Yellowstone County News was awarded Yellowstone County’s legal advertising contract by Yellowstone County Commissioners on Tuesday in a unanimous vote.
Every other year the County Clerk and Recorder issues a request for proposal from local publications for rates to print all legal notices pertaining to county business and as required by law.
They received three responses to the RFP, one from the Billings Gazette and another from the Laurel Outlook, besides the Yellowstone County News.
Clerk and Recorder Jeff Martin presented the responses to commissioners last week, noting that Yellowstone County News had the lowest bid. He also said that his office has received satisfactory service from both the Yellowstone County News and the Billings Gazette in the past. Previously the contract was held by the Billings Gazette, but the county still placed legal notices in the Yellowstone County News on matters that pertained to the eastern part of the county.
The total amount spent on legal advertising in the past year has been $2,036, according to Martin. In the previous year it amounted to about $4000, but that was unusual because the building of the county jail required so many notices for construction bids.
In the past the county has not always selected the lowest bid, concerned about the frequency of publication and whether a weekly publication would meet the legal requirements in some cases, in a timely enough manner. Martin said that despite that concern they have had no experience in which that would have been a problem. In addition, they could continue the practice of printing in more than one publication, depending on the audience they are trying to reach.
This awarding of the county contract is the first for Yellowstone County News since Jonathan and Tana McNiven purchased the Yellowstone County News in October 2014. In addition, having both contracts for the City of Billings and Yellowstone County marks a new achievement for Yellowstone County News since the newspaper has never had both contracts simultaneously.
The legal advertising contract with Yellowstone County will start November 1, 2019, and be for a period of two years.
