Raising prices as a monopoly doesn't always work. Six months ago we reported that the Honolulu Star Advertiser raised their legal notice rates 27% over 7 times the inflation rate. The Star Advertiser had recently become the only newspaper in town given that the Star Bulletin  had ceased publication. 

The web site Honolulu Civil Beat reported that on January 12, The Honolulu Director of Transportation, Wayne Yoshioka,  has requested that the Honolulu City Council change the City Ordinance requiring "“notice of amended traffic control device schedules” be published in a “newspaper of general circulation.” 

Instead, they would like to publish the notices on the city web site. The cities spend with the newspaper has more than doubled this year. Many newspapers are trying to be sympathetic to both the migration of public notices on line and the tight budgets that muncipalities are faced and  lowering their pricing of legal notices to municpalities . It seemed unconscionable that the Star Advertiser would raise rates so drastically.  Good luck to Mr. Yoshioka.