Newspaper Notice as a Government Transparency Mechanism: Evidence From Florida

Abstract

This paper studies the role of newspaper notices-legally required announcements published in print and online news outlets to inform citizens about local government activities-in facilitating citizen engagement. We examine Florida's House Bill 7049, the first statewide law to revoke the requirement that public notices appear in newspapers and to allow local governments to publish notices on county-operated websites instead. Exploiting cross-county variation in the availability of these websites, we find that local governments with access to a county public notice website significantly reduce their newspaper notices after the reform, particularly for notices that typically prompt citizen involvement, such as public hearings and planning and zoning proposals. By contrast, we observe no discernible increase in traffic of county public notice websites, suggesting limited citizen substitution to the new dissemination channel. Consistent with reduced citizen awareness, public meetings in affected cities experience a decline in participation. We also find an increase in the number of commercial zoning permits, consistent with reduced activism against new construction. Taken together, our findings suggest that removing newspaper publication requirements reduces the visibility of public notices and, in turn, weakens citizen engagement in local governance.