The law firm I used to work for had a great hack for this law. Essentially the LLC was formed with a mailing address in a county where the publishing was exceptionally cheap and after the publishing was completed the LLC address was amended to the HQ/principal place of business address. We did the publishing requirement for clients at the time of formation, for $284.95 (this was in addition to: NEW YORK STATE FILING FEES, ATTORNEY'S FEES, LLC SEAL AND BOOK, ARTICLES OF ORGANIZATION, LLC MINUTES, LLC REGULATIONS, MEMBERSHIP CERTIFICATE AND PRELIMINARY NAME SEARCH which we charged $234.95). Total w/publication $519.90, which falls in line with the article to some degree, whether that is reasonable is for the client to decide.

For those that care. Section 206 of the Limited Liability Company Law of the State of New York states: Upon the effectiveness of the initial Articles of Organization of an LLC, a copy of same or a notice containing the substance thereof shall be published once each week for six successive weeks, in two newspapers of the county in which the office of the LLC is located, one must be a daily newspaper and the other a weekly newspaper designated by the County Clerk. Proof of such publication by the Affidavit of the publisher or printer of each newspaper must be filed with New York State within 120 days after the effective date of the Articles of Organization of the LLC.

As a side, I am generally pro-LLC (this is a serious legal analysis, do not just make a decision based on others advice see a corporate lawyer), but my understanding this runs counter to the general principal of SV where they are pro-Corp.