Yep, starting tomorrow, by state law, you're supposed to post your legals with the TPA webpage run by that grifting Column.
If I owned a paper that were a TPA member, since the new state law applies only to TPA members, especially if I were a smaller newspaper that didn't have its own website, especially if I were not a "full" TPA member and wasn't getting the 2x2 ads and TexScan, etc.?
I believe I'd quit, Mike Hodges. At a minimum, the onus would be on TPA staff to talk me out of it. I know, we get a run a year, maybe two, every other year, of constitutional amendments ads, and once a year, maybe, of the affordable housing ad since COVID started, but I think that's gone away again, and I know that, last year, shockingly, Danny Goeb placed some political campaign ads via TPA. But, other than that, if you're not paying the extra freight for the 2x2s (most of which are oilfield ads anyway), what do you get?
And, mark my words: By 2027, more of the camel's nose and head that was let in the tent this spring will be shoved inside by a future Texas Legislature. (I wouldn't be surprised if somebody makes a run at that in 2025, but doubt it will pass then.)
Notes from the field?
First, setting up default rates sucks if they're not an even dollar, and your liner rates and mine aren't if they're per-word or per-line based. You CANNOT enter ".35" for 35 cents a word. You have to start with $1 and then use the up/down (down in this case) cursors. AND? Despite that I've never heard of a paper charging fractional cents for anything. Column's "wizardry" calculates out to not just mills, or tenths of a cent, but to tenths of mills, or hundredths of a cent. Hey, Hodges, as long as you're paying Column for its Florida public benefit corporation stable genyus, can you get that fixed? Or, rather than Hodges, Kevin King, the guy who emailed me? (I tried, after I started the cursor going, editing "within the field," but when I hit save, it changed 0.35 to $35. More stable genyus there.
And, my office puter being a 10.6.8 Mac, of course it is not compatible there.
Wonder how many other papers hadn't set up accounts, and of them, how many are hitting the old Mac issue.
Finally, per my owner's desire not to give away the store, my newspapers DO NOT HAVE WEBSITES. I'd argue that the TPA, in conjunction with the Lege, is involved in a reverse-spin restraint of trade. Why didn't the stable genyuses, TPA version, get newspapers like us exempted? We're not the only newspapers in the state without websites.
More notes for the stable genyuses at Column?
First, supposably, I can adjust my templates under "my organization." Don't see that. Don't see any place to input column widths for legal displays.
I do see under "my organization," a Column employee also listed as part of the "team." More "ugh" and probably more snooping by TPA, which has also in the past couple of months increased its nagging about "you have a missing issue." Technically, NewzGroup, but on TPA's behalf. Since we don't have a website, and no current full-page wind farm ads, I delay posting there by a month, ever since the county's IT person asked if we had a website and I mentioned we have that as an option. Sorry, Hodges and NewzGroup but that's the way it is.
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