Problem

“We did not intend to become the paper of record as quickly as we did,” said Lacy Starling, the CEO of LINK nky, a digital-first publication in Northern Kentucky. Starling founded the company in October 2021. However, in May 2022, three papers-of-record shut down in the area, leaving a void in Northern Kentucky’s news landscape. Consequently, Starling and her team seized the opportunity, despite their digital-first approach. “Doing a print publication wasn’t in our plan,” explained Starling. “For us to take on that category, public notices couldn’t be restricted to print. We’d need to move them into the 21st century.”

The Legislative Landscape

LINK nky faced a twofold problem. Firstly, local legislation prohibited the online publication of notices. Secondly, the publication lacked the resources to support online notices even if the law changed.

Despite these challenges, Starling and her team were determined to become the paper of record for the community. Needless to say, the potential revenue wasn’t the only motivator. “The revenue was not a seismic game changer for us by any means,” Starling admitted. “We wanted to do this because it’s a service to our community. Digitizing would allow this money to continue to support the local journalism that’s actually reporting on our community.”

Solution

“I had heard of Column. I knew that their technology would give us the capabilities we needed to take on public notice,” said Starling. “Naturally, I am a huge believer in newspapers having a great tech stack and outsourcing the development of software.”

Starling met with Column to ensure that the software would support her goals. By April 2023, she and her team had successfully launched Column. Simultaneously, Starling and her board lobbied the state of Kentucky to amend the law to allow newspaper websites to publish public notices.

“Governments just want the legal notice process to be more accessible and online. It allows them to move government more quickly,” explained Starling. “Newspapers make a mistake by resisting the idea of moving online. Because of this, they end up getting cut out of the process altogether. We needed to show our counties that we were committed to giving them an easy, online experience. That way they could move at the speed they needed to, and we could still maintain transparency for our citizenry.”

The New Statute Takes Effect

Starling and her team demonstrated Column’s self-serve technology to counties. As a result, the counties got on board quickly. “We simply told them what Column was all about. For example, we said: you won’t have to wait for a response from anybody. You’ll know the price immediately. Affidavits are automated so you won’t have to wait for those. Column lets you go back and edit typos without having to cancel and repost. That means you won’t have to do five emails back and forth. All of these benefits were huge for everybody.”

On July 1st, 2023, the new statute went into effect. LINK nky officially became the paper of record for the three counties in Northern Kentucky.

“It’s important for newspaper publishers to meet cities and jurisdictions and state governments where they are,” emphasized Starling once more. “The fear for smaller publications, even larger publications, is about how they can acquire the resources to provide government clients with the service they want and need. That’s why Column is fantastic. It lets newspapers provide this service to clients, and the newspaper doesn’t need to be the one to design or develop the technology. Column’s pricing model is fantastic.”

Impact: 4 Key Points

LINK nky has achieved a consistent 100% self-serve rate for all their public notices and legal ads. They managed to do it by emphasizing four key points to their clients:

1. Self-serve is the only option.

“We don’t give people the option to not place the notice themselves. Column is the only way we do it at LINK nky. And it’s so easy that when people do it once, they never want to email us again.”

2. Self-serve gives clients the best possible price.

“It’s a way for the client to ensure they’re getting the best possible price because they can now control the formatting. We let them know that Column lets you play with the spacing when you put in your ad self-serve, which means you might be able to save money by taking out unnecessary space or adjusting width — whereas, if you email it into me, I’m just going to put it in however it shows up.”

3. Self-serve keeps public notices affordable for clients.

“We want to make public notice affordable for the counties, not only the cost of the ad but also in the labor involved for their employees. Having an employee spend 45 minutes putting in a public notice and then making additional phone calls costs the county money. Column reduces that time enormously.”

4. Self-serve reduces errors.

“Every time you have another human being touching the ad, you’re introducing the opportunity for error. These are legal notices and they require precision in their language. The clerk knows exactly what this legal ad is supposed to say. If they’re the one putting it in, there’s a much higher chance that it’s going to be perfect than if I have someone in my office entering it. It gives the client greater control.”

Conclusion

Column made legal notices feasible for LINK nky, opening up a new revenue stream for the paper that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. “Without Column, we would not have tried to take on public notices,” said Starling. “That revenue stream wouldn’t even exist for our organization.”

Moreover, Column also helped strengthen the relationship between LINK nky and their clients. “The feedback that we’ve gotten from the community has been universally positive. It is an easy platform to work with. Additionally, our rates are 15% lower than the previous paper of record, so the cities and counties are saving money and benefiting from the efficiencies of self-serve.”

Ultimately, LINK nky leveraged Column’s technology to successfully modernize public notices for their community and achieve 100% self-serve usage. In summary, this transition demonstrates the power of newspapers meeting the current moment and embracing the convenience of online.