The Bitterroot Star was awarded the contract for publishing legal notices for Ravalli County for 2018, following the opening of bids last week.
The Ravalli Republic, a five-day-a-week publication, has a sworn circulation of 2,018.
The Bitterroot Star, a weekly publication, submitted a bid of $2.00 per 100-word folio for the first insertion and $0.50 per folio for each subsequent insertion. The Star has a sworn average circulation of 6,893.
A couple of the commissioners expressed concern about using a weekly newspaper. Commissioner Chair Greg Chilcott said he thought using a daily offered more opportunities to get an ad in the paper sooner and start the timelines associated with the projects being advertised.
Bitterroot Star publisher Victoria Howell said that those considerations were “extra things” and that the Star met all the state-mandated requirements.
Chilcott quoted the law that states the county can choose a newspaper they deem to be “the most suitable for performing the work.” The most suitable in his view would be the one that was “informing the citizens in the most timely and efficient way as possible. That’s the question we are wrestling with, what is the most suitable,” he said.
“On all those points I think the Star would be the right choice because the only thing that could happen is an occasional deadline problem,” said Howell. “Did you hear the difference in circulation figures? Do you really want the public to know what the county is doing? Our circulation is huge and not only does it go on the stands, 3,200 go directly to people’s doorsteps. There is no comparison in readership if you are really concerned about the people who need it.”
Star co-publisher Michael Howell said that the commissioners were elevating concerns about timeline opportunities above considerations of cost and circulation and should probably put that in their call for bids.
“You should put in something like ‘daily papers preferred’ so that weekly publications could see that they were at a disadvantage. We can’t change the fact that we are a weekly,” he said.
“This is just a comment, but it is really discouraging that we have to be on the defensive here,” said Victoria Howell. “I find this to be a somewhat strange conversation because here we are having to defend our cheaper rate…We want the legal bids for one reason, readership, it’s just another reason people have to read the paper.” She called the Star’s bid “ridiculously low. So it’s just very discouraging to have to be so defensive… you guys should be eager to accept the bid.”
She went on to say, “There are so many subtleties and other things that are actually not part of the bid process being considered. But if you are going to consider these things then consider this: We are a fully locally owned business in Ravalli County. Not a penny leaves the county. We are not part of some mega corporation. Do you want to consider things like that? I don’t know. But we depend on our customers to provide this service and we would appreciate the bid.”
Clerk and Recorder Regina Plettenberg said she had never had any problem working with either paper. “I can go with either paper,” said Plettenberg. “But I don’t have timelines like some of the other departments.”
Planning Department manager Chris Taggart said, “Again it comes down to an applicant and a client. We have used the Star before. It’s just not as convenient. You have to stay on top of your game and be organized.”
The commissioners then voted unanimously to award the bid to the Bitterroot Star.
A contract for display advertising was also considered. The Ravalli Republic bid was $5.07 per column inch. The Bitterroot Star bid $3.00 per column inch and a reduced price of $2.50 for any subsequent publication of the same ad. Commissioner Jeff Burrows said it made sense to place the display ads in the same paper that carries the legal notices and noted that it was a cheaper price. The commissioners awarded that bid to the Bitterroot Star, unanimously as well.