Newspapers; legal notice and publications, requirements.

Alters the requirements for newspapers that may be used for legal notices and publications by (i) changing the publication and circulation requirement from 24 consecutive weeks to at least 50 of the preceding 52 weeks and requiring such publication be in printed form; (ii) requiring that such a newspaper provide general news coverage of the area in which the notice is to be published; and (iii) requiring that such a newspaper have a periodicals mailing permit issued by the United States Postal Service. The bill further provides that a newspaper that lacks a periodicals permit issued by the United States Postal Service may petition the circuit court for the jurisdiction in which such notices or publications are to be published, as opposed to where such newspaper is located as current law requires, for the authority to be certified as a newspaper of general circulation. The bill further allows a locality that determines that no newspaper published in such locality otherwise meets the requirements that enable it to be a newspaper for the use of such notices and publications to petition the circuit court in the jurisdiction in which such notices and publications are to be published for the authority to be published in another medium. The bill specifies that such petition shall not be filed without majority approval of the locality's local governing body. The bill requires that any newspaper authorized to publish such notices and publications shall also (a) print such notices and publications in a prominent location in such newspaper with an identifying heading printed in boldface letters no smaller than 24-point type and (b) maintain at least three years' worth of print archives of such newspaper and make such archives available for public inspection. The bill further requires that a newspaper shall post a notice on the newspaper's website, if such a website is published by such newspaper, and on a searchable, statewide repository website established and maintained as a joint venture of the majority of Virginia newspapers as a repository for such notices. The bill provides that any notice published on a website shall be accessible to the public at no charge.