I went to Mega-Conference hoping to do what I find most valuable at events like this: listen closely.
In a business as rooted in local community as public notice, some of the clearest signals about where things are headed do not come from presentations. They come from conversations happening over meals and between sessions and during coffee breaks, hearing from publishers firsthand what is changing in their markets, where the pressure is showing up, and what their communities need most right now.
What I heard this year was not new. In many ways, it reinforced themes I have been hearing from publishers for some time. But there is something powerful about hearing those themes echoed across markets, roles, and rooms. It sharpens your understanding of what matters most. To be the reliable technical infrastructure behind public notice, our products and services have to keep evolving alongside the needs of our publishing partners.
Practical support has to come first
Again and again, I heard about operational strain. Smaller papers are stretched on capacity. Manual workflows take too much time. Affidavit processing is one clear example. In Louisiana, for instance, statutory changes allow for remote online notarized affidavits, but some publishers are still working through physical copies and manual signatures, which adds time and complexity to the process.
One publisher captured a shared tension especially well: while the manual work is time-consuming, there is still a desire for personal interaction, which some see as being at odds with modernization.
It made me think about one of our operating principles at Column: be the person you can count on. Human relationships are what made this business successful: the conversations we’ve had with partners, the trust customers place in our support team, the reputation our Column Reps have built by being responsive, reliable, and easy to work with. The people we serve know us. It reflects something fundamental about how we work and how we have grown: people trust Column because they know there are real people behind the product who care about the industry they serve, are here to listen, and will respond thoughtfully.
When we make our software more efficient and automate more of the repetitive work behind the scenes, it gives our team more capacity to deliver the high-touch service we pride ourselves on.
Done well, modernization does not need to replace the human side of the work. It can create more space for it.
Trust is not separate from the work
Trust came up in a lot of different ways throughout the conference. Public notice is not just a workflow. It is tied to community expectations, publisher relationships, and public credibility.
One of the most meaningful moments in our roundtable was hearing current partners speak up on our behalf. David Dunn-Rankin shared his perspective on working with us in Florida and reinforced the importance of approaching these partnerships in a way that respects the role of the newspaper. That kind of peer validation carried real weight in the room. It was a reminder that trust in this industry is built through reputation, experience, and publishers hearing directly from other publishers.
That same theme came up more broadly in conversations about the long-term work of maintaining confidence in the public notice system. Several people talked about the importance of rebuilding and strengthening ties with government officials, readers, and local stakeholders, not just during the legislative session, but throughout the year.
That is shaping how I think about Column’s role. Trust cannot be treated as a secondary value to the product or as separate from our strategy. It has to be a priority that’s reflected in how we show up, how we partner, and how we help publishers navigate change.
Publishers are adapting, and Column should help them do that well
Being in the business of connection
Mega-Conference also expanded my thinking on how Column can create value beyond software.
At its core, our product is a connector. It helps advertisers and organizations connect with newspapers, helps newspapers better serve their communities, and helps the public access important local information. Being at Mega made me think about how we can carry that role further. Because we work across such a broad network of newspapers, we are able to hear patterns across markets, surface the different narratives emerging around the country, and learn from how publishers are adapting in real time.
That puts us in a position not just to build tools for modernization, but to help foster stronger conversations across the industry. We should be listening carefully, showing up consistently, and doing what we can to connect publishers across regions so they can share strategy, compare experiences, and recognize that many of their challenges are shared.
In a world that can make us feel like we are constantly connected, connection can often feel thin, and we can often still feel alone in what we are facing. Publishers are making their needs clear, and I want to make sure the way Column shows up proves that we’re listening.
If Column is in the business of connection, our responsibility is not just to build the infrastructure for it, but to help create the conditions for it to grow.