A Publisher's Guide to Column

Welcome aboard! We're excited that you have decided to use Column to streamline your public notice process. Since 2019, we have been working to make public notice faster and easier for both publishers and advertisers — while keeping public notice revenue in the hands of newspapers.

The Column team is happy to help with any questions you have while using our platform. By clicking the talk chat icon in the lower right-hand corner of the page, you can access a wealth of helpful articles. These offer answers to many frequently asked questions, as well as step-by-step instructions for common processes you will encounter when using Column. If you're unable to locate the answer to your question there, feel free to email help@column.us or send us a live chat. We welcome all feedback and ideas for how we can build a better product. 

If your advertisers run into problems, feel free to refer them to our Advertiser Help Center.

Newspaper organizations are created when your newspaper is onboarded to Column. Members are added by invitation only. If you've received an invitation email from Column, click on the link to register your account by creating a secure password for your login. If you haven't received an invitation to join, ask an existing member with admin privileges to invite you, or contact your onboarding specialist/customer success manager or help@column.us for help.

Column streamlines the management of public notices. Here is a walkthrough of how to process a notice received through Column:

1. You will receive an email notification when a new notice is filed. You will also receive an in-app notification. Click through to see the notice. You can also always view your active notices from the home page of your account.
   

   

2. Upon clicking through to the notice, click Confirm to confirm receipt of the notice.
   
   

   

   
   
   

3. Here, you will see the details of this notice. Note the publication dates (multiple dates will appear if this is a repeating notice) and the content of the notice.
   
   

   

   
   

4. Click on Create Invoice. This should be pre-filled with the price determined by the rate set for this notice type and should be accurate to what your newspaper charges. We recommend double-checking this price. If you need to override the amount, please edit the number directly. Once you are ready, click Review & Submit, and then Submit Invoice.

    

   

   
   

   Note: While Column provides advertisers with a live, automatic price estimate, you (the publisher) determine the final price of a notice. While our system will hopefully predict the correct price, you can adjust the price as needed when you invoice the customer.
   
   

5. The advertiser will automatically receive an email notification prompting them to pay for this notice. You no longer need to worry about payment. Proceed with publishing the notice as usual. 

6. Upon publication of the notice, upload a digital affidavit. To use the affidavit Column generated for you, click Create Affidavit. Once your affidavit is signed and ready, submit a digital copy by clicking Upload Affidavit.

   
   

   

7. You will receive payment within 30 days of when the affidavit is uploaded. You will receive an email notification and receipt at this time, and the money will be automatically transferred to your linked bank account on file. You will receive 100% of the amount you charge for your notices, as Column charges an additional courtesy fee on top of that to the advertiser.

8. Once the affidavit is submitted, the notice will move from the "Active" tab of your home screen to the "Archived" tab. You can always view this history of notices and affidavits from that tab.

Upon Receiving the Notice

• Did you confirm receipt of the notice by selecting "Confirm" when you first click in to view the notice?

• Did you lay out the ad in your print paper, as usual?

• Did you double-check publication dates?

• Did you double-check the price of your notice?

• Did you confirm the invoice to the advertiser by clicking Review & Submit, and Submit Invoice?

After Publication

If you are not in our automated affidavit program:

• Did you upload the digital affidavit?

• Did you mail affidavits, if necessary?

If you are in our automated affidavit program:

• Did you upload the e-edition?

• Did you manually verify notices, if necessary?

We understand that transitioning to Column is a big step, not only for you as publishers but also for your advertisers. To help make this transition as easy as possible, we have prepared resources to help your advertisers get used to the new public notice process.

Here are some resources you may find useful:

• Template emails that you may want to send to your advertisers to notify them about using Column: Template Emails to Advertisers

• Frequently Asked Questions and talking points for Advertisers: FAQs and Talking Points

• An Advertiser's Guide to Column, which includes an advertiser's step-by-step guide to using Column: link here.