Amends GS 1-596, concerning charges for legal advertising, to provide that when a government notice is required to be published more than once, and is paid for by the government entity, and the cost of publication is not paid in advance by or allowed to be recouped from private parties, the government entity cannot be charged for the second and successive insertions of that notice at a rate greater than 85% of the original rate. Makes organizational changes.

Amends GS 1-597, setting forth regulations for newspaper publication of legal notices and advertisements, requiring every notice to be placed on the newspaper's website on the same day that the notice appears in the newspaper at no additional charge. Requires a hyperlink to legal notices to be provided on the front page of the newspaper's website, and requires that the web pages containing legal notices present the legal notices as the dominant subject of those pages. Requires the notice on the website to conform to any specified size and placement requirements of the printed legal notice. Requires the newspaper's website to contain a search function to facilitate searching legal notices.

Directs the newspaper to publish a legal notice that is published in the newspaper but cannot be published on the newspaper's website, for any reason, on the statewide webpage established and maintained as an initiative of the NC Press Association as a repository for the notices.

Requires the newspapers that publish notices to provide email notification, upon request and without charge, of the new legal notices when they are printed and added to the newspaper's website. Requires the email registry to be available on the front page of the legal notices section of the newspaper's website.

Provides that any error placed on the newspaper's website or the statewide NC Press Association website is considered harmless error, and the requirement of proper legal notice is deemed to have been satisfied if the government entity placing the notice advertisement also places the notice on its own website.

Establishes that any notice required by statute to be published by a government entity is satisfied if the government entity has attempted to have the notice published in accordance with Article 50 of GS Chapter 1 (General provisions as to Legal Advertising) by a newspaper of general circulation, and has also published the notice on its own website, even if the publication by newspaper of general circulation under Article 50 is not timely completed.

Makes organizational changes.

Clarifies that the validation of any publication, advertisement, or notice pursuant to a previous enactment of GS 1-597 remains in effect and is not affected by any modification of that statute enacted by this act.

Effective October 1, 2017, and applies to notices required to be published on or after that date, except that it does not apply to notices permitted to be published on a government website in lieu of newspaper publication pursuant to an ordinance enacted before October 1, 2017.