e-Tearsheets: A useful idea whose time has come

*
Governing bodies in New Jersey are required by state law to give timely notice to the public in advance of public meetings where business will discussed or transacted.

Those notices do not always need to appear in print, though they must be given to the official newspapers by the required amount of time in advance.

There are times, however, where advertisements must be published in advance of an action to be taken: ordinances, budgets, bids, and bond ordinances are some examples.

If you've ever watched closely at Council meetings, you will see that the Clerk reads to the Council an affidavit of publication as proof that the meeting about to be conducted has been properly noticed and meets the requirement of the Open Public Meetings Act, commonly called the "Sunshine Law."

Getting, organizing and keeping those proofs of publication is some of the drudge work that is required in the Clerk's office.

Some newspapers are beginning to make it easier for Clerks and governing bodies by adopting electronic tearsheets to provide online proof of publication.

Their motives are anything but altruistic. Newspapers spend a considerable amount of time and money printing out hard copies of ads, known as 'tearsheets,' and mailing them -- or faxing if time is of the essence -- to customers as proof of publication.

With falling circulations for their dead-tree editions and rising costs for everything, especially paper and labor, newspapers are gradually moving to implement 'paperless' back office solutions.

Electronic input of ads and provision of proof of publication can be linked with electronic billing and payments to automate most, if not all, of the advertising-publication-payment process.

Why is this a good thing for municipal clerks and governing bodies?

Using the system to submit legal notices electronically, clerks get immediate feedback that the ad has been received for publication.

Once published, the customer -- in this case the clerk's office -- gets an email notification that the ad has been published.

At this point, the office can log on to the newspaper's ad server and retrieve a copy of the ad, exactly as run in the paper, including date of publication.

A final advantage is that the newspapers keep a permanent online archive of the ads, available to the customer simply by logging on and searching.

The newspapers save a lot of time and money. Clerk's offices save a lot of time, money -- and hassles.

What's not to like?

-- Dan Damon

(Click on image to enlarge.)

More information: The Bergen Record uses this method. You can learn more about it from reading their instruction manual, which is here. And there are two news stories from The International Journal of Newspaper Technology here and here.
*