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The Hoosier State Press Association says the Indiana Attorney General’s Office has unexpectedly terminated a long-standing contract with the organization, causing a significant hole in its budget.
The association informed its member newspapers in an email Monday that it has lost the contract to design, tabulate, print and advertise in newspapers the extensive list of names that appear on the state’s unclaimed property rolls.
The contract was valued at $1.5 million over four years and was set to expire on June 30, 2025, according to state records. Only a fraction of that resulted in net revenue for the organization but was an important part of its budget, the association said.
The office of Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita did not immediately respond to IL’s inquiries about why the contract was terminated.
“HSPA was surprised and concerned by the cancellation of the unclaimed property contract,” said Amelia McClure, the press association’s executive director. “The last few years have represented the most successful efforts to return money to Hoosier taxpayers and a positive, productive working relationship between the unclaimed property division of the attorney general’s office and our association.”
The association noted that $81 million was returned to Hoosiers last year and demonstrated that “newspaper advertising is working.”
The association said the decision to terminate the contract a third of the way into the year created a “significant budget shortfall” for the organization. However, it noted that the Attorney General’s Office is still required by law to place the list of names of unclaimed property owners in the newspaper of record in each county once a year.
Requiring government agencies to place legal ads in newspapers has come under fire in recent years as the some communities find themselves without a viable print newspaper. However, the revenue they produce are critical for some community newspaper operations.
“We are concerned the attorney general’s office faces a considerable task in properly placing every name in all 92 counties …,” McClure said. “We, of course, questioned why the contract was terminated midway through the year and were simply told the office had decided to go a different direction.”
The association says its board has met to tackle the budget shortfall and developed a plan to balance the budget in partnership with association management firm The Corydon Group. A significant part of the plan is to keep association’s normal operations in place, including the existing staff of Pam Lego and Shawn Goldsby.
However, the association has scheduled a “sustainability summit” for June 13 to discuss long-term funding solutions.
“The termination of the AG contract is a wake up call about the reality of advertising as part of HSPA’s budget,” the association wrote in its email to members. “It has been shrinking for years, and we need to find a path for sustainability so that the association may exist to pave a path into the future for Indiana’s newspapers.”
IBJ Media, the parent company of Indiana Lawyer, is a member of the Hoosier State Press Association and runs some legal ads placed by the association.
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