLICKHERE   . We can also see that the High Point Enterprise has gotten into the game as well in putting a web ad in regards to the opposition of this bill compliments of the NC Press Association CLICKHERE and look in the bottom left hand corner of their main web page where a man has his huge mouth open saying TRUST US!

With all the talk about what we see on the local level in regards to public notices it was interesting to do a little research and see that the Charlotte Observer probably makes quite a bit of money from the taxpayers of Mecklenberg County but it also provides a place online from their main web page titled Legal Notices CLICKHERE  which is a part of legalnotice.org . This is what is needed from our local governments  have a place where everyone can get online and save plenty of taxpayers money all over this state. Some will argue that not everyone has a computer . That statement is correct and we can also say that some people do not have money as well and the public notices are only offered in paid print media , no weekly free papers are allowed to post public notices in their papers.

The time is now for this bill to pass on a state level but if not then we might just see a local bill to save the taxpayers of Guilford County over $100,000 in regards to the tax delinquency notice in the local papers. We will see what happens but if you would like to save yourself some tax money this is a no brainer and it is time to talk to your state representative and if you need to know who they are CLICKHERE

$86,740.29 is the Amount Guilford County Taxpayers Paid For Tax Delinquency in Greensboro News and Record on March 23, 2011

Triadwatch did a public records request with the Guilford County Legal Department in regards to public notices in local pay newspapers. One of the questions asked to the Guilford County legal department was this;

On March 23, 2011 in section C of the Greensboro News and Record there was a tax delinquent part of the paper that consisted of over 20 pages of tax liens from the Guilford County Tax Department . I would like to know specifically how much this 20 page part of the paper cost the taxpayers of Guilford County

Robin Keller Paralegal with Guilford County got in touch with the finance department  and this is what she e-mailed me back with;

"Regarding your question concerning the cost to run the delinquent tax listing on March 23, 2011, in the Greensboro News and Record, the amount was $86,740.29. I was also informed by our finance department that some or all of this cost is reimbursed when paid through an advertising fee that is added to the delinquent bills."

The finance department says that some or all of this cost is reimbursed but to me this is a wasteful use of taxpayers money. Does anyone really care about the tax delinquency in Guilford County? Should the county have a up to date database online for all to see on a daily basis for tax delinquency? I also found out that not only was this $86,000 invoice in the Greensboro News and Record but it was also in the High Point Enterprise as well and will update as to that amount as well and if the 2 papers are similar in costs  than this bill could be doubled to $172,000.

Public notices in local papers consists of a variety of issues from  foreclosure notice, general legal notice, notice of creditors, notice of hearing, notice of meeting, notice of sale, and request for bids. The public notices request was also sent to the City of Greensboro which has provided me with a lot of information in regards to the Carolina Peacemaker and the Greensboro News and Record. In future post this week i will show you just how much  money it is costing the taxpayers of this county and the city of Greensboro to advertise in the local papers of choice which is Carolina Peacemaker and Greensboro News and Record.

One of the main reasons to bring up this issue of public notices and the wasteful spending of taxpayers money  on a weekly basis is because there are some bills in the North Carolina Legislature who want to keep up with the technology age and do away with this expense. One of the bills wants  public notices shown electronically online this bill is called CITY/COUNTY ELECTRONIC NOTICE #472 CLICKHERE and there is also the same bill on the Senate side of the North Carolina Legislature Senate Bill #773 CLICKHERE

We have seen all over this state the local newspapers write editorials to keep this taxpayer funded money pit flowing to the local newspapers. We also had the Greensboro News and Record with help from the N.C. Press Association display a full and half page ad titled "Would you let a fox guard your hen house" CLICKHERE and it is the middle ads opposing house bill #472.

We also see a few more bills that are being considered at the state level for example

House Bill #307 Local Electronic Notice ,
 An act to allow the county of Wake and the towns of Cary, Clayton, Wendell, and Zebulon to use electronic means to provide public notice in lieu of publication.

House Bill #361 Currituck Electronic Notice,
An act to allow Currituck County to provide electronic notice of public hearings

The reason for this post was because as we see from the Greensboro News and Record Editorial titled "Help Public See Notices" CLICKHERE . They never once said how much this information is costing the taxpayers of Guilford County . After that editorial it was apparent that a public records request was in order and in the coming week we will post the pdf files on the invoices for the past year and a half in regards to the Carolina Peacemaker and the Greensboro News and Record .

As we see with the tax delinquency bill of $86,720.49 this is just one of many public notices that are costing us plenty over a years time and this could be handled in a manner on city and county web sites all over this state with parameters in place that will make the hen house more transparent and not costing us money to put in local newspapers .

Below is Part #1 of 6 documents that will be discussed this week in triadwatch in regards to this issue because it is time the local newspapers get off the government trough .

Public Notices 1 Carolina Peacemaker

GUEST COLUMN: Redistricting – Let’s follow North Carolina Constitution in setting state Senate districts

Thanks High Point Enterprise for letting me be a part of your paper today
.
 GUEST COLUMN: Redistricting – Let’s follow North Carolina Constitution in setting state Senate districts:

CLICKHERE

"By Keith Brown I am writing as a resident of Guilford County who would like to see a change in the makeup of our state senators who represent Guilford County in the N.C. Senate. Right now, our ..."