Whenever any owner, partner, publisher, or other authorized officer or employee of any newspaper which has published a notice or any other paper, document or legal advertisement within the meaning of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-597 has made a written statement under oath taken before any notary public or other officer or person authorized by law to administer oaths, stating that the newspaper in which such notice, paper, document, or legal advertisement was published, was, at the time of such publication, a newspaper meeting all of the requirements and qualifications prescribed by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-597, such sworn written statement shall be received in all courts in this State as prima facie evidence that such newspaper was at the time stated therein a newspaper meeting the requirements and qualifications of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-597 When filed in the office of the clerk of the superior court of any county in which the publication of such notice, paper, document or legal advertisement was required or authorized, any such sworn statement shall be deemed to be a record of the court, and such record or a copy thereof duly certified by the clerk shall be prima facie evidence that the newspaper named was at the time stated therein a qualified newspaper within the meaning of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-597 Nothing in this section shall preclude proof that a newspaper was or is a qualified newspaper within the meaning of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-597 by any other competent evidence. Any such sworn written statement shall be prima facie evidence of the qualifications on any newspaper at the time of any publication of any notice, paper, document, or legal advertisement published in such newspaper at any time from and after the first day of May, 1940.

The owner, a partner, publisher or other authorized officer or employee of any newspaper in which such notice, paper, document or legal advertisement is published, when such newspaper is a qualified newspaper within the meaning of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-597, shall include in the affidavit of publication of such notice, paper, document or legal advertisement a statement that at the time of such publication such newspaper was a qualified newspaper within the meaning of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-597 (1939, c. 170, s. 1 1/2; 1947, c. 213, ss. 1, 2.)