Staff Challenges: Wearing Multiple Hats

As the Advertising Sales Manager at Amsterdam News, Ali Milliner juggles multiple roles: salesman, manager, finance, and customer relations. He’s not alone. “We have a very small staff,” he shared. “Many employees wear multiple hats.” This reality drives Milliner to constantly explore new technologies. “We need a strong tech stack to automate workflows and stay ahead of the curve,” he said. “This helps alleviate some of the unnecessary tasks that burden our employees, so they can focus on their core responsibilities and really impact the future of Amsterdam News.”

For a while, their legals business was most in need of better technology. “A major issue we had was collecting payments for our legal advertising. We were collecting only 30 cents on the dollar, which put a big hole in our budget.” Additionally, because staff were overworked, there were more inaccuracies in the advertising, which poses a big problem for legals.

Technological Solution: Column’s Public Notice Software

Since onboarding with Column’s public notice software, Milliner has seen a major improvement in their payment collections. Initially, he and his team were wary of enabling Column’s prepayment feature for fear of upsetting long-standing clients. “But we got a lot less pushback than we anticipated,” he explained. “Right away, our clients liked how easy Column was to use, so they were fine with prepayment. In this way, Column literally helped us train even our oldest clients to pay in advance.”

As a result, Milliner shared that Amsterdam News has tripled their collections on legals from last year to this year. “We’re now collecting 100% on the dollar. Column essentially opened up a whole new revenue stream for us.”

Obituary Management Challenges

Another problem that Milliner has had to navigate is the time and cost associated with obituaries. “Right now, there’s a lot of back and forth between our production team and clients to get the obituaries right, and it results in a low percentage of actualization. Most of the work ends up being for nothing.”

Additionally, the paper has not built a digital presence for obituaries. “Most obituaries we get from families go directly to print. Only the editorial ones go to our social media and website,” said Milliner. He added honestly, “It wasn’t even on our radar before to have a digital presence for obituaries. Even if it was, we wouldn’t have been able to manage it in-house due to bandwidth issues.”

Streamlining Obituaries: Column Obits

This fall, Milliner and his team will be onboarding with Column’s new obituaries product, and he’s already excited about the anticipated impact. “Column’s automated system will free up valuable time for our advertising sales team. It will also allow us to leverage obituaries on our website, which has shown high levels of engagement on social media. This will increase our readership and, in turn, increase our sales.”

The most appealing aspects of Column’s obituary platform are that it alleviates the back-and-forth between the sales team and clients, offers a friendlier price point, and makes obituaries more accessible to the community.

More Efficient and Cost-Effective Process.

“By alleviating the back and forth between production and the client and the sales representative, Column will make our process more efficient and cost-effective. This will allow us to offer families a friendlier price.”

Enhanced Web Presence for Readers.

“Having an online display site for obituaries will increase engagement from our readers. This will lead to more impressions online. The more impressions we get, the better it is for our newspaper.”

Digital Archive for the Community.

“The ability to have an archive on the website is a huge added value for us. Given that the Amsterdam News is a 115-year-old generational print legacy paper, we have exactly the right audience for this. Families have been reading our paper for years. Now, family members can always go online to see their loved ones’ obituaries. It’s a digital memorial, providing a place for people to visit and remember.”

Conclusion: A Promising Future with Column

By partnering with Column, Amsterdam News has transformed its legal advertising and obituary management processes. Column’s public notice software has turned a significant financial deficit into a new revenue stream, while the upcoming obituary product promises to streamline operations, enhance digital engagement, and provide lasting community value. 

Ali Milliner’s proactive approach to technology has alleviated his small team’s workload and positioned Amsterdam News for future growth and sustainability. With Column’s support, the future looks bright for this historic publication.