Expands the definition of newspaper to include a publication in electronic form for the village of Bronxville

The current law

Under the Village Law, there is no provision expressly requiring the designation of an official village newspaper. The Village Law does, however, make several specific references to the publication of certain notices in a village's official newspaper. (see, e.g., Village Law, sections 4-408[3), notice of filing of annual financial statement; Village Law, section 5-508[3], notice of public hearing on the tentative budget), Based upon the numerous references in the Village Law to "official newspapers" and "the fact that the designation of an official newspaper is in the nature of a routine, day-to-day business matter," the New York State Comptroller has opined that a village has the implied authority to designate an official newspaper by board resol- ution. See 1982 Opns St Comp No. 82-173, 1984 Opns St Comp No. 84-58, 1993 Opns St Comp No. 93-29. A newspaper designated an official newspa- per by a village must meet the statutory. requirements of Public Offi- cers Law section 70-a and General Construction Law section 60(a). Taken together, these provisions require, inter alia, that a "newspaper" be printed for weekly distribution and entered as second class mail at the post office. Thus, under current law, a village may not designate a website as an official newspaper for purposes of publication of certain public notices because a website does not fit the statutory definition of a newspaper.

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1 provides that in the Village of Bronxville, County of Westchester, the term "newspaper" shall include a publication in electronic form. Section 2 provides the effective date.

Justification

The Village of Bronxville, Westchester County, does not have a printed newspaper that comprehensively covers the Bronxville community. Over the years, local print newspapers focusing primarily on Bronxville have come and gone along with their transitory designation as the village's "official newspaper" for public notices. MyhometownBronx- ville.com, a website with weekly online delivery, was started because of the lack of adequate print news coverage for the Bronxville community.

MyhometownSronxville.com contains comprehensive news coverage of the Village of Bronxville including politics, schools, sports, crime, healthcare, community service, lifestyles, real estate, and weekly columns from the Mayor of Bronxville and Executive Director of the Bronxville Chamber of Commerce. There is in depth coverage of all Bronx- ville Village Board meetings and all Bronxville School Board meetings. The online newspaper covers all Bronxville Senior Citizens events with a separate page listing of events and organizations for seniors, and

Gramatan Village, an organization focused on helping Bronxville seniors stay in their homes. A Community Calendar that lists all key events throughout the Bronxville area is a regular feature,

To alert readers to the new issue each week, MyhometownBronxville.com sends an email to over 2,800 people every Wednesday at 6:00am. This email includes a list, of articles and a link to the website making the newspaper instantly accessible to many residents in the greater Bronx- ville area. Anyone with a computer and internet access can access Myho- metownBronxville.com 24 hours a day/7 days a week.

According to a February 2009 Study by Neilson, over 80% of households have computers and of those 92% have internet access. The same study reported that "internet access correlated with education and combined annual income with increased access as those factors increased." The Village of Bronxville fits squarely into this category. There are 6,543 people (2,312 households comprised of 1,660 families) residing in the one square mile Village of Bronxville according to Census 2000. In 2000, the median income for a household in the village was $144,940, and the median income for a family was $200,000, making it one of the wealthiest and most affluent places with a population of at least 1000 in the United States. In fact, the Bronxville School exclusively uses email and the internet for parent and student communications.

Online news is without question a central part of society today. According to the two most recent Pew Research Studies on news media consumption "The trend is unmistakable: Fewer Americans are reading print newspapers as more turn to the internet for their news." (2008 Report) and "...the audience migration to the internet is now accelerat- ing. The number of Americans who regularly go online for news, jumped 19% in the last two years, according to one survey.; in 2008 alone traf- fic to the top 50 news sites rose 27%" (2009 Report).

MyhometownBronxville.com has more than 5,000 unique visitors and 50,000 page views each month, and the size of its readership is growing. For example, in January, 2010, it had 6,236 unique visitors (An individual is one unique visitor even if that individual comes to the site 10 times n one month) and 65,964 page views (the number of pages viewed on the site). (Numbers provided by Google Analytics, an independent third party company.)

It is important to note that the number of seniors online has grown rapidly. According to a recent study by Neilson, the number of seniors online has increased by 55% over the past 5 years with 17.5 million online today. Seniors citizens and other individuals in Bronxville who do not have computers at home can easily log on at the Bronxville Public Library, which has computers with internet access for both adults and children and a staff available to help patrons regardless of their skill level. In addition, the Bronxville Adult School, the Bronxville Senior Citizens organization, and the Bronxville public library offer computer classes.

In 2009, MyhometownBronxville.com had over 90 advertisers in three different categories (Banner ads, classifieds and listings) demonstrat- ing that the advertising community has embraced online news in Bronx- ville as a critical way to reach customers.

MyhometownBronxville.com has a standard ad format for legal notice/public notice ads on the site and a standard ad placement. The format provides excellent visibility for these types of ads for several reasons. The legal ads, which are bright red and white, are placed both in a highly visible position on the front page (home page) and also on the Government & History page where all government-related and village news appears, including the Mayors column. An additional benefit of an internet newspaper is that the legal ads can click-through to the Village of Bronxville website, the Bronxville School website, or any other applicable site.

Technology has transformed the way people get information. It is indis- putable that online newspaper readership is growing rapidly while print readership is declining. In the Village of Bronxville, the loss of print newspapers that comprehensively cover the community has resulted in the rise of a popular online newspaper dedicated to Bronxville news. When they want to find out what is going on in the village, Bronxville resi- dents go to MyhometownBronxville.com for their information. The Village of Bronxville should have the option of designating MyhometownBronx- ville.com, an online newspaper, as its official newspaper for purposes of publication of public notices.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

On the sixtieth day after it shall have become law.