To repeal section 493.050, RSMo 1994, relating to the publication of legal notices, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the same subject.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI, AS FOLLOWS:

Section A. Section 493.050, RSMo 1994, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 493.050, to read as follows:

493.050. 1. Except as provided in subsection 2 of this section, all public advertisements and orders of publication required by law to be made and all legal publications affecting the title to real estate, shall be published in some daily, triweekly, semiweekly or weekly newspaper of general circulation in the county where located and which shall have been admitted to the post office as second class matter in the city of publication; shall have been published regularly and consecutively for a period of three years; shall have a list of bona fide subscribers voluntarily engaged as such, who have paid or agreed to pay a stated price for a subscription for a definite period of time; provided, that when a public notice, required by law, to be published once a week for a given number of weeks, shall be published in a daily, triweekly, semiweekly or weekly newspaper, the notice shall appear once a week, on the same day of each week, and further provided, that every affidavit to proof of publication shall state that the newspaper in which such notice was published has complied with the provisions of this [section] subsection; provided further, that the duration of consecutive publication [herein] provided for in this subsection shall not affect newspapers which have become legal publications prior to the effective date of this section; provided, however, that when any newspaper shall be forced to suspend publication in any time of war, due to the owner or publisher being inducted into the armed forces of the United States, the [same] newspaper may be reinstated within one year after actual hostilities [shall] have ceased, with all the benefits [under] provided pursuant to the provisions of this [section] subsection, upon the filing with the secretary of state of notice of intention of [said] such owner or publisher, [his widow] the owner's surviving spouse or legal heirs, to republish [said] such newspaper, setting forth the name of the publication, its volume and number, its frequency of publication, and its readmission to the post office where it was previously entered as second class mail matter, and when it shall have a list of bona fide subscribers voluntarily engaged as such who have paid or agreed to pay a stated price for subscription for a definite period of time. [All laws or parts of laws in conflict with this section except sections 493.070 to 493.120, are hereby repealed.]

2. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 1 of this section to the contrary, in any county of the first classification not having a charter form of government which does not have a newspaper with a daily circulation located in such county, all public advertisements and orders of publication required by law to be made and all legal publications affecting the title to real estate in such county, shall be published in some daily, triweekly, semiweekly or weekly newspaper of general circulation in such county; shall have been published regularly and consecutively for a period of one year; provided, that when a public notice, required by law, to be published once a week for a given number of weeks, shall be published in a daily, triweekly, semiweekly or weekly newspaper, the notice shall appear once a week, on the same day of each week, and further provided, that every affidavit for proof of publication shall state that the newspaper in which such notice was published has complied with the provisions of this subsection.