How Column and Proof Digitized the Affidavit of Publication
For decades, the affidavit of publication has served as the formal record confirming that a public notice was properly published. Courts, government agencies, and attorneys rely on these documents to verify compliance with statutory requirements. Yet the process of creating, signing, and managing affidavits was almost entirely manual. Column, a public notice software company, set out to modernize that process. The team built a compliance-driven system to automate affidavit creation, execution, and storage, then partnered with Proof to handle the notarization step securely online. Together, we created a complete, legally compliant digital affidavit workflow that eliminates paper, reduces risk, and improves trust for publishers and legal submitters alike.
Compliance at Scale
Every affidavit of publication must meet specific legal standards. It must list the exact publication dates, be executed by an authorized representative, include a valid notarial seal, and be retained for years after the notice runs. When even one of those steps breaks down, the entire record can be invalidated. Before the integration with Proof, affidavits were drafted in Word, printed, signed in ink, notarized in person, scanned, and uploaded back into a system. Each publication had its own version of that workflow, which created delays and inconsistencies. Errors were common and compliance reviews were time-consuming. Megan Villanueva, Vice President of Product, explained that the bottleneck was clear. “We serve hundreds of newspapers across the country, all of them dealing with different legal and formatting rules,” Hill said. “The affidavit step was the part nobody could standardize. We wanted to build compliance into the software itself so it was impossible to get it wrong.”
Embedding Proof into the Workflow
Column’s affidavit service connects directly to its core public notice workflow. Once a notice is published, the platform automatically generates a pre-formatted affidavit using verified data from that notice. Templates adjust to meet jurisdictional requirements, every version is logged and time-stamped, and only authorized users can sign. To eliminate the need for in-person notarization, Column integrated Proof’s remote online notarization technology. The partnership allows affidavits to be notarized entirely online, using identity verification, credential analysis, and encrypted video sessions that meet state RON laws. Each notarization produces a tamper-evident digital certificate that is linked directly to the Column affidavit record. The result is a seamless, end-to-end process that automatically enforces compliance while giving publishers complete visibility into every action. “Our customers care deeply about compliance,” explained Kadé Hill, Senior Manager of Digital Services. “Proof’s technology let us take that responsibility off individual staff and bake it into the system. Every notarization now includes verified identity, an audit trail, and a digital seal that cannot be altered.”
Faster, Safer, and More Reliable
Since integrating Proof in 2022, Column has completed more than 11,800 notarized transactions. What once took days now takes an average of 7 minutes. Publishers manage thousands of affidavits each month without adding staff, and legal clients can retrieve compliant records on demand. The system enforces consistency, traceability, and security across hundreds of publications. Every affidavit is linked to its source notice, sealed as an immutable record, and stored in accordance with retention laws. Government agencies, courts, and law firms now receive affidavits that are verifiable, auditable, and available long after publication. The process that once relied on paper is now fully digital, defensible, and built for scale.
Column’s approach reframed what digital transformation can look like in regulated publishing. This was never about convenience software. It was about creating infrastructure that encodes compliance directly into every transaction.
By embedding legal standards into its workflow and partnering with Proof for digital notarization, Column built a process that scales nationally without compromising on accuracy or legality. Each affidavit is executed and notarized in a secure, fