Maine newspapers are fighting back against a movement to curb spending on public posting of state information. Their ammo: A study commissioned by the state’s newspapers that found that the publications are as economically powerful as Maine’s potato industry and half as potent as the famous lobster business.



A Maine legislator is proposing three amendments that would alter the requirement that the state’s rule-making changes be posted publicly. This would mean a cut in revenue for newspapers, which often run those postings in their classified ad sections. In response, the newspaper industry has trotted out a report that emphasizes the economic impact of the state’s some 50 papers.



“In terms of employment, Maine’s newspaper industry is approximately the same size as the state’s semiconductor industry and somewhat larger than its furniture manufacturing industry,” reads the report, which concludes that directly and indirectly the state’s newspapers have over $300 million of economic impact throughout the state.



The report is a rebuttal to the proposals of Rep. Terry Hayes, who told the Portland Press Herald (where this writer once worked years ago, though under a different ownership and management team) that one of her amendments would save the state $250,000 a year. She wants to create an online database for postings that currently run in newspapers, though a 2010 study found that over 17 percent of Maine’s households lack Internet access.



Whether anyone reads those tiny print public postings in the back of papers is somewhat irrelevant to Mike Down, editor of the Bangor Daily News.



"To simply put up a government website and say this is adequate notice ... is really a reduction in transparency we don't feel is acceptable,” Down told the Press Herald.



The report, commissioned by the Maine Press Association, doesn’t directly confront the economic impact that fewer public notices would have on the state’s papers, preferring to emphasize the “often-neglected characteristic of Maine’s newspaper business — its economic magnitude and widespread impact.”



Even as newspapers attempt to monetize their Web publications, they still get much of their revenue from print advertisements, which include these public notices. State-required legal notices are the bread and butter of many business newspapers in particular. So although the battle in Maine is about whether the state should save $250,000, the real issue is whether newspapers still offer the utility and reach to the public that they once did.

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