Wick Communications Outsources Public Notice Business

Column Pro lets us take the next step toward maximizing the efficiencies of our public notices business.”

Manuel Coppola, Publisher of Nogales International and Tucson Daily Territorial and Director of Legislative Affairs at Wick Communications

In a strategic move aimed at optimizing its public notice services, Wick Communications, a third-generation family-owned and operated media corporation, has embraced Column’s latest professional service offering — Column Pro. This shift has reallocated staff resources, cost savings, and increased 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.”

Wick Communications encompasses 25 newspapers nationwide, all of which take advantage of Column’s public notice technology. With a commitment to promoting Column’s user-friendly interface and next-generation features, Wick has achieved an impressive 75% self-serve rate among government and legal clients, processing over 1,000 monthly notices across their publications.

Their implementation of Column Pro enables Wick Communications to benefit from a full-service solution for managing public notices for all 25 of their publications. This service includes access to Column’s in-house team of public notice processing reps who bring decades of experience working at newspapers nationwide.

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. I was on board right away.”

3 Key Benefits: Column Pro

1. Reallocation of Staff Resources. “Being efficient about staff time is something that we all struggle with across the board. But now that Column’s team of reps manages order intake and ad placement, we can reallocate staff energy toward supporting other key areas of the business.” Because of the sheer volume at the Daily Territorial in Tucson, Coppola shared that one and a half full-time employees had been solely dedicated 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, resulting in a 20% reduction in her overall work hours and leading to thousands in annualized savings for the newspaper. “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. This strengthens customer experience and lets us stay on top of aging. These days, individual newspapers can take on a lot of staff turnover, making 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.”

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, such as keeping our newspaper logos on the invoices. Their team works with us to ensure our long-standing clients understand that Column is our newspaper partner — that we’re all working together.”

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

Contact for Wicks Communications:
Manuel C. Coppola
President/Chief Revenue Officer Amsterdam News
Director of Legislative Affairs, Wick Communications Publisher: Nogales International, Tucson Daily Territorial | Office: (520) 415-1836 | Cell: (520) 619-0224

Contact: Kevin King
Head of Marketing & Communications at Column
Reach out to:  kevin@column.us
Book a call:
column.us/schedule-demo

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