EXTENSION OF CONTRACT FOR PUBLICATION OF LEGAL ADVERTISING - LEGAL AND DISPLAY ADS

Recommendation :

It is recommended that the City Council extend the current contract for City advertising (legal and display ads) with the Easy Reader newspaper and approve the attached contract for a term of three years.

Background :

The current advertising contract with the Easy Reader expired on June 30, 1999. It had been extended for three years in 1996, based on the City Attorney's legal opinion that since the Easy Reader is an adjudicated newspaper of general circulation published in the city, the City may not use a newspaper published outside the city for its legal publications; and, further, since the Easy Reader is the only newspaper of general circulation published in the city, the City may contract for terms longer than one year.

 

The Easy Reader has agreed to an extension of contract for three years. The negotiated rates are $9.50 per column inch for both legal and display ads and $9 per column inch for subsequent insertions for the first year, and a five percent increase for each subsequent year, with the understanding that the rate will at no time exceed that charged to Redondo Beach, which goes out to bid annually. Our current and proposed contract rates with the Easy Reader are shown below.

 

                        FY 98-99          FY 99-00          FY 00-01          FY 01-02

Legal Rates         $9.00                 $9.50             $10.00                $10.50

$ Increase --                                 $0.50              $ 0.50                 $ 0.50

% Increase --                                     5.5                 5.3                       5.0

Display Rates      $9.90                 $9.50              $10.00                 $10.50

$ Increase --                               [$0.40]             $ 0.50                  $ 0.50

% Increase -- --                                                     5.3                         5.0