Ailing Wyoming Newspaper Dealt Another Finical Blow By Court

District Court Judge Dan Forgey dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Casper Star-Tribune and the Wyoming Press Association over the decision by the town of Bar Nunn and the City Of Mills to save money by not printing legal notices in the local newspaper.

Bar Nunn and Mills both passed ordinances exempting themselves from state statutes “requiring municipal corporations to provide notice of actions, hearings, and information by way of legal notices or publications in newspapers.”

This is a major finical blow to the already struggling Casper Star Tribune. 

As long as any of us can remember legal notices, or important city and county business, had to be printed in your local paper, by law.

It made sense at the time. The local newspaper was the only way to get those notices.

Newspapers enjoyed having the law because local governments had to pay to have those notices printed.

Enter the age of the internet and now all it takes is for a city clerk to drag and drop the latest notices onto the city website. The notices are up instantly and at no cost to the taxpayers.

Newspapers HATE this idea. They are struggling to survive as it is in the age of the internet. Not having legal notices is yet another devastating punch.

Currently, The Casper Star-Tribune is no longer printing a Monday paper. Their Sunday paper is shrunk in length, width, and thickness by a large percentage. They are moving out of their once impressively large building and into a rather small office space, by comparison, in downtown Casper. They don't even print their own newspaper anymore, they pay the Wyoming Tribune Eagle to do it.

After the judges ruling Casper City Council member Kyle Gamroth suggested that the city of Casper look into the same cost-saving measures. - OUCH!