To optimize its public notice business, Wick Communications, a third-generation family-owned and operated media corporation, has embraced Column’s latest professional service offering: Column Pro. This choice has allowed them to reallocate staff resources, cut costs, and improve operational stability.

“There are always benefits to centralizing the operation,” said Manuel Coppola, Publisher of Nogales International and Tucson Daily Territorial and Director of Legislative Affairs at Wick Communications. “Column Pro lets us take the next step toward maximizing the efficiencies of our public notice business.”

About Wick

Wick Communications encompasses 25 newspapers nationwide. All their newspapers take advantage of Column’s public notice technology. Committed to promoting Column’s user-friendly interface and next generational features, Wick has achieved an impressive 75% self-serve rate among government and legal clients. The company processes over 1,000 notices a month across their publications.

Column Pro now enables Wick Communications to benefit from a full-service, centralized solution for all 25 of their publications. This service includes access to Column’s in-house team of public notice reps. Column Reps bring decades of experience from working at newspapers across the country.

Coppola shared, “I’ve always enjoyed being the guinea pig and trying new things. Not just for the sake of disrupting the old way of doing things, but as a way of making things better. Column Pro is a critical way for us to make our public notice business more sustainable, efficient, and stable. Right away, I was on board.” 

Impact: 3 Key Benefits

1) Reallocation of Staff Resources.

“Being efficient about staff time is something that all of us struggle with across the board. But now that Column’s team of reps manage order intake and ad placement, we’re able to reallocate staff energy toward supporting other key areas of the business.” Because of the sheer volume at the Daily Territorial in Tucson, one and a half full-time employees had dedicated all their time to processing public notices and providing affidavits. “With Column Pro, we’ve been able to reassign those two staffers for better operational efficiencies,” he said. 

2) Cost Savings.

“Column’s team broke it down for us. What we’re doing now, and how they’ll be able to help.” Coppola shared that the clerk responsible for public notices at Nogales International was able to eliminate all time spent on public notice. As a result, the newspaper reduced her overall work hours by 20%, leading to thousands in annualized savings. “In this day and age,” added Coppola, “every little bit counts.” 

3) Operational Stability.

“With Column Pro, we have just one single point of contact for public notices, so we can quickly and easily trace back any issues. In turn, we’re able to enhance customer experience and stay on top of aging. These days, individual newspapers can take on a lot of staff turnover which makes it tricky to get that stability. But Column Pro gives us that security with public notice, which is such an important part of the newspaper business.”

Conclusion

Coppola emphasized that this decision to go with Column Pro was not just about maximizing efficiencies but also rooted in the strength of Wick’s partnership with Column. “Taking this next step is a testament to the trust we’ve built over the years with Column’s team,” said Coppola. “I’m really proud of Column. It’s been everything we’ve hoped for. And I’m proud that we got on board right away. Since day one, the team has always been willing to listen to us, and it’s only gotten better and better.”

Coppola added, “Column is great about attending to the details. For example, they keep our newspaper logos on the invoices. Their team works with us to make sure our long-standing clients understand that Column is a partner of our newspaper — that we’re all working together.”

In summary, publishers on Column Pro benefit from our in-house staff of Column Reps to manage orders, as well as our professional design services, outsourced affidavit notarization, customer self-serve trainings, custom-branded websites, efficient online payment processing, and more.