Service by Publication Another Coming Newspaper Fatality?

Buzz Machine notes that another staple of official newspapers may be doomed--service by publication.

...A court in Maine just ruled that notice in a paper is no longer sufficient because papers are now, well, too puny.

In a unanimous decision published Tuesday on the court’s Web site, Associate Justice William Clifford wrote that the practice of putting lawsuit notification in a newspaper began “when newspapers were the only means of print mass communication, and when newspapers were more widely and intensely read than is now the case … Because service by publication has become less likely to achieve actual notice of a lawsuit, it is also less likely to meet the requirements of due process.”

See, too, John Bury in the Star-Ledger’s NJ Voices saying that politicians will kill legal ads - and with them, some papers - when they wise up.

An Australian court recently allowed service of process via Facebook.

The days of newspaper monopoly on legal ads and legal notices will end. We're just hearing the death rattle in the meantime.