Problem
When the sole notary at the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel in Western Colorado let them know she was leaving, the newspaper was left in a difficult position. Jodi Moore, the Sales Operations Manager at the Daily Sentinel, needed to fill the role quickly. The notarization of affidavits is a time-sensitive and essential part of any newspaper’s public notice process, and it was critical that Moore find a replacement notary as soon as possible to handle all the affidavits for the legals published in her paper.
Luckily, Moore found her solution while watching a segment of Column’s The Brief, which talked about the Automated Affidavits service released last spring. “I thought to myself, perfect,” said Moore. “This fixes my whole problem.”
Solution
Moore contacted her Column Account Executive, Will Lamb, and from there, the set-up was quick and easy. “I told Will that we were losing our only notary and that I had just learned about automated affidavits. I asked him what I needed to do to get started,” said Moore.
“There was a tiny bit of paperwork to sign, and then he was able to set us up with automated affidavits within a week, and we were ready to roll,” she explained.
By using Column’s automated affidavits service, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel was able to completely eliminate their need for a notary. “It was great. Not having to worry about hiring a new notary was a huge relief,” emphasized Moore. Even before automated affidavits, the paper was already using Column to generate the majority of their affidavits. However, their notary still had to download the affidavits from the Column software, sign them, then re-upload them into Column for their customers to access. The affidavit automation now takes care of all of the whole process, which has saved the newspaper’s staff a lot of time and resources.
“Before automated affidavits, it still took time for my employee to sit there and sign all of the affidavits. Now we don’t have to worry about that at all,” said Moore. “The fact that Column now takes care of the vast majority of our affidavits is a huge relief.”
Impact
According to Bryce Jacobson, the Chief Revenue Officer for Seaton Publishing and Grand Junction Media, the number one benefit of using Column is the automation. “The electronic nature of Column — the speed and ease of the platform — is a massive plus,” elaborated Jacobson. “Especially in the case of Grand Junction where we were short-staffed, Column gave us a solution.”
Jacobson also emphasized the importance of legals, and how Column’s automation improves the paper’s ability to distribute them and make them as accessible as possible to the public. “Legals have always been important, and they will always be important. There’s never going to be a time when shedding light on what our government is doing is a bad thing,” said Jacobson, “and Column provides the infrastructure necessary to facilitate getting this information into the hands of the people.”
Moore agreed. “It’s my job to make sure legals get done. But it’s nice that the task I have to do every day is connected to a larger purpose,” she said, “even if it’s not always front of mind. At the end of the day, we’re out here to inform the public, and it’s important to make sure the legals are getting done correctly, everything from distributing them to notarizing their affidavits.”
Jacobson also praised the partnerships that Column has fostered between newspapers in the whole state of Colorado. “The number one best thing about Column is the automation,” he reiterated, “but the second best thing is the collaboration that Column’s created between newspapers in Colorado. By using Column as our go-to notice order taker and provider, all of us are able to partner together and be on the same page.”
He added that “Column’s team keeps up with the latest and greatest in technology. They’re a great partner in that regard. Without them, we’d be fifteen years behind in today’s world, but instead, we’re on the cutting edge of what we need to do to continue publishing and disseminating legal notices.”
Thanks to Column, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel was able to streamline their affidavit process, eliminate the need to hire a replacement notary and continue to distribute crucial public information to their readers.