State of the news business noted at Parish Council meeting

There is no secret the state of the news business changed with the Internet, mobile phones and the like.
But the technology has not obsoleted the need for a printed record that is free from digital tampering.
Government’s business still is recorded in printed records and much of that is in public notices published in official journals — newspapers.
The St. Landry Parish Council’s administrative/finance committee had on its agenda Wednesday an item to appoint an official journal.
The Eunice News and the Daily World of Opelousas bid for the designation.
Those bids were opened at the committee’s meeting Wednesday in Opelousas.
Wayne Ardoin, committee chairman, noted of the current official journal, the Daily World, “We are looking at time because June 30, I think, is when it expires.”
Ardoin read the bids at the meeting.
The Eunice News bid was $4 per column inch to publish the parish’s minutes, public notices, ordinances, etc.
The Daily World bid was $4.80 per column inch.
Pam Gautreau, District 8 council member, asked that the bids be forwarded to the full council “with the caveat that the Eunice News is cheaper.”
Gautreau added, “Neither one of these papers is parish-wide, not one is. Parish-wide is what we are supposed to be offering to the people and what we are paying for.”
Gautreau noted both papers have websites, but require subscriptions and questioned whether the newspapers allow free access to public notices online.
Both papers do offer free online access to public notices.
Darrell Guillory, publisher and chief operating officer at The Eunice News, noted in his bid, “The Eunice News is privately owned by a local Louisiana company and has been serving St. Landry Parish continuously for over 113 years.”
There are about 30 full- and part-time employees at The Eunice News.
The Daily World bid noted it is owned by Gannett. Gannett is based in Virginia.
At one point, The Eunice News and Daily World rotated each year as of the parish’s official journal. History has it that Matt Vernon, Eunice publisher, and John Thistlethwaite, Opelousas, publisher came to that agreement.
When the Eunice paper was the parish official journal, the Opelousas paper was the journal for the School Board.
The rotation for official journal agreed to by the publishers continues at the St. Landry Parish School Board, but does not for the parish government.