A collection of newspapers. (File photo by Matthew Keys)

California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have required local newspapers to publish government-mandated public notices on their websites.

The measure, Assembly Bill 2095, would have required those public notices to be available on a state-operated website as well as the newspaper’s own digital platform.

The bill was sponsored by the California News Publishers Association (Cnpa), a trade organization representing print and digital news organizations in California, which argued the measure would help boost dwindling advertising revenue for newspapers by ensuring local government dollars continued flowing while embracing new delivery models for public notices.

“Maintaining public notice under the current framework with adding online publication of notices will help ensure news publishers can rely on this revenue stream as they contemplate other distribution methods to meet readers where they are,” the Cnpa said.

The California Black Media opposed the measure,...