What does it take for a software company to provide managed services for public notices that are faster, cheaper, and more reliable than how newspapers can “do it themselves”?
Maybe a team of newspaper veterans using modern software and a national network of notaries.
Take Shannon Gray, VP of Classified Support at Legacy.com, whose team manages external public notices for McClatchy newspapers, where many of them used to work. Gray is no stranger to managing operational efficiency while providing superior customer service. She gained experience as VP of Classifieds at McClatchy, where she built the centralized call center to unify operations and supply services to customers of 28 newspapers.
Originally, newspapers took classifieds by phone, email and walk-in, sometimes entering the ads manually into different platforms. Affidavits required an even more painstaking manual process. “We were clipping articles out of the paper, printing out affidavits, getting wet signatures, and mailing them,” Gray recalled.
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Using iPublish AdPortal Classifieds , Gray said that classifieds is now 100% self-service on a single platform.
AdPortal Obituaries was adopted by 80% of funeral homes, as well. Instead of funeral homes submitting drafts by email, with proofs going back and forth, and approvals dragging, funeral directors could sit with families, input the obituary directly and see it go live. With so much competition for end-of-life services, the transition to AdPortal Obituaries also helped stabilize the category. “It streamlined their process so much they were more willing to continue using the newspaper,” Gray said.
But full Public Notices automation remained daunting, due to the need for third party notaries for affidavits and the patchwork of evolving state laws. “You have to make sure the notaries lived in a state where digital signatures were legal. It was different everywhere,” she says.
Now at Legacy her team solves the problem by utilizing proprietary software and a state-by-state roster of licensed notaries behind the scenes. “Newspapers don’t have to worry about it anymore,” Gray says. “They’re all remote, digital notarization that are delivered within 24 hours of the last run date.”
The efficiency gains are staggering.
What once required a 40-hour position now takes about five hours a week, she said.
Add in the elimination of postage – 3,000 affidavits a month, once meant hefty mailing costs—and the savings are substantial.
Clients benefit too. Affidavits now come with live links to tearsheets and can be accessed anytime through AdPortal Public Notices. If a customer loses a copy or needs another, it’s just a click away.
“It’s been great,” Gray said.
