McClatchy CEO Pruitt: We've Got No Beef With Google Ken Doctor's 'Newsonomics,' a Fitz & Jen Book Review Guild: 'Post-Dispatch' Contract Talks Turning 'More Acrimonious' Bollinger Named 'Aberdeen American News' Publisher While Leone on Medical Leave Remembering Subscribers in Mill Valley -- By Painting Stripes in Front of Their Houses Media General Also Paying High Price To Spread Out Debt UPDATE: St. Louis Gay Newspaper Comes Back From Dead, But as Magazine Minneapolis 'Star Tribune' Achieves Record Web Month Union, Management Set Tuesday Meeting on 'Newsday' Financial Status 'N.Y. Times' Ombudsman: I'd Transfer Jerusalem Bureau Chief With Son in Israeli Army | This week's top stories Mediaweek: Top Headlines

RALEIGH, N.C. A legislative proposal to stop requiring newspaper notices for public hearings was shelved after opposition from North Carolina publishers.

Rep. Paul Stam of Wake County said Thursday he would stop trying to pass his statewide bill and allow about a dozen communities to experiment with Internet-based notices. A House judiciary committee takes up the local bill on Monday.

Stam's proposal would have allowed local governments to stop paying for newspaper advertisements announcing public hearings. Stam said governments would save money by posting the notices on their own Web sites or sending e-mail alerts.

Newspaper publishers countered that many find out about upcoming government action by happening onto the ads as they flip through their paper.