A Sentence Is Not a Notice

Journalism describes the work. ‘Newspaper of general circulation’ is a legal category with consequences.

#Opinion • 12:00 p.m. Aug. 3, 2026

Moore County says a digital-only outlet satisfied the zoning-notice law. The law suggests otherwise.

Words matter.

They matter even more when those words appear in state law, a county ordinance, or a court filing.

That brings us to one word near the center of Gateway at Lynchburg’s lawsuit against Moore County: newspaper.

Gateway claims Moore County changed its zoning rules without publishing the required notice in a newspaper of general circulation.

The county denies that. In its answer, Moore County points to a sentence in an April 23, 2025, story published by The Lynchburg Times and says the story announced the public hearing.

That is quite a load for one sentence – and one word – to carry.

Gateway’s complaint cites Tennessee’s zoning-notice law, the state’s public-notice requirements, and the absence of a related notice in Tennessee’s statewide repository.

Chancellor J.B. Cox did not rule that the Times qualifies as a newspaper. He ruled only that the factual dispute could not be settled from the court filings alone.

That is not courtroom hair-splitting. It is the point.

The Times draws its own line

The Times publishes stories, covers local government, and sells advertising and memberships. It has also spoken plainly about what it is.

In a Dec. 31, 2025, essay titled “I Don’t Give a Damn What You Call It,” its editor wrote: “The Times is not a newspaper because we publish digitally.”

She said she had used the term out of habit but now calls the outlet a newsroom or media company. The essay appeared about seven weeks after Gateway filed its lawsuit.

Whatever prompted the change, Moore County is asking the court to treat the outlet as something the outlet itself says it is not.

The Times is not on trial here. Moore County’s compliance with Tennessee law is.

Whatever the Times calls itself, Moore County still had to follow the law. Publishing digitally does not automatically make an outlet a newspaper of general circulation.

Journalism is the work. “Newspaper” is a legal and publishing category.

The word carries legal weight

Cox wrote that the Tennessee provision governing this case required at least 21 calendar days’ notice in the official municipal journal or a newspaper of general circulation.

Tennessee has no single definition of that phrase governing every statute. That leaves room for argument – but not a wide-open barn door.

The Tennessee Code offers one of the state’s clearest definitions. Among other things, it describes a named, paid, multi-page publication that appears at least weekly, holds the proper mailing privilege, carries general news, and circulates broadly in the area.

The Tennessee Code does not directly control every zoning notice. Still, Tennessee attorney general opinions have applied similar tests elsewhere, asking whether a publication appears weekly, carries news of general interest, and is broadly available in the county.

A Tennessee Court of Appeals decision put it more plainly: The publication was “in the form of a newspaper.”

Webster begins with the ordinary meaning: a paper printed and distributed daily or weekly that carries news, opinion, features, and advertising. Its other definitions refer to the organization publishing that paper and to the paper itself: newsprint.

Printed. Distributed. Paper.

There is no fourth definition that expands the word to fit a disputed notice after the fact.

The structure leaves little room

The Tennessee Press Association’s guidance follows the statute: Publish the notice in a newspaper, place it on that newspaper’s website, and upload it to the statewide repository.

The law even refers to the notice’s “first print publication.”

Certain notices must also appear on a separate qualifying news and information website when one exists.

The structure is plain: Print remains the anchor, and the required websites run alongside it.

You do not get to skip first base because your website has a logo.

The TPA’s materials also classify newspapers and online news organizations separately.

The paperwork changes nothing

A state search shows an entity registered as “The Lynchburg Times” on June 18, 2026. It is not the Moore County outlet, and the filing came more than a year after the disputed notice.

That does not decide whether the Times was a newspaper. It also provides no support for the county’s position.

Most plainly, the Times does not print or distribute a newspaper. It operates a website.

Call it a digital publication. Call it an online news organization. Call it local media. Call it journalism.

All may fit.

“Newspaper of general circulation” is another matter.

The county owns the claim

The county points not to a standalone legal notice, but to a sentence in a Times story and treats it as the notice the law required.

A sentence inside a news story does not satisfy a legal-notice requirement merely because the county later identifies it as the notice.

If Moore County failed to provide proper notice, that mistake belongs to the county.

The court will decide whether Moore County complied with the law and what any failure means for the zoning amendment. This column does not decide that case.

Nothing in the zoning-notice law Moore County relies upon allows a digital-only outlet to replace newspaper publication. Under the route the county invokes, print remains required, and websites run alongside it.

Public-notice laws exist so government cannot change the rules quietly and later claim everyone should have known.

A county cannot turn a website into a newspaper – or a sentence into a legal notice – by typing it into a legal answer.

The Times may not give a damn what anyone calls it.

Tennessee law does.

So, yes – it does make a damn what you call it.