Pre-filed December 12, 1995, and 1,000 copies ordered printed.

Read 2nd time January 4, 1996, and referred to the Committee on Financial and Governmental Operations.

Reported from the Committee February 15, 1996, with recommendation that the bill do pass.

Taken up for Perfection March 25, 1996. Bill declared Perfected and Ordered printed, as amended.

TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.

S2442.01P

To repeal sections 493.027, 493.030 and 493.050, RSMo 1994, relating to legal publications in first class counties, and to enact in lieu thereof three new sections relating to the same subject.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows:

Section A. Sections 493.027, 493.030 and 493.050, RSMo 1994, are repealed and three new sections enacted in lieu thereof to be known as sections 493.027, 493.030 and 493.050, to read as follows:

493.027. [1. In any first class county with a charter form of government, the maximum allowable rate shall not exceed ten cents per word for each insertion for all type matter which is set solid in any one size of type as regular reading matter, or two dollars and fifty cents per square inch when such matter requires more than one size of type, the use of emblems, borders, tabulation or other special treatment.

2.] In any first class county with a charter form of government, a board consisting of the judges of the circuit court of such county, or a majority of them, if they deem it in the public interest, may qualify any newspaper of general circulation, and as further qualified in section 493.050, for the publication of public notices and advertisements at rates higher than the [maximum rates herein established] regular local classified advertising rate allowed in section 493.025.

493.030. 1. In any city not within a county, when any law, proclamation, advertisement, nominations to office, proposed constitutional amendments or other questions to be submitted to the people, order or notice shall be published in any newspaper for the state, or for any public officer on account of or in the name of the state, or for any county or for any public officer on account of, or in the name of any county, there shall not be charged by or allowed to any such newspaper for such publications a higher rate than [three cents per word for each insertion for all type matter which is set solid in any one size of type. When any law, proclamation, advertisement, nominations to office, proposed constitutional amendments or other questions to be submitted to the people, order or notice, require, either wholly or partially more than one size of type, or the use of any emblem, or the spacing of lines so as to have a blank space between the lines, or tabular matter, the rate shall be computed by the square inch of space used, which rate shall not exceed the rate of seventy-five cents per square inch or major fraction thereof for each insertion. As used herein the term word means any letter, figure or group of letters or figures as set apart by a space] the regular local classified advertising rate allowed in section 493.025.

2. In all counties of the first class the maximum rate established herein shall not exceed [five cents per word or one dollar and twenty-five cents per square inch] the regular local classified advertising rate allowed in section 493.025.

[3. All laws or parts of laws in conflict herewith, except sections 493.070 to 493.090, are hereby repealed.]

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 with a population in excess of one hundred seventy thousand and less than two hundred thousand which does not have a daily newspaper published within such county with a bona fide list of subscribers, located in such county, comprising at least two percent of the population, 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. The newspaper shall have been published regularly and consecutively for a period of two years; shall have a known office of publication in such county, open to the public, where the business or publication of the newspaper is transacted during the usual business hours; shall bear a fixed title or name, date lines and numbered volume sequence; shall be published and printed in an accepted newspaper format, generally in sheet form, standard size or tabloid size; and shall contain an average of twenty-five percent news and editorial content in its issues during any twelve month period. The term news and editorial content for the purpose of this section means any news, pictures, features, editorials and other matters of general interest, but shall not include advertisements, classified or display. Percentages shall be determined on the basis of the number of columns and inches published in each edition. 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.