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CHICAGO BANS FREE NEWSPAPER DISTRIBUTION
EDITOR & PUBLISHER - A Chicago law passed unanimously last winter to bar
the indiscriminate door-to-door distribution of menus, brochures, and
other advertising flyers also bans many circulation practices for free
newspapers.
The provision applying the ban to newspapers was discovered by Ron
Roenigk, the publisher of two free community papers on the city's
Northwest Side, Inside, and Inside Lincoln Park. "It passed 50 to
nothing -- and I'm sure 49 of (the aldermen) didn't even read the
legislation," he said in a telephone interview Monday.
Roenigk did read the law, however -- and became alarmed at its
implications. Chicago is awash in free papers, including dailies
published by the city's biggest newspaper, the Chicago Tribune.
Tucked into the 35th page of the 48-page law is a provision declaring,
"It shall be unlawful for any person to distribute or to cause others to
distribute. . . newspapers, periodicals and directories of any kind on
any public way or other public place or on the premises of any private
property in the city in such a manner that is reasonably foreseeable
that such distribution will cause litter."
Among the offending manners, the law continues, is "leaving stacks of
paper on the ground without any means of securing them" -- the common
"dumped bundle" method used by many free publications. . .
Fines range from $200 to $1,000 for each violation. And after three
tickets for dumping stacks, the law provides, a company's business
license can be pulled by the city. So far, there does not appear to have
been any enforcement of the law against newspapers, although there have
been crackdowns in some neighborhoods on the distribution of handbills
and menus.
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003655410
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CHICAGO BANS FREE NEWSPAPER DISTRIBUTION
EDITOR & PUBLISHER - A Chicago law passed unanimously last winter to bar
the indiscriminate door-to-door distribution of menus, brochures, and
other advertising flyers also bans many circulation practices for free
newspapers.
The provision applying the ban to newspapers was discovered by Ron
Roenigk, the publisher of two free community papers on the city's
Northwest Side, Inside, and Inside Lincoln Park. "It passed 50 to
nothing -- and I'm sure 49 of (the aldermen) didn't even read the
legislation," he said in a telephone interview Monday.
Roenigk did read the law, however -- and became alarmed at its
implications. Chicago is awash in free papers, including dailies
published by the city's biggest newspaper, the Chicago Tribune.
Tucked into the 35th page of the 48-page law is a provision declaring,
"It shall be unlawful for any person to distribute or to cause others to
distribute. . . newspapers, periodicals and directories of any kind on
any public way or other public place or on the premises of any private
property in the city in such a manner that is reasonably foreseeable
that such distribution will cause litter."
Among the offending manners, the law continues, is "leaving stacks of
paper on the ground without any means of securing them" -- the common
"dumped bundle" method used by many free publications. . .
Fines range from $200 to $1,000 for each violation. And after three
tickets for dumping stacks, the law provides, a company's business
license can be pulled by the city. So far, there does not appear to have
been any enforcement of the law against newspapers, although there have
been crackdowns in some neighborhoods on the distribution of handbills
and menus.
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003655410
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