Case Study: The Emporia Gazette Digitizes Affidavits and Saves Time with Column

How the Emporia Gazette Digitized Affidavits With Column

The Emporia Gazette, a long-running community newspaper and Lyon County’s newspaper of record, was managing public notices through a slow, manual process. Staff had to sort through emailed notices in different formats, correct errors, create proofs and invoices, format content in InDesign, and then physically cut, glue, notarize, and mail affidavits—an approach that was time-consuming and prone to delays and human error. Column helped modernize this workflow with a digital public notice process and affidavit handling.

Using Column, The Emporia Gazette moved customers into a self-service public notice portal where they can create, proof, schedule, and pay for notices directly. Back at the Gazette, Bettina Shank now completes the workflow in just three clicks: sending an invoice, downloading the publication-ready notice, and downloading the affidavit. Column reduced a process that could take up to 30 minutes per notice, saved significant time, and helped the paper increase revenue per notice while improving service and reducing mailing and paperwork burdens.

The Emporia Gazette

Bettina Shank

Operations Manager