The Star-Advertiser is asking at least three times the current rate to continue publishing legal notices for government agencies on Oahu, Molokai, and Lanai, according to a description of the proposed contract terms submitted to the State Procurement Office.
Under the terms of a contract won last year by the former Star-Bulletin, legal notices and classified ads placed by the state cost $9.75 per column inch, while retail ad space went for $14.57. The Honolulu Advertiser handled the notices for Molokai and Lanai.
The Star-Advertiser agreed to match the rates in place prior to the merger of the Honolulu daily newspapers, but only until the end of October.
The proposed new rates would rise to $30 per column inch for legal ads (a 208% increase), and $60 for either retail or classified ads, increases of 312% and a whopping 515%.
The Department of Accounting and General Services is seeking permission to approve the new rates without seeking new competitive bids, saying that the Star-Advertiser “is the only company to provide daily public notice services on Oahu, Lanai, and Molokai.” The request is still under review by the State Procurement Office.
Although state law allows legal notices to be placed in weekly publications, which would open the field to a number of other potential bidders, DAGS says “previously contracts have proven it to be ineffective and cannot meet the needs to inform the public of government activities.”
DAGS says the new charges are fair “because the rates are lower than what is offered to the public and businesses.”
The new one-year contract is valued at $300,000.
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This is what happens with a monopoly.
Why am I not surprised.
This is just the beginning.
How are those delayed severance payments coming along?
I wonder why we still use newspapers for legal notices anyways
do people still pick up the paper?
Having posted a rental with the SA and on Craigslist, I can say that the money spent on the classified was a waste. Only 1 call cost over a hundred bucks.
As for legal notices, weekly and online would be just fine.
Welcome to the new reality.
… And we’re off!
As predicted.
Surely the government can come up with an internet based alternative. The conveyance of information via paper means is dying.
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
Unintended consequences of how the conservative ideal of letting businesses merge without regulatory oversight end up wasting more taxpayer dollars.
Meantime, Black has still not paid severances to the people who paid with their livelihoods for the privilege of him having a monopoly.
Maybe they want the rate increase so they can pay Advertiser employees their severance owed them for over 4 months!
CRACK ME UP!! hahah….you hate this you hate that….this site does nothing but bitch moan and complain. Seriously, let me count the ways. Mufi, Black, Republicans, The SA, just pile on….Nancy/Badvertiser should be grateful for the years she had. No sense in getting an ulcer with all the negative Karma being spewed. BTW, those big rate increases are not even close to half what the legal rates were 10 years ago when I worked there. Smile and wave…
Tee Pahty mentality, Crack…Up.
Personally don’t find this site at all as you paint it.
Info from Lind and reader/posters lend a good perspective to local issues.
I’m not Badvertiser.
I’m not Nancy. But I appreciate the comparison. She did incredible things to make the Star-Bulletin be taken seriously in the community.
Wow, thank you! I wish I knew who you were.
Nancy doesn’t know me but she helped on a letter to the editor issue some years ago and I remember how helpful and friendly she was, not like the current people who think they’re too muckety-muck to help readers. She had real aloha. I’ve heard from others that she would go out of her way to deliver newspapers to subscribers who didn’t get theirs and she often had to talk the editor into covering breaking news like the invasion of Iraq. The Star opinion section has been both arrogant and dumb since it was changed. Too bad.
If they get too greedy, the Legisdlature will just change the law regarding notices and provide that on-line notice, posting at public buildings, etc. is legally sufficient.
Another goose that laid the golden egg? Killed.
Craigslist is fine if you’re selling a scooter. Government legal notices need to be available to the average person in print form for years.
I think you are mixing criteria. Legal notices “need to be available to the average person” (OK) “in print form (er, why?).
Let’s start with the rationale for publishing legal notices in the first place. Who is the intended beneficiary of the notice? “The average person” does not read the CURRENT form of published notice. I sometimes glance at them, if only to allow myself the discomfort of noticing how many foreclosures our “leaders” are inflicting upon us.
But, SERIOUSLY, by what standard can the current publication regime be considered giving ADEQUATE notice to “the average person”?
There may be certain businesses who track such notices–can someone inform me here? But if we are worried about the interests of those businesses, how would their needs not be served BETTER with a searchable, digital, online format?
Agree. Posted online on govt website, one free printed out copy available per day to any member of the public at public libraries and city halls.
Boom, pau, save money, go home.
Some very interesting issues raised. In the Internet age, with widespread government web sites, is it really necessary to spend public money to place public notices in a newspaper, especially a crappy one with a monopoly? Maybe it really is time for the Legislature to take a look at this.
This is a recurring theme. Newspaper publishers have their heads in the sand believing that newspapers that you have to pay for have greater penetration than the free internet. Technology is continously changing our world every day, like it or not and in some ways technology can allow public agencies to save money. A similar situation is going on in NY where companies that form LLCs must pay like $1,000 to publish the formation notice in newspapers that have been granted a monopoly for these notices. Many of the LLCs are small business owners who need to save every dollar. There is a site called http://legal-notice.org that is doing something interesting. They are publishing all LLC notices for free online. While the current law still requires publication in newspapers, it’s great to see how easy the “new world” will be as soon as the law catches up with technology. They also are tallying how much they could be saving small businesses (over $3.2 million so far). Pretty persuasive! Why not replace expensive newspaper requirements with “designated” publication sites like this one approved by the government? We still retain the independence and lower costs.