After acquiring three new publications in 2018, Kansas Publishing Ventures experienced growing pains with processing public notices in a standardized way. Before KPV switched to Column, Technical Director Tommy Hornbeck described their public notice operation as "a pretty clunky, hands-on process ... with a lot of different hands."
Not only were there too many avenues for receiving notices, but the billing process was a mess, often resulting in embarrassing and costly mistakes. When Hornbeck heard about the prospect of streamlining KPV's public notice operations with Column, he was all ears.
According to Hornbeck, KPV experienced "instant rewards" when the paper started using Column. He explained that the new process using Column is quite simple. First, he receives an email notifying him that a new notice has been submitted for publication. Next, he logs into Column to confirm the notice's run dates and its size for publication. From there, all he needs to do is create an invoice and download the already paginated design file via Column. With just three clicks, he is done.
"Before, I was handing off work. Now, I don't have to lean on anyone else," Hornbeck said. "I don't have to ask anyone to fill out a proof for me, so I can guess the size. I don't have to ask anyone what to bill because that's already set and calculated for me."
When it comes to affidavits, Hornbeck no longer has to spend an entire afternoon making multiple copies by hand. Everything is handled through the digital affidavit and mailing system in Column. Learning the new system for placing notice orders was just as easy for KPV's public notice customers. "Our typical law offices didn't blink at all. Larger city clerks were happy to have something more structured and organized," Hornbeck said.
Would Hornbeck encourage other publications to start using Column? The answer is a resounding "yes." As he put it: "No matter what your process is today, you will save time if you adopt it. The time you take to learn how to use Column, you'll recoup in pretty short order. And as you go through that change, Column will be behind you 100% of the way."
Read more about Kansas Publishing Ventures' success story with Column on this blog, Editorials. And if you are interested in seeing how Column can help your publication, email info@column.us.
