HARRISBURG -- County, borough and school district groups clashed with newspaper industry representatives today over three bills that would make major changes in how legal advertising is disseminated to the public.

The House Judiciary Committee is considering House Bill 677, which would let governmental bodies put legal notices about things like sheriff sales, construction contracts, zoning changes, job openings and upcoming public meetings in free "community newspapers,'' also called "shoppers'' and "pennysavers,'' rather than exclusively in "newspapers of general circulation,'' as they are now.

Two other measures, Senate Bill 419 and House Bill 795, would let governmental bodies put their legal ads and notices online, including an agency's Web site, rather than buying sometimes-costly ads in general circulation newspapers.

Supporting the bills was Douglas Hill, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania; Edward Troxell of the Pennsylvania Association of Boroughs; Tim Allwein of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association; and Laura Cowburn of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials.

They said that with many people dropping their newspaper subscriptions nowadays, and with the growth of Web access, governments shouldn't be restricted to using just newspapers to tell the public about upcoming meetings, contracts or property sales.

Over a recent three-year period, Mr. Allwein said, "the average expenditure on legal advertising per school district was $22,743, while the total spent by all school districts (in Pennsylvania) on legal advertising was more than $11 million. Most school districts spend thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars each year on legal advertisements.''

Mr. Hill said county governments also must now spend a lot of money on legal ads in newspapers, and officials owe it to their taxpayers to hold down spending any way they can.

But they were opposed by Martin Till, publisher of the Easton Express-Times, and Ralph Martin, president of Trib Total Media, publisher of the Tribune-Review and other daily and weekly newspapers in the Pittsburgh area. They are both officials of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, which opposes the three bills.

"Despite the fact that our company's business model includes free publications and the Pennysaver,'' Mr. Martin said, "I am convinced that these publications are not the right vehicle for public notices. Public notices must remain in newspapers of general circulation.''

It's hard to say how many of the "free shopper publications'' are actually read by members of the public before being discarded, they said. Also, online access is still only available to about 70 percent of Pennsylvanians, which means a lot of people won't know about sheriff sales and public meetings if the legal ads aren't in newspapers. Many senior citizens don't have online access, they said.

The Judiciary Committee legal counsel, William Andring, said he was concerned that if a govermental body "wanted to bury a legal ad'' so people wouldn't know what's going on about a controversial issue, "They would put it in these handout papers.''

Rep. Tom Caltagirone, D-Berks, said he is torn over the issue because methods of communication clearly are changing, with a general drop in newspaper circulation and the rise of the Internet. But he said he's worried about newspapers losing revenue and going out of business.

"Many newspapers are in serious financial trouble,'' he said. "They are struggling to exist.''

If changes are made regarding how legal ads are published, "Will we see the demise of newspapers? I think that is what's at stake here.''

Mr. Martin said losing legal ads would cost his company about 7 percent of its total revenue, which "would have an impact but I'm not sure it would be devastating.''

The Judiciary Committee hasn't set a date for voting on the three bills, which would still need approval from the full House and Senate.