Under current law, a newspaper must meet certain qualifications to be eligible
to receive compensation for publishing legal notices. Currently, to receive that
compensation, a newspaper must have been published regularly and continuously
in the city, village, or town where published for at least two of the last five years. In
addition, the newspaper must have a paid circulation that is at least 50 percent of
its circulation and have actual subscribers of not less than 1,000 copies if in a first
or second class city, or 300 copies if in a third or fourth class city or in a village or town.
Under this bill, newspapers that have been in existence for at least two years
and are published and delivered, without requiring a subscription fee, to 80 percent
of the households and businesses in the newspaper's coverage area are also eligible
to receive compensation for publishing legal notices for cities, villages, and towns.
Also, these free newspapers are not required to publish news.
The bill also allows a second, third, or fourth class city, village, town, sewerage
district, school district, drainage district, or county (municipality) to designate a
newspaper as the official newspaper for publishing legal notices even if the

newspaper does not meet the other statutory requirements if the newspaper is
published at least weekly and is determined, after a public hearing, to give better
notice to more people affected by the notice than a newspaper that does meet the
other statutory requirements. The municipality's governing body must consider
certain criteria in designating the official newspaper, such as the newspaper's cost
and frequency of publication.
Finally, this bill allows a municipality to mail a notice to each person affected
by the notice instead of publishing the notice in a newspaper and allows a
municipality of any size, including a first class city, to post the notice on the Internet
instead of publishing, if the municipality enacts an ordinance allowing it to do so.
For further information see the local fiscal estimate, which will be printed as
an appendix to this bill.
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do
enact as follows:
AB35, s. 1 1Section 1. 985.01 (5) of the statutes is amended to read:
AB35,2,72 985.01 (5) A newspaper is "published" at the place from which its mailing
3permit is issued, except that if the place where the newspaper has its major
4concentration of circulation has no primary post office, then at the place it shall
5designate
that the newspaper designates as its place of publication in the affidavit
6certificate required by s. 985.03 (2), but no newspaper shall have more than one place
7of publication during the same period of time.
AB35, s. 2 8Section 2. 985.02 (3) and (4) of the statutes are created to read:
AB35,2,109 985.02 (3) The governing body of a municipality may elect to mail a notice to
10each person affected instead of publishing under this chapter.
AB35,2,13 11(4) A municipality may elect to post a notice on the Internet instead of
12publishing under this chapter, if the municipality adopts an ordinance allowing it to
13do so.
AB35, s. 3 14Section 3. 985.03 (1) (a) of the statutes is repealed and recreated to read:
AB35,3,3
1985.03 (1) (a) Except as provided in sub. (3), no publisher of any newspaper in
2this state shall be awarded or be entitled to any compensation or fee for the
3publishing of any legal notice unless one of the following conditions is met:
AB35,3,84 1. For at least 2 of the 5 years immediately before the date of the notice
5publication, the newspaper has been published regularly and continuously, has had
6a bona fide paid circulation that has constituted 50 percent or more of its circulation,
7and has had actual subscribers at each publication of not less than 1,000 copies in
81st and 2nd class cities, or 300 copies if in 3rd and 4th class cities, villages, or towns.
AB35,3,179 2. For at least 2 continuous years the newspaper has been in existence and has
10been published and delivered, without requiring a subscription fee, to at least 80
11percent of the households and businesses in the newspaper's coverage area, which
12includes the city, village, or town that uses the newspaper to publish a legal notice,
13as demonstrated by an annual, independent audit. Notwithstanding par. (c), a
14newspaper under this subdivision is not required to contain at least 4 pages or 20
15percent of the publication space, whichever is greater, of reports of happenings of
16recent occurrence of a varied character, such as political, social, moral, and religious
17subjects, designed to inform the general reader.
AB35, s. 4 18Section 4. 985.03 (2) of the statutes is renumbered 985.03 (2) (a) and amended
19to read:
AB35,4,220 985.03 (2) (a) Any person charged with the duty of causing legal notices to be
21published, and who causes any legal notice, to be published in any newspaper not
22eligible to so publish under the requirements of sub. (1) or (3), or who fails to cause
23such legal notice to be published in any newspaper eligible under this section, may
24be fined not to exceed $100 for each offense. Each day in which a legal notice should
25have been but was not published as required by law shall constitute a separate

1offense hereunder. This penalty does not apply if the person also publishes the same
2legal notice in a newspaper eligible to publish a legal notice under sub. (1) or (3)
.
AB35,4,5 3(b) A newspaper, in order to be eligible to publish a legal notice under this
4section, shall also file a certificate with the county clerk stating that it qualifies
5under this section and stating its place of publication.
AB35, s. 5 6Section 5. 985.03 (3) of the statutes is created to read:
AB35,4,177 985.03 (3) Notwithstanding sub. (1), a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th class city, or a village,
8town, school district, sewerage district, drainage district, or county may designate
9as an official newspaper for publishing legal notices any newspaper that is published
10at least once a week in the area where the city, village, town, school district, sewerage
11district, drainage district, or county is located if the governing body of that political
12subdivision finds, after a public hearing, that the designated newspaper would
13generally give better notice to more persons affected by the notice than a newspaper
14qualified to publish a legal notice under sub. (1). In designating an official
15newspaper under this subsection, the governing body of the city, village, town, school
16district, sewerage district, drainage district, or county shall consider all of the
17following criteria:
AB35,4,1818 (a) The cost of the newspaper.
AB35,4,1919 (b) The frequency of the newspaper's publication.
AB35,4,2120 (c) The number of residents who receive the newspaper, as determined by an
21independent audit.
AB35,4,2322 (d) The extent to which the newspaper covers news related specifically to the
23city, village, town, school district, sewerage district, drainage district, or county.
AB35, s. 6 24Section 6. 985.07 (5) of the statutes is created to read:
AB35,5,2
1985.07 (5) If a municipality elects to post under s. 985.02 (4), each day of posting
2constitutes an insertion for purposes of this subsection.
AB35, s. 7 3Section 7. 985.14 of the statutes is amended to read:
AB35,5,17 4985.14 Refusal to publish. When there is only one newspaper in a county and
5the publisher thereof refuses to publish a legal notice, such or if there is no
6newspaper in the county that is qualified to publish a legal notice under s. 985.03,
7the
legal notice may be published in a newspaper printed in an adjoining county; and
8proof
. Proof by affidavit of the reason why such publication was made in an adjoining
9county shall accompany the proof of publication, or the order for publication, when
10any is necessary, may be made or amended by the court or judge so as to designate
11a newspaper in an adjoining county, upon affidavit showing the necessity therefor.
12Whenever a legal notice is required by law to be published in a newspaper in any
13county having a village or city situated partly in said that county and partly in an
14adjoining county where and there is no newspaper printed in such that village or city
15within the county first mentioned, but there is a newspaper published in such that
16village or city within such the adjoining county, such the notice may be published in
17such last mentioned that newspaper.
AB35,5,1818 (End)
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