For publishers, the public notice workflow often follows a familiar sequence: receive the notice, publish it, send the invoice and produce the affidavit. But that process leaves out the step that turns a completed transaction into money available to support the business: collecting payment.
That was the central theme of E&P’s Nov. 5 Solutions Series webinar, hosted by Publisher Mike Blinder with Megan Villanueva, CEO of Column, a public notice software and services company that helps publishers manage notice placement, billing, payments and affidavits. Joining them was Rachael Tipping, chief growth and operations officer at Amsterdam News, who shared her publication’s experience improving collections.
Combining Column’s payment data with Tipping’s firsthand perspective, the discussion examined how billing decisions, customer information and payment methods influence collections—and what publishers can change.
What the payment data reveals
Column’s analysis covered 12 months of public notice transactions processed through its platform, representing approximately $62.4 million in volume. As of Sept. 30, about $5.6 million remained outstanding, equivalent to roughly 9% of that annual volume. Approximately half of the outstanding balance, or $2.8 million, was past due.
Villanueva emphasized the limits of those findings. The analysis reflects publishers processing payments through Column, not the entire newspaper industry. It covers public notices rather than other advertising categories, and the outstanding balance represents a one-day snapshot—not a measure of revenue permanently lost.
Even with those qualifications, the figures offer publishers a starting point for assessing their operations. Column found median outstanding receivables equivalent to approximately 5.7% of annual public notice volume across the publishers analyzed. Breaking the results into groups by annual volume allows publishers to compare themselves with businesses of similar size.
The aging of those balances also matters. Villanueva said Column’s data showed overdue amounts declining through some aging categories before increasing in the category exceeding 90 days. Addressing those accounts can require more than another reminder. Publishers may need to locate the correct finance contact, change billing arrangements or consider whether a customer should continue receiving credit.
Prepayment and digital payments shorten the wait
One of the strongest differences in the analysis involved prepayment. Publishers using prepayment carried 71% less accounts receivable relative to annual volume than the comparison group. Their mean payment time was approximately two days, versus about 13 days for other publishers. Median on-time payment rates were approximately 95% and 76%, respectively.
Those comparisons show an association between payment practices and results; they do not establish that every publisher adopting prepayment will achieve the same improvement. Nevertheless, Villanueva urged publishers to examine which customers actually need credit terms. One-time filers, including customers placing certain business or name-change notices, may be candidates for payment before the advertising deadline.
Payment methods revealed another substantial gap. Publishers receiving 50% to 75% of their payment volume by check waited approximately 24 days for payment, compared with about 3.5 days where checks accounted for no more than 1%. Column also reported payments arriving approximately three weeks faster among advertisers that switched from checks to ACH through its outreach campaign.
Government customers should not automatically be excluded from those conversations. Villanueva said 58% of government customers in Column’s data did not pay by check. A much smaller share, approximately 2.7%, paid upfront. The point was not that every agency can abandon established procedures, but that publishers should ask what flexibility exists.
“Ask your customers, don’t assume,” Villanueva said.
Affidavits can also affect the payment process. Some municipal customers need an affidavit attached to an invoice before their accounts payable department can act. Villanueva described timely affidavit delivery as a way to remove that obstacle, citing feedback from Forum Communications. The operational lesson: publishers should understand which documents customers need to approve payment.
Amsterdam News turns collections around
Amsterdam News supplied a firsthand example of how collections practices can change. Tipping joined the publication in 2023 to help formalize collections after a staff departure left gaps in institutional knowledge and documentation. Her responsibilities involved both advertising and classifieds receivables.
Describing the earlier classifieds operation, including legal notices, Tipping said collections had been around 40 cents per dollar. Today, she reported collecting approximately 90 to 98 cents per dollar, depending partly on how rigorously she follows up.
She credited colleagues with initiating the Column relationship and described the platform as helping organize the classifieds and legal notice workflow. Amsterdam News now requires prepayment from nearly all customers, with only two exceptions, she said. The shift has generated little resistance.
Visibility and relationships remain essential. Tipping said she can obtain the reports needed to run collections and contact customers directly through Column. For customers with whom she already has an established relationship, she sometimes downloads the information and follows up through her own email account.
“We regard it as a partnership that we’ve built with another company,” Tipping said of Column.
That relationship helped Amsterdam News become comfortable adopting Column Pro, which provides staff support for its legal notice operation. Tipping described the value of subject-matter expertise as notice activity grows, along with coverage that allows a small internal team to leave work or take time off without interrupting the operation.
Download slides used during the live broadcast
Tools that support follow up
The webinar’s demonstration connected those experiences to specific tools: prepayment settings, payment reminders, customer holds, purchase order information and receivables reporting. During audience questions, Villanueva said publishers using QuickBooks can download Column payout information as a CSV to support reconciliation.
Tipping offered another practical example during the Q&A: using Claude to help prepare individualized collection emails from invoice and contact information. She said the tool could prepare approximately 200 emails in 20 minutes, substantially reducing her manual work. Her broader point was that personal follow-up still matters, even when technology helps prepare the messages.
Villanueva also described continued investment in financial reporting, invoice clarity, customer information and collections operations. She said publisher feedback—including requests from Amsterdam News and Forum Communications—helps determine which improvements Column prioritizes.
Where publishers can start
For publishers reviewing their own operation, the immediate work begins with establishing a baseline: how much is outstanding, how old those balances are and who owes them. From there, review credit terms, payment methods and billing contacts. Ensure the people responsible for collections can see payment status and act on it. Publishing the notice completes an obligation to the customer; collecting the revenue completes the transaction for the publisher.
About Amsterdam News:
Founded in 1909, the New York Amsterdam News is one of the nation’s oldest and most influential Black newspapers, serving New York City with exceptional reporting and commentary on local, national, and international issues.
About Column:
Column makes public information more accessible and reliable by modernizing the infrastructure behind public notice. Its platform brings together newspapers, governments, law firms, businesses, and the public in one system for placing, publishing, managing, and accessing important notices.
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