The award-winning Public Notice Portal has reached an impressive milestone of one million users, it has been revealed. The success of the site, created by the local news media industry, comes as new research indicates that local news media continues to be the top destination for public notices.
The portal was created to boost local media’s coverage of public notices in print and has seen a steady increase in traffic. The platform has become a hub for users searching for crucial information about planning, construction, transport links, roadworks, and changes in licensing in their local areas.
Celebrating the impressive milestone of one million users on 31 May, the Public Notice Portal also won the Digital Initiative of the Year at the Regional Press Awards and is nominated for the Best Digital Publishing Innovation award at the AOP Digital Publishing Awards taking place this month.
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The portal is supported by the News Media Association’s member local publishers, and the local news media industry, including Reach plc – which built the website – developed it with funding from the Google News Initiative.
Interesting new research from OnePoll conducted for the NMA in March found that the Public Notice Portal is attracting younger audiences, with the highest usage of the portal coming from the 25-34 age group (16 per cent) and 18-24s (10 per cent). This is a significant contrast to the UK average of seven per cent.
The survey also discovered that local news media in print and digital (41 per cent) remains the most used platform by the UK public to view public notices, ahead of local authority websites (29 per cent), social media (28 per cent) and printed mailouts (26 per cent).
The NMA chief executive, Owen Meredith, stated: “Placing public notices in local news media remains the best way to ensure that everyone can access the important information contained within them in a fair and uniform way. The statutory requirement on councils to advertise public notices in printed newspapers ensures that those who are digitally excluded can access the notices.”
He added that these notices also gain significant reach online through local paper websites and portals, further strengthening the industry’s offering and public engagement.
Printed local newspapers continue to be an essential platform for millions of people to access public notices. BVA BDRC research indicates that removing public notices from printed local newspapers would result in 10 million people, many of whom belong to vulnerable or elderly groups, being unable to view the notices.
In Wales, where Ministers face opposition to plans to remove the statutory requirement on councils to advertise council tax notices in local papers, the level of digital exclusion is even higher than in the rest of the UK. As many as seven per cent of the population, or 170,000 people, do not use the internet.
You can access the Public Notice Portal here.
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