New Hampshire’s attorney general announced on Thursday that the state had arrested the publisher of a local weekly newspaper in Londonderry earlier this week, alleging she illegally published political ads without properly disclosing them to be ads.
Londonderry Times publisher Debra Paul, 62, was arrested Wednesday, according to State Attorney General John M. Formella, and was charged with six violations of the state’s misdemeanor laws on political advertisements. Paul, along with her husband, runs Nutfield Publishing, which publishes the Times and the Nutfield News/Tri-Town Times.
In an affidavit, investigator Daniel Mederos wrote that in two different Londonderry Times issues spanning February and March 2022, Paul printed ads for various school board candidates or budget proposals that did not include a “Paid For” label at either the beginning or end of the ads, as required by state law. The ads also did not include the names or addresses of the people who financed the advertisements—also required by state law.
Formella’s office said Paul had been warned multiple times about the issue since 2019, with a “final warning” letter being issued last September over the ads’ proper labeling. Paul pleaded with the attorney general’s office by email in May, arguing political advertisements were “not my area of expertise.”