Restoration NewsMedia Becomes a Column Pro Partner, Building on a Pioneering Partnership

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 — Restoration NewsMedia is expanding its partnership with Column by becoming a Column Pro partner. As a Pro partner, Restoration NewsMedia adds a dedicated team of Column’s public notice experts to its own staff, bringing deep legal notice expertise, an improved placement experience for customers, and less operational work for the newspaper.

Restoration NewsMedia was one of Column’s very first newspaper partners, moving its papers onto Column’s platform shortly after the company launched its core product. Since then, the publisher has been a close collaborator in shaping how Column serves newspapers, including as the first publisher to pilot Column’s automated affidavit service.

Now, Restoration NewsMedia is deepening that relationship. Column Pro gives the publisher a dedicated team of public notice specialists — Column Reps — who work alongside its staff to manage legal notice workflows, support customers, and keep notices running accurately and on time.

“Restoration NewsMedia has been with us almost from the very beginning, and they’ve helped shape what Column is today,” said Megan Villanueva, CEO of Column. “They were willing to pilot new ideas with us when those ideas were still being proven, and that trust means a great deal to our team. We’re thrilled to take this next step together and help Restoration NewsMedia build an even stronger, more modern legal notice business.”

“Column has been a true partner to us from the very beginning,” said Keven Zepezauer, President and Publisher of Restoration NewsMedia. “Bringing Column’s public notice experts onto our team means we benefit from expertise built across hundreds of newspapers, our customers get a better experience, and our own staff can put their time toward growing our papers.”

History of the Partnership

When Column was just getting started, Restoration NewsMedia was among the first publishers willing to bet on a new way of managing public notice. It moved all five of its papers onto Column, and the relationship quickly became one of Column’s most valuable sources of insight into what publishers need.

In 2022, that collaboration took a major step forward when Restoration NewsMedia piloted Column’s automated affidavit service. Before the pilot, the publisher had a full-time staff member dedicated solely to affidavits. With Column handling verification, notarization, and delivery of the final affidavit — typically within two to four business days — Restoration NewsMedia was able to take affidavits off its team’s plate entirely.

“We literally don’t touch affidavits at all,” Zepezauer said at the time. “Column handles the entire process, end-to-end.”

That freed-up capacity didn’t disappear: the staff member who had managed public notices moved into the business office, supporting billing and revenue work across all five papers. The pilot helped prove a model that Column has since brought to publishers across the country and laid the groundwork for the deeper operational partnership Column Pro now represents.

What is Column Pro

Column Pro helps newspapers strengthen their public notice business by adding specialized technology, dedicated staff, and deep public notice expertise to their existing team while giving newspaper employees more capacity to focus on growth.

Each Pro partner gets a dedicated team of U.S.-based Column Reps, who come from the best legal notice departments at newspapers across the country and are dedicated to helping the industry modernize public notice. They know the workflow inside and out, respond quickly, and work alongside publishers and their customers to manage notices accurately and reliably.

Pro partners get more than extra hands; they get public notice expertise built across Column’s network of more than 1,600 newspapers. Column Reps know state-by-state publication requirements, the common sticking points for government, legal, and business customers, and the best practices that keep notices compliant and on schedule. That knowledge becomes part of the publisher’s own team from day one.

Because Column Reps work in Column’s platform every day, they can process hundreds of notices each week while reducing errors and providing faster turnaround times. That efficiency allows them to strengthen customer relationships and deliver more responsive support and careful oversight.

For Restoration NewsMedia, Column Pro builds on the same idea that made the affidavit pilot successful: when Column takes on the specialized, time-consuming parts of public notice, the newspaper’s team can focus on the work that grows the business.

A Better Placement Experience, Better Margins

Column Pro is designed to improve the experience for everyone who places notices with Restoration NewsMedia. With Column Reps managing the workflow, customers get faster responses, consistent support, and a simpler path from submission to publication. A smoother placement experience makes it easier for customers to keep coming back and easier for the publisher to win new notice business.

At the same time, Column Pro improves margins by reducing the operational work required to run the legal notice business. Instead of dedicating internal staff time to processing notices, Restoration NewsMedia can redirect that capacity toward other priorities across its papers.

As a Pro partner, Restoration NewsMedia also benefits from Column’s growing Automated Placement network, which connects high-volume organizations placing notices at scale with partnered newspapers.

Expert Support from Placement to Payment

Column Pro’s support doesn’t end when a notice publishes. Pro partners also benefit from Column’s collections services, which help publishers follow up on outstanding invoices, reduce A/R, and get paid faster for the notices they’ve already run.

For Restoration NewsMedia, that means one expert team supporting the full life of a notice — from the first customer question to final payment — so the publisher’s staff can stay focused on growing the business.

Looking Ahead

For two longtime partners, Column Pro is a natural next chapter. Restoration NewsMedia helped prove that automation could take real work off a newspaper’s plate. Now, with Column’s public notice experts on its team and support from placement through payment, the publisher is positioned to grow its legal notice business and pursue new revenue across its papers.

“Column Pro is the natural next step for a partnership that’s always been built on shared goals,” Zepezauer said. “Public notice keeps our communities informed, and we want our papers to be where people can count on finding it. With Column’s team working alongside ours, we’re well positioned to grow this part of our business for years to come.”

About Restoration NewsMedia

Restoration NewsMedia is a family-owned North Carolina newspaper company dedicated to preserving quality local journalism in an era of media consolidation. Founded in 2019 as a partnership among family-owned newspapers, the company publishes five community newspapers: The Wilson Times; The Enterprise; The Johnstonian News; The Ledger News; and The Wake Weekly. From Wilson County to Wake County, its reporters and editors cover local government, education, business, and the people and events that shape daily life. Learn more at restorationnewsmedia.com.

About Column

Column.us makes public information more accessible and reliable by modernizing the infrastructure behind public notice. Trusted by more than 1,600 newspapers and 30,000 governments, law firms, and businesses across all 50 states, Column brings newspapers, governments, law firms, businesses, and the public together in one system for placing, publishing, managing, and accessing important notices. Learn more at www.column.us.