Earlier this year, the Minnesota Legislature updated the statute pertaining to the publication of legal notices in so-called “qualified newspapers,” reflecting the broad national trend of newspapers moving away from physical copies and emphasizing digital editions.
Effective August 1, 2022, qualified newspapers are now required to publish public legal notices in print and in the newspapers’ electronic editions. In particular, a provision was added to define the term “publish” (as used in the rest of the statute) as “dissemination in the print edition of a qualified newspaper, and in the e-edition of the qualified newspaper if applicable.” The term “e-edition” was also defined as “a digital facsimile of a newspaper’s print edition that is substantially the same in both format and content as the print edition.”
The Legislature also updated the law to require qualified newspapers to also post all legal notices on the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s statewide public notice website. The qualified newspaper’s website must also include a link to its online public notices section, the contents of which must be accessible at no cost to the public.
In a related move, the Legislature also modernized the procedures for counties’ sales of real estate to require them to advertise for bids or proposals in the counties’ official newspapers and on the counties’ websites.
Parties required to publish legal notices will want to begin confirming that the newspapers they are using are qualified and compliant with the new law.