It’s easy to recognize those who run the news media companies or write award-winning articles, but there are those behind the scenes whose contributions are immeasurable. Nominate an editor today that deserves to be profiled in our May 2025 issue as an: "E&P Editor Extraordinaire!"
Five years ago, Column set out to revolutionize the cumbersome process of publishing public and legal notices, and today, their self-serve platform is delivering results. With intuitive features like flexible document uploads, instant proofs, and real-time price transparency, Column has simplified workflows for over 850 publications and 4,500 organizations, helping law firms, government agencies, and businesses save time and reduce frustration. By offering free training and innovative tools, Column has boosted newspaper staff efficiency by 270% and allowed legal reps to handle up to 67 daily notices, earning praise for transforming an outdated industry standard.
The Defender Network has transformed its newsroom efficiency and audience engagement with Nota, an AI-powered tool tailored for modern journalism. Clyde Jiles, Strategic Alliance Manager at the Defender Network, shared how Nota helped cut content production time from 90 minutes to just 15, allowing their small team to focus on impactful storytelling. With features like tone customization and SEO optimization, Nota enabled the Defender to boost digital engagement and reach more readers without compromising journalistic quality. Jiles called the tool a game-changer, emphasizing its role in streamlining operations while amplifying their community’s voice.
Elite Insights and St. George News have revolutionized how media companies engage with their communities and generate revenue through innovative “Best Of” programs. These initiatives, powered by Elite Insights’ comprehensive software, enable publishers to create seamless, end-to-end campaigns that drive audience participation, build advertiser relationships, and unlock significant revenue streams. For St. George News, this approach has transformed their business, generating over $600,000 in annual revenue and fostering long-term advertiser loyalty, all while deepening connections with their local community.
Newsrooms can harness the power of AI to deliver personalized election content, track real-time voter sentiment, and optimize for engagement and revenue growth. AI tools, such as Nota and Chartbeat, can analyze user data and sentiment shifts, helping publishers provide tailored content that resonates with specific audiences. By enhancing reader experiences and streamlining workflows, AI empowers media companies to improve audience engagement and maximize advertising opportunities during the high-stakes election season. Ultimately, these strategies not only boost revenue but also ensure that voters stay well-informed and engaged with crucial election coverage.
To enhance its already successful “Best of the Best” campaign, the Tampa Bay Times partnered with Elite Insights to address a missed opportunity in digital advertising. With Elite Insights’ software and expertise, the Times integrated a streamlined digital strategy, allowing its sales team to focus on selling while Elite handled logistics. This collaboration led to impressive results, including a 260% revenue increase and over 425,000 community votes, setting a new standard for digital engagement.
209 Multimedia recently streamlined its legal notice and obituary management with the help of Column’s Public Notice Platform, transforming an otherwise labor-intensive process into an efficient workflow. Saresa Shutes, who oversees legal notices, obituaries, and classifieds, previously spent hours manually handling ads, a process prone to human error. Now, thanks to Column, Shutes can process legal ads five times faster while drastically reducing mistakes, saving time and money for the company.
Explore how Iliffe Media Group uses AI to drive immediate new revenues with "Smart Ads." By offering an affordable, combined print and digital ad package, they turned a significant portion of their small print advertisers into digital clients. This efficient and cost-effective solution generated over 100 new ads per week within 20 days, creating a substantial six- to seven-digit pound revenue opportunity without adding operation overhead to their team. Learn how they bridged the digital gap for small print advertisers (and local sales teams), creating a win-win for both the publisher and advertisers. Don't miss this insightful case study.
In this fast paced, E&P Sponsored Webinar learn how European media companies are generating over a hundred thousand dollars each in new, turn-key, SMB ad revenue, using an AI tool that instantly develops complete marketing campaigns for local advertisers.
Imagine an assistive AI tool that efficiently reformats your newsroom content into various text, audio, and video formats instantly. Not only does it streamline the process, but it also autonomously generates headlines and keywords to optimize SEO performance for your stories.
