§ 9-13-142.Requirements for official organ of publication; designation where no journal or newspaper qualifies; how official organ changed; notice to Secretary of State

Code Section 9-13-140 requires sheriff’s sales to run in the county’s “legal organ,” and this section defines what earns a newspaper that role. The point is to keep the designation tied to a paper with a genuine local readership, not one chosen for convenience or connections, since the whole notice system depends on the legal organ reaching the public.

Subsection (a) lays out the qualifications: the paper must be a multi-page printed product that does not exceed 75 percent advertising content in more than half of its issues over the trailing twelve months, excluding separately identifiable advertising inserts — a filter aimed at shoppers and pure ad circulars. It must have published continuously within the county, at least weekly, for two years, or be the direct successor of a newspaper that already built that same two-year publication record (missing up to two weeks in a calendar year will not disqualify it), and it must show at least 75 percent paid circulation over that same two-year window, verified by an independent audit, with paid circulation defined to exclude free or promotional distribution and to require genuine consideration from the recipient or the recipient’s employer or household. On top of that, the paper must hit a minimum paid circulation tied to the county’s population under the 1990 census or any later one: 500 copies per issue in counties under 20,000, 750 in counties between 20,000 and 100,000, and 1,500 in counties of 100,000 or more.

Subsection (b) supplies two fallback tiers for counties without a newspaper that clears those bars. First, the probate judge, the sheriff, and the clerk of superior court — or a majority of them — may designate an organ from among newspapers that meet the other qualifications and the minimum circulation, or, failing that, the newspaper with the greatest paid circulation of at least 100 copies per issue. Second, if no paper reaches even that 100-copy floor, the same officials may name an “interim organ” with at least 100 copies of weekly circulation. That interim designation does not expire on its own; it ends only when another newspaper meets the subsection (a) qualifications and is affirmatively designated as the county’s legal organ under this Code section.

The remaining subsections handle the mechanics around the edges: changing an organ takes the concurrent action of the probate judge, sheriff, and clerk of superior court (or a majority), four weeks of published notice in the outgoing organ, and generally takes effect on January 1; organs already in place before July 1, 1999 may continue under the old rules until the officials choose to replace them; and each December, the probate judge must report the county’s current organ to the Secretary of State, who keeps a public statewide list and must also be notified whenever the organ changes mid-year.