The new publishing plan being implemented by the Chattanooga Times Free Press is having unintentional consequences.
The discussion began at the Collegedale Commission meeting on Monday night after Mayor Katie Lamb mentioned that important upcoming dates for the city of Collegedale had been printed in the local paper on Monday. Vice Mayor Tim Johnson then questioned how some people will know what is happening next year when there will only be a digital version of the newspaper during the week.
He said that he is “concerned about the elderly. A lot of people do not have access to social media or Wi-Fi” so that the new iPad technology being used by the Times Free Press will not be accessible to them. "My dad’s one of them," he said. He said his parents have never had the Internet.
“I have the iPad already, and my husband won’t have anything to do with it. He likes that newspaper in his hands,” said Mayor Lamb. She said, "It is going to be different. People will have access to the news if they want it, but I think their readership will really fall.”
The vice mayor said he knew that the printed Sunday version would be available to his father, but he said the $34 monthly cost is the same with or without receiving the weekday digital version. His solution will be to buy a copy of the printed Sunday newspaper at a retail business. He said he would pay $2 and take it to his parents.
City Attorney Sam Elliott told the commissioners that the digital only newspaper has created a “modern problem” that has been recognized in recent days. He said that the law requires that certain things be published in a newspaper of record. The question is if a digital format fits the publication requirement. Right now, he said, "We don’t think it does." The alternatives that have been discussed are putting the notices in the printed Sunday edition or in the Hamilton County Herald. “It has created a new problem. It has solved one for the paper, but created one for everyone else,” he said.
City Manager Wayon Hines told the commissioners that the Small Cities Coalition is planning to bring the legal notice issue up to the state legislators at the first of the year so they will be aware of the problem.