Q&A: Column width of public notices

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From Kankakee Valley Publishing:

Q: We are considering a change to our public notice advertisements page from a six-column design to nine columns.

I would appreciate your opinion on this concerning effects on billing, rates, charges, legality, etc.

A: You’re free to publish public notices without any restrictions in column width. You must use at least seven-point typeface and not greater point size than what you use for your general news content.

Changing the number of columns will impact your line rate because the state-prescribed formula uses column width as one of the variables in the formula.

Theoretically, it shouldn’t change your revenue because the formula was created to make the cost the same regardless of column width or point size.

Going from a six-column page format to nine columns will mean your line rate is smaller, but it should be offset by the fact you’ll need more lines to run the public notice advertisement. So it should be a wash.

Contact Steve Key, HSPA executive director and general counsel, with media law questions at skey@hspa.com or (317) 624-4427.