Massachusetts Towns Consider Print-Free Digital Legal Notices

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering two local bills that would change how the towns of Wellesley and Shrewsbury can publish legal notices, including by expanding the use of digital publication.

The proposals are limited to two municipalities, but they reflect a broader question facing publishers across the country: as public-notice requirements evolve, how can newspapers adapt to meet new digital expectations while remaining central to the process?

What the Massachusetts Bills Would Do

House Bill 4138, filed on May 7, 2025, would allow the Town of Wellesley to satisfy certain legal-notice requirements entirely through digital publication. The bill was proposed in response to what its text describes as a lack of an adequate available print newspaper in Wellesley.

The bill would permit notices to appear through one or more of several channels, including:

• a print newspaper;

• a newspaper website;

• a qualifying local-news website;

• a statewide legal-notice repository; or

• a townwide repository.

It would not change the deadlines or timing requirements attached to those notices. As of August 4, 2026, H.4138 had received a favorable committee report and was referred to the House Committee on Bills in the Third Reading.

House Bill 5512 would establish a similar print-free digital legal-notice option for the Town of Shrewsbury. The bill was referred to the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government on June 17, 2026, and a committee hearing was scheduled for July 22.

What These Bills Signal

Under current Massachusetts law, when a legal notice must be published in a newspaper, the newspaper generally must ensure that it appears in three places: its print edition, its website, and a statewide legal-notice repository. The state has therefore already built digital access into the newspaper model.

The Wellesley and Shrewsbury proposals signal a further shift: some municipalities are asking for the ability to satisfy legal-notice requirements without print at all.

These are local bills, not a statewide change. But they are part of a broader pattern. Massachusetts has already enacted similar print-free digital legal-notice laws for Lincoln, Lexington, and Arlington.

For newspapers, that does not have to mean being pushed out of the process. It does mean publishers need to make a stronger case for why they should remain central to it.

The hopeful path is to show that newspapers can provide both independence and the digital experience municipalities increasingly want: notices that are easy to submit, easy to search, available online, consistently archived, and distributed beyond a government’s own website.

Arizona offers a useful example. Rather than treating modernization and newspaper participation as competing goals, its new framework preserved newspapers as part of a more digital public-notice system. Massachusetts publishers have an opportunity to make a similar case: if the concern is digital access, newspapers can adapt to provide it.

The question for publishers is increasingly not whether public notice will become more digital, but whether newspapers can demonstrate that they are the best partners to deliver that modernization while preserving an independent, trusted public record.

Modern Digital Access Through Newspapers

Column helps publishers provide that access through digital search sites included as part of its public-notice service.

A digital search site gives a newspaper a branded, searchable webpage where its public notices can be automatically organized and made available to the community. Eligible notices can also be routed to statewide repositories through the same workflow, reducing duplicate uploads for newspaper staff.

That gives publishers a practical response to the concerns driving legislation like H.4138 and H.5512: residents can access notices online, governments can meet evolving digital expectations, and newspapers can remain at the center of the public record.

These Massachusetts bills are still moving through the legislative process. Their final form may change. But they offer an important signal for publishers everywhere: the conversation is shifting from whether public notices should be available digitally to who will maintain them, how residents will find them, and whether an independent source will remain involved.

Is your state considering changes to its public-notice laws or digital-access requirements?

Column works with newspapers and press associations to understand proposed changes, organize supporting data, and implement modern infrastructure that keeps trusted publishers at the center of public notice.

Set up a conversation with our team to discuss how Column can support your association or publication.