After a one-year hiatus, the Austin Daily Herald is once again the official newspaper for city legal notices.

City council on Monday picked the Herald over the Austin Post-Bulletin, though each paper proposed identical bids of $2.95 per column inch.

Ultimately, the council went along with councilmember Steve King, who motioned to pick the Herald so as to alternate between the papers the last two years and keep the process fair.

King said this made sense because of the identical bids and the similar circulation numbers for both.

According to a city memo, the Herald circulates to 3,735 people in the 55912 zip code during the week. Another 4,187 people get the paper on Sunday.

By contrast, the Post-Bulletin has 2,392 during the week and 9,559 on Saturday.

Austin Post-Bulletin General Manager Jerry Boland said that high weekend number made his paper the right choice.

Jana Gray, advertising director at the Herald, said her paper is the true source for local news and has had the legal notices for many years.

In fact, before the Post-Bulletin was awarded the rights in 2009, the Herald published legal notices every year between 1891 and 2008.

Last year, those rights made the Austin Post-Bulletin just more than $14,000. However, that number will likely be lower in 2010, as the selected 2009 bid was for $3.25 per column inch, higher than this year’s price.

In 2009, the Herald bid $4.35 per column inch.