Oahu Publications, publisher of the Star-Advertiser, has submitted another contract proposal seeking higher rates for legal advertising placed by state agencies for publication on Oahu, Molokai, and Lanai.
But the new rates are less than in a previous proposal, which was rejected.
Under the latest proposal, rates for legal ads would go from $9.75 to $21.50 per inch on weekdays, $8.50 to $19.50 on Saturdays, and from $11 to $27 on Sunday, increases of 120%, 129%, and 145% respectively.
The rates for classified ads to be published on Sunday would increase 255% under the proposal, going from $11 per inch to $39 per inch.
Although substantial, these price increases are less than those originally sought by the Oahu Publications, which went as high as $75 per inch for classified ads published on Sunday. That original proposal was rejected by the State Procurement Office as “not acceptable.”
The newly proposed contract would only run from December 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. It is estimated to be worth $175,000.
The latest proposal, as well as Oahu Publication’s original proposal, became public when they were submitted to the State Procurement Office with a request for exemption from competitive bidding.
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As someone who likes “keeping up with current events,” I have admit to SOME sympathy for the plight of the newspaper. It clearly needs some income to keep it afloat.
But I question the utility of requiring legal notices appear in a “paper of general circulation” as a means of providing notice. Who is the intended audience of such notice? Is their ANY audience which is better served by having a notice PRINTED in the back pages of the paper than by having the information published online in a readily searchable format?
Online publication is not only much cheaper (a useful consideration), but also MUCH more effective!
I don’t know if online notice satisfies statutory requirements. If not, the law should be changed ASAP.
Maybe its because the print media had more clout with the legislature in ensuring the legal status quo?
A long, long time ago, you could publish your notice in the Chinese newspaper. At least the SA is better than that.
Why is publication in a weekly not sufficient, as claimed in the justificvation for exemption from procurement requirements? If it’s because there is no statewide weekly, then publish it in the various county wide weeklies.
That, in addition to internet publication (as suggested by Kolea) should suffice. An amendment to Section 1-28.5, HRS, is in order.
After all, isn’t price the principal consideration in awarding contracts for expenditure of public (i.e. taxpayer) money?
Because newspapers were the journals of record, and notices printed in them were archived. They didn’t vanish when a new edition came out. That’s a major reason newspapers kept morgues. So there would be a continuity of community information.
So a supplier raises the rates that the taxpayers have to pay with no cost justification and we all just shrug? These notices should be on line. Look at this site: they have started hosting notices with great functionality http://free-public-notice.com . They are independent. The ads remain there forever. They are environmentally friendly (no trees have to die) . The ads can be in way more detail (trnasparency). They are free! Also, you can get e-mailed alerts for notices of interest to you. You don’t have to buy the paper to view them. Why wouldn’t the state just contract with these guys and link to this site? Or at least do it as a trial. Articles about other states wrestling with this issue are here: http://public-notice.org