Blue Bag Media
Judge Hein rules in favor of The Early Bird, again!

GREENVILLE – The Early Bird and Brothers Publishing Company, LLC has once again earned a victory in the Darke County Court of Common Pleas. For a third time, The Early Bird has been ruled a Newspaper of General Circulation. The ruling was necessary for the newspaper to continue to run and seek legal advertising.

For each argument presented by Civitas Media, Judge Jonathan P. Hein, Darke County Court of Common Pleas, found The Early Bird clearly met each objective under Ohio law. “The Court finds that the Legislature clearly intended free newspapers to be added as a method to meet general circulation purposes,” said Hein. “The expanded page size and substantive content requirement of revised R.C. 7.12(A)(1) and (2) were included to increase the likelihood that the newspaper would attract the public to also view governmental information and notices.” Hein continued, “The Early Bird is certainly not a “shopper” advertisement flyer as pejoratively described by Civitas Media, LLC.”

Following the announcement, Keith Foutz, owner and publisher, stated, “We were pleased that the court system and Judge Hein has once again ruled in our favor. Judge Hein was exceptionally thorough in his ruling stating unequivocally The Early Bird is a newspaper of general circulation, meeting the legislative requirements and qualifies to run legal advertising for Darke County...

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