How fitting that this week, of all weeks, should be National Newspaper Week. I’ve had something on my mind all week, and as I battled traffic on Jefferson (only to discover the shortcut on Adams), I wondered how to get to my point succinctly. It’s fitting that we should be in the midst of a week celebrating local newspapers for all that they are.
Since 1940, Newspaper Association Managers has sponsored and supported National Newspaper Week, a week-long promotion of the newspaper industry in the United States and Canada. They have provided the editorial cartoon you see on this page.
This local newspaper has been in print, in one form or another, for 160 years. It has recorded births, deaths, triumphs and tragedies. It’s created historical records that we still reference weekly for workaday details of what life was like in Laclede County once-upon-a-time. We still do that. You’ll find recent marriage records in this issue, and, arriving finally at my point -- you will also find legal notices.
As the only newspaper of record in Laclede County, this publication is the destination of all the court actions that Missouri law deems to be not only public record, but every Missourian’s right to know.
Things like name changes, estates in probate, service by publication, and notices of trustees’ sales are required by statute to appear in a newspaper of general circulation in the county – that’s us.
Rarely have I seen such a compelling example of why legal notices must stay in newspapers as when I noticed the public reaction last week to a particular legal in the September 30 edition of the Record.
Right in the middle of the public discourse on all things Ice Cream Factory, we published a notice of trustee’s sale pertaining to the sale of certain involved real estate, and the conversation EXPLODED. I loved to see it. The City of Lebanon issued a statement addressing it. Other media outlets picked up coverage. As someone at the beginning point of understanding the heart and minds of this community, it was extremely helpful to me to read through the comments, listen to readers, and hear the chatter on the street.
Suddenly – we all had something to talk about, and that would not have happened without the notice appearing in the paper. Imagine how much attention the same information would have received sitting quietly in the court records or on a tab of a government website.
Instead, like a pill hidden in peanut butter, the public received the information in a familiar, well-established information delivery system: the local newspaper.
Kudos to those in the community who picked it out and began conversations, and kudos to everyone who participated. That kind of interest in civic life makes me so overjoyed to be here.
What you may not know, however, is that legal notices in newspapers are under attack in virtually every legislative session in Jefferson City. Every session, a representative or senator files a bill designed to weaken or remove legal notices from physical print.
Amanda Mendez is the publisher and co-owner of the Laclede Record. She is the Missouri Press Association’s 2025 Journalist of the Year and winner of the 2024 Golden Quill, awarded by the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. In 2023, Mendez earned the Tilghman Cloud Memorial Editorial Award from Missouri Press Association. Mendez serves on the board of the Ozark Press Association and the Missouri Press-Bar Commission. Along with her husband, Ron Mendez, Mendez has owned and operated the Laclede Record since September 9, 2026. She is an enthusiast of all things Ozarks and old-fashioned.
