The New Jersey State Legislature has finally brought its legal advertisement requirement into the 21^st century. Under New Jersey's old regulatory scheme, the governing body in every municipality was required to designate one or more official newspapers for the publication of legal notices.   These included notices for meetings held in accordance with  the Open Public Meetings Act.  Under the Act, a public body could not hold a meeting unless adequate notice to the public was given.  The notice of the meeting was to be published in municipality's official newspapers.   

Since print newspapers are now all but extinct in New Jersey, this notice requirement was causing a lot problems, because local governments could not comply with the advertising requirements because there were so few newspapers and those that still operated had limited staff which made it more difficult to publish notices in a timely manner. These factors led to the new legislation that imposes a new requirement for publications effective March 1, 2026.

As of March 1, any governing body that is required to give notice must have the notice published via a conspicuous direct link on the municipality's official website, that is accessible free of charge. The notice must be displayed on the webpage for at least one week unless a longer term is required.  The governing body is also responsible for maintaining an archive of legal notices which are no longer displayed on their website but are accessible to the public for one year. The archive requirement takes effect on July 1, 2026. The Secretary of State will also be establishing a new webpage which will include links to legal notices for every public entity in the state, creating greater access to notices than ever.  

This new notice requirement is more consistent with how people today search for news and information and should lead to more people being made more aware of the important information available in all legal notices.