Watch this insightful E&P Sponsored Webinar, where we'll delve into how NOTA is reshaping the landscape of news content creation. Explore their suite of assistive AI tools designed to amplify the impact and reach of human-authored stories.
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.
“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," stated Manuel Coppola of Wick Communications.
In 2023, Amsterdam News partnered with Column to streamline its legals. Siobhan “Sam” Bennett, the President and Chief Revenue Officer of Amsterdam News in New York, NY, highlighted three stand-out reasons why their choice to go with Column has paid off. The three most impactful payment features that Column offers are payment alerts, invoice reminders, and the option for prepayment. Read about the solutions.
Local media are looking to sponsor participatory opportunities that are fun for local audiences and boost businesses' visibility. The Seattle Times is doing just that with its Best in the PNW (Pacific North West), which recognizes the best local businesses in various categories as voted by the public.
The Routt County Planning Department plays a vital role in ensuring that land usage in the county is lawful, efficient, and sustainable. The department issues various permits for different land uses, each requiring a public notice component.
Positive trends abound during the continued transformation of the news industry: from local entrepreneurs launching new publications to the benefits of alternative revenue streams.
The journey into selling digital advertising has presented challenges and opportunities for publishers and print salespeople. We’ll dive into the experiences of one publisher who found their footing in the digital landscape and effectively doubled (even tripled) its digital revenue thanks to a partnership with AdCellerant.
After switching from another provider, exploreMedia chose AdCellerant because of their full-funnel approach, comprehensive tools and technology, and support. In addition, AdCellerant’s support and in-depth knowledge of their digital product suite also helped these initially resistant salespeople shift their focus to the client and the result of their strategies. This publisher went from $200,000 to $2 million in digital revenue within three years.
In less than six months of rolling out the Column platform, Ogden Newspapers successfully migrated 75% of their public notice orders to self-serve. Implementing the new platform involved a well-defined plan and strong collaboration. The final result was an enhanced customer experience with greatly improved efficiency.
Email newsletters continue to be one of the most powerful newsroom tools, regularly connecting publications with their audiences and encouraging readers to develop a habit and establish loyalty toward a news organization. Looking to spruce up a newsletter or planning a new launch? Here are some tried and true strategies for optimizing newsletters that publishers can put into place today.
The challenges are many when launching a new local, nonprofit news outlet, especially in the current newspaper industry climate. Deciding to be a digital-only news source with a hard registration wall meant the Springfield (Missouri) Daily Citizen had to rely heavily on various technologies to manage email registration and subscriptions. BlueLena's intimate knowledge of subscription best practices allowed the paper to rapidly evolve its products toward launch.
It's going to be a rough year for local advertising in 2023. Borrell is forecasting that growth will be at a near-standstill, held back by a combination of economic pressures and a dramatic reshaping of the type of businesses now operating in each market. Borrell will unveil its forecasts and describe the change in business composition during a 45-minute webinar at 11 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, Nov. 17. The webinar is free.
"There’s got to be a better way” was what Keven Zepezauer and his team kept saying to each other whenever they talked about affidavits. Zepezauer, the president and publisher of Restoration NewsMedia in North Carolina, knew that the public notice process — with all its labor-intensive, manual inefficiencies — was a problem. “It was ugly,” Zepezauer stated. “We had a full-time person dedicated just to affidavits. We knew we needed to do something different.”
Matt Boggie is the Chief Technology & Product Officer at The Philadelphia Inquirer. He is very clear about the role that Roxen's Editorial Portal plays for the development of the newspaper.
How much could your newspaper make in new revenue from selling quality articles to an international audience? $30,000 to $80,000 per 1,000 articles, according to Axel Breuer, CEO of Berlin-based startup Journexx, the first international publishers-only content marketplace, Co-founded by Breuer, Andrej Becker, CPO; Felix Seeberg, CTO; and Franko Melisch, COO.
The problem with legals has always been that publishing public notices is cumbersome. It bogs down staff and puts at risk the continued existence of legals in newspapers by frustrating the governments, law firms and citizens required to file them. But, there is a solution.