Chicago is the World

Legal Notices and Revenue You Need

But Also a Service Needed For Your  Community

Because of a change in the state law, you need to begin uploading your legal notices to a state-wide website.

If you don’t take part in this website after December 2012, you are barred by state law from receiving these notices, and that can mean a lot of money lost.

So, I am going to walk you through the process of signing up. After I explain how the new system works, I talk about how you get legal notices.

If you don’t carry legal notices now, you need to seriously think about how you can get them. They are a source of revenue that keep some publications alive. But they are also important for your community. They may be the only place people will see information from public officials.

To qualify for this online link, you need to meet three qualifications:

• You need to be a print publication

•  You need to publish weekly or 50 weeks of the year

• At least 25 percent of your publication must be news content and that can include sports scores or lists of events.

Getting Started

You need to be able to upload your legal notices. Next you need to contact the Illinois Press Association and get the forms from them on how to link to their website. Call the organization at 217 241 1300 and ask for Lynne Lance or e-mail her, llance@illinoispress.org. She will help you sign up and get a password for the system.

The website is http://PublicNoticeIllinos.com

Take a look at it.

What does it cost?

You will pay per item and that should keep your costs down. The Illinois Press Association is asking you to be a member to qualify for a discount in the cost of using the website they have created. That may change. I’ve asked them to give a reduced membership fee for the ethnic news media and they have said they will bring this issue up with their leadership of the organization.

There are very few ethnic news media outlets that belong today to the Illinois Press Association and this is something that needs to change for the benefit of the ethnic news media and the Illinois Press Association.

What Are Legal Ads or Legal Notices?

These are the notices that counties, cities, and public agencies place in newspapers to reach their communities. It may be the court of the clerk’s office or the elections board or the local county board. If you do not receive legal ads, you need to contact your local community, county, and county-wide agencies to find out how they place their legal ads.

There are no state laws that bar legal ads in publications that are not published in English, but in some cases there may be exceptions. So look into this. This is an important point. In some cases, reaching a community that doesn’t speak English well is important for a local agency and so some agencies are looking for publications that can do this for them.

Your legal ad should cost no more than any other ad you run in your publication.  In some cases, public organizations seek competitive bids for their legal ads. If they do, you need to find out from the organization what have been the successful bids in the past and what, if possible, are the current bids. Don’t price yourself out of the market.

In some cases, counties contract out their legal ads to agencies that then sign up newspapers for the county’s legal ads. If you publish in Chicago or Cook County, you need to approach the two agencies that receive the contracts and ask to be one of those recipients.

Here are their contacts:

Cook County Suburban Publishers, 815 W Van Buren St Ste 550, Chicago, IL 60607 312-850-9327

Accredited Chicago Newspapers, same number and address.

If you have any problems or great progress or just want to share your experience with legal ads, talk to me.

Steve@chicagoistheworld.org, office 312 369 7782