209 Multimedia owns nine papers in Northern California’s Central Valley, with locations in Manteca, Gustine, Newman, and Dos Palos. The business office manager, Saresa Shutes, works out of the Turlock office. Shutes manages the legal notices for the Turlock and Ceres markets, but overseas obituaries and classifieds for all nine of the organization’s papers. “It’s a massive amount of work,” she said.
Shutes handles 80 to 100 legal notices a day, with the bulk coming from the Manteca and Turlock/Ceres offices. “It’s a very important part of the business,” she described. “Each one of our papers does tens of thousands of dollars worth of legal ads a month. In addition to this, I also handle subscriber payments, accounting, and setting up new systems for the company. But my main focus day in and day out are the legals.”
Problem: Paperwork & Errors
Four years ago, when Shutes started, the staff trained her on how to handle legal notices manually. “I had paperwork everywhere,” she described. “Customers would email in the ads individually, and then I’d have to copy and paste them into our ad management system, AccountScout. After they ran, I had to cut out the physical ad from the paper and create a proof of publication. For things like probate, FBNs, name changes and lien sales notices, I’d have to email the ad back to attorneys or courts, often with a wet signature.”
There was also the problem of human error. “We used to have disclaimers on the pages that tell clients you can’t make any changes after a certain point,” Shutes explained. “But that system was never perfect. When I manually input an ad on behalf of a customer, I can make mistakes, too. So if a customer doesn’t read the proof I send them, and it runs with an error, we then have to re-run it for free.”
Solution: Column’s Public Notice Platform
Around the time Shutes started, Hank Vander Veen, the President & Publisher at 209 Multimedia Corporation, decided to onboard Column’s public notice platform for all nine papers. As soon as Shutes learned the new system, her workday greatly improved. Column made it much easier for Shutes to intake orders, reducing a lot of the manual work. “The first time I used Column, I was like, wow, I just saved myself a half hour of time,” remembered Shutes. “It cut down the time I spent on an ad from twenty minutes to five minutes.”
Less Paperwork
Suddenly, Shutes’ office had less excess paperwork. “Column’s digital archive gives me a lot of peace-of-mind. I don’t have to worry about paperwork because Column stores everything digitally,” said Shutes. “I don’t have to cut the ad out of the paper anymore, or create proof of publication the hard way. I can just go into my account and download the affidavit. Column takes care of it all for me.”
More Accuracy
Now, Column has reduced inaccuracies by a lot, saving the paper time and money. “Column catches the errors for me, which cuts down on the hardest part of my workload. I don’t have to go back and forth with the customer anymore to make sure the proof is correct.”
Problem: Out-of-State Obits & Poor Formatting
209 Multimedia’s system for intaking obituary orders has not been ideal. It has relied on manual intake over the phone and incorrectly formatted orders from Legacy.com. “I’ve spent a lot of time on the phone instructing people on how to send in an obit in the right format. It’s a burden for them and for me,” explained Shutes. “Sometimes they want to just dictate it for me, which unfortunately I don’t have time to do. But when I tell them to email it, I still have to talk through all the details. For example, it has to be on a word doc. It can only have so many characters per line. The picture has to be a JPEG, etc.”
Even though this takes a lot of time, Shutes prefers getting orders this way than from Legacy. “We don’t refer people to Legacy,” she said. Orders that come from Legacy are never in a format that works for her papers. “Legacy sends in orders already formatted, with the picture already inserted, as if they’ve run it in another paper. They also put in hard returns, so I have to go in and adjust the paragraphs and the spacing. Basically, I have to rewrite the whole thing. I even have to take the picture out and have my IT guy readjust it and send it back. It’s a pain.”
Solution: Column Obits
“It was my idea to sign up for Column’s obituaries platform,” said Shutes. “When Hank saw an email announcing Column’s new product, he asked me if I thought it would help. I knew right away that it would solve a lot of these problems for us.”
After testing the product, Shutes saw that the setup was similar to Legacy, which would make it easy for them to adopt, but Column’s product would be a far better fit. Three key benefits stood out to Shutes:
Custom Formatting.
“Column’s obituaries interface allows us to pre-set our formatting specifications, just like it does for legals and classifieds. For example, I can set it to accept just word docs and JPEGs. It also gives the estimated price. Instead of overwhelming people with these instructions over the phone, I can just tell families to go to Column’s website. With Column, I can trust it’ll be in the correct format for us.”
Simpler for Out-of-State Families.
“Column Obits will especially improve our ability to support families who are out of state. These families often still want to publish an obituary in their loved ones’ local paper. With Column Obits, it’ll be easier for them to do when it’s convenient. They can submit anytime, instead of having to call our office.”
Better for Funeral Homes.
“The bulk invoicing and bulk billing is a game-changer for funeral homes. Also, since the platform also allows for 24/7 submission, funeral homes don’t need to wait for me to be open to send in an order. They can do it anytime.”
Conclusion
Column’s platforms have transformed the workflow at 209 Multimedia, making the management of legal notices, obituaries, and classifieds much more efficient. By reducing manual work, minimizing errors, and providing digital solutions, Column has significantly lightened the load for Saresa Shutes and improved the overall accuracy and reliability of their processes. This technology not only enhances productivity, but also ensures a smoother experience for clients and customers alike.