About a dozen press associations received a bit of a surprise last week when one of the two major vendors of statewide public-notice websites announced it was “sunsetting” that part of its business. In the release announcing its decision, Column said it was making the change to focus on its public notice platform for publishers, which it says “has grown considerably … (o)ver the past year.”
Column is giving its press-association clients plenty of time to migrate to a new service; they have until May 31, 2024, to find a new vendor. The company recommended that its clients transition to the other major statewide public-notice website vendor — the Illinois Press Association — which Column called “the best alternative provider of public notice website hosting.”
A survey of statewide public notice websites
Statewide public notice websites sponsored by the newspaper industry have been the focus of major change in the last few years. Many states enacted new laws requiring notices to be published on the sites and about two dozen state press groups have switched website vendors.
The vendor shift has been driven by the growing adoption of online ad-entry systems and the withdrawal from the market of the first vendor to license a web-based platform to power the websites.