Request By:
Honorable J. Baxter Schilling
Attorney at Law
1217 Citizens Plaza
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of August 28, in which you request an opinion relative to the publication requirements under KRS Chapter 424 of cities presumably located in Jefferson County. You present the following facts and question:
"This law firm represents the publisher of a daily newspaper with the largest circulation in the county in which it is published as defined in KRS 424.120. This county contains many smaller jurisdictions [cities] which are required to place legal notices pursuant to KRS Chapter 424, and which constitute separate 'publication area' as defined in KRS 424.110(1), which are smaller than the county in which they are located.
In the majority of cases, there is no newspaper published in the publication area as the term 'published' is defined in KRS 424.120(1)(a). In such case, KRS 424.120(2) provides that
'If, in the case of a publication area smaller than the county in which it is located, there is no newspaper published in the area, the publication shall be made in a newspaper published in the county that is qualified under this section to publish advertisements for the county.'
"In addition to its regular daily edition which is published throughout its circulation area, the newspaper which we represent also publishes zoned editions once each week during the year. A zoned edition is distributed solely within a specific geographic area of the county and contains local reporting and advertising of interest to subscribers in that particular geographic area. The county is divided into five such geographic zones, and each zoned edition is distributed to all regular subscribers within that respective zone. Advertisers may advertise in a single zone or in a combination of zoned editions depending upon the market and population they want to reach. Advertising rates are naturally lower the fewer zones an advertiser uses.
Several of the smaller jurisdictions or publication areas which are required to use legal advertising have inquired whether they could advertise in the single zoned edition which encompasses their respective publication area, so long as the zoned edition which is used is delivered to every subscriber within their publication area. These smaller jurisdictions would experience a substantial decrease in expenditures for legal ads if they could use the zoned edition.
We therefore request an opinion of the Attorney General on the following question:
Whether a publication area [as defined in KRS 424.110(1)] which is smaller than the county in which it is located and in which no newspaper is published, may meet the requirements of KRS Chapter 424 by publishing required legal notices in a zoned edition of the newspaper which has the largest bonafide circulation in the county in which the publication area is located, provided that the zoned edition is delivered to every subscriber of said newspaper who resides within the publication area even though it is not delivered to every subscriber of said newspaper who resides within the county as a whole."
KRS 424.130(2) that is applicable in this instance requires the qualifying newspaper to be published in the county and have at the same time the largest bona fide circulation throughout the county. The facts indicate that the newspaper you represent (presumably the Courier-Journal) qualifies, with its regular daily edition, under the referred to statute. On the other hand, the zone editions to which you refer appear to be five separate weekly publications, one for each zone, to be distributed solely within their respective zones. Each edition contains limited news and advertising coverage keyed to its particular zone.
Since the special zone editions are actually publications completely separate and apart from the regular daily edition of the same newspaper, we believe they must qualify on their own as separate and distinct publications as opposed to the regular daily edition that has the largest bona fide circulation throughout the county. Assuming this to be the case, it appears obvious that these special zone editions could not qualify under KRS 424.120(2), either individually or collectively, as opposed to the daily publication of the parent newspaper. Therefore, we believe the advertising required of any one of the smaller cities not having a qualifying newspaper within its corporate limits, must be published in the regular daily edition of the parent newspaper qualifying under said statute. However, since we find no cases in point, the question you have presented is, of course, one for the courts to ultimately decide.