Opinion: Dear city council, long live print!

By Michael Glenn

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This past Tuesday evening, I spoke at the Hutchinson City Council meeting to discuss the importance and reasons for printing legal notices in an official newspaper. 

Before I took the stand, I wanted to research the importance of why every city should print notices in actual newspapers. I found a really good summary in the Harvey County Now, a locally-owned newspaper that’s killing it in Newton.

“The State of Kansas requires all cities to print legal notifications because they’re important. Legislators believe a local government should have to inform its residents when it wants to raise taxes, take property, change laws, rezone property, issue revenue bonds and take many other actions.”

For reference, the council considered a resolution designating the official city newspaper as the City of Hutchinson’s website, a change from The Hutchinson News, the current official newspaper. The council tabled the resolution in the end.

Hutchinson can’t and shouldn’t be any different from the vast, decisive majority of cities in Kansas.

Currently, our official newspaper is The Hutchinson News, as it is the only legally viable option in our town. I understand that The News has declined in quality, quantity and circulation over the past 10 years, but that doesn’t give the council the right to use its own website to give legal notices. 

State-ran media is rarely a good idea when it comes to legal notices. While the City may have fair intentions in wanting to spread the word about notices in a digital age, many residents who still take the paper probably don’t have the strongest internet skills or use the internet at all. 

Furthermore, I believe it would be fair to say any local media outlet, whether it be print-focused or all digital like The Tribune, receives more clicks from engaged citizens than the city’s website. 

“Councilmembers, ask yourselves: if you wanted to prevent a city action, would it be easier for citizens to organize if it was in the newspaper or hidden on the city website? How would you even know about it?”

That’s a quote from my speech to the council last Tuesday, and I hope you will also analyze it as well. We all want more civically engaged citizens, and the way to do that is to keep printing. 

According to the Kansas Press Association’s website, The Hutchinson News still circulates 5,582 papers a day. Which, if we assume these papers are staying in the local area, is over 10% of our population. 

I would encourage you to contact your council members and encourage them to keep printing. While it may be tempting to move notices to websites, the best, most effective way to keep citizens informed and engaged is to keep printing.