Public Notice Portal (PNP)

Public notices, a traditional bedrock of local newspapers, had been notoriously slow to embrace the digital age. But the Public Notice Portal (PNP) is changing that fast. Backed by regional publishers and the News Media Association, the portal is designed to enhance local papers’ coverage of public notices in print by also making them available online via news media websites and the central portal itself. 

In its response to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s report on the sustainability of local journalism, the government said the portal was a “welcome innovation, intended to take advantage of print publishers’ growing digital audiences and to provide a centralised resource for all categories of notice.”

The portal is user-friendly, fully searchable by postcode and type of notices as well as delivering notifications for users who have signed up to receive alerts about particular types of notices, or notices relating to a specific area.

Judges praised the initiative for engaging people with public notices and enabling them to get involved. And by drawing up and implementing industry-wide standards for public notices so they can easily be uploaded by teams at local titles, the portal is creating a sustainable future for this traditional practice.