Ensure your newspaper’s notices are included on mnpublicnotices.com. Sign up today!
MNA strives for 100% member participation
The Minnesota Newspaper Association has launched an online clearinghouse – an aggregate collection – of Minnesota public notices.
All notices posted at the site, mnpublicnotice.com have also been printed in member newspapers. Your newspaper will be contacted soon and asked to participate in this state-wide newspaper effort (you can also sign up today, directions below).
MNA’s public notice website will be the central Internet location for searching, viewing and printing an aggregation of Minnesota public notices. The MNA Board of Directors believes that this new service will make an important statement that newspapers are doing everything possible to serve the public by both printing and publishing online public notices in newspapers widely distributed in the community and also aggregating all public notices in a searchable format on the Internet.
Users can search notices by keyword, date, newspaper, county or city, at no charge. The site also includes a custom “Smart Search” feature, available for a subscription fee that allows users to have selected notices delivered automatically to their inboxes as they are posted.
Public notices inform citizens of the everyday activities of government. From government spending to developing new policies, public notices provide a wealth of information about issues facing communities such as building projects, foreclosures, zoning, liquor licenses, public meetings, school-related issues and much more. Public notices are essential to democracy and an informed citizenry. Without public notices, citizens cannot properly and adequately make informed decisions.
Training and support will be available to all MNA member newspapers, and there is currently no cost to participate. The process of uploading notices to the site is simple, and will become standard operating procedure for you after a few uses. The system requires no special software or technology.
Why is MNA doing this?
State press associations across the country are keenly aware of the need to address the growing pressure by state legislatures and local government groups to post public notices on their own websites rather than publish them in newspapers. There are more than 33 states that have some version of a statewide public notices website. The MNA website will create state-of-the-art online access that complements the effective and permanent system of printed, published and distributed public notices. It will be an additional service to the public, at no expense to taxpayers.
The MNA Board of Directors and its Public Notice Task Force are very excited about this project. It is imperative that newspapers give their full cooperation to this effort to get all public notices published in the State of Minnesota on to this site. We are convinced this will assist newspapers in remaining the most significant source for vital information about government activities.
Sign up today!
You can sign up today to begin posting your newspaper’s public notices. The process of signing up is very simple – please visit the link below, fill out the form and click submit. MNA Program Director Sarah Bauer will contact your chosen site admin for setup and training soon after the completed form is received.
Something to consider: When choosing who your mnpublicnotice.com admin will be, select a person who uploads public notices to your own website, or who collects and prepares public notices in text form before your newspaper is laid out.
To sign up, visit: https://mna.wufoo.com/forms/mnpublinoticecom-signup-form/
Questions? Concerns? Please contact Sarah Bauer (612-278-0250 or sarah@mna.org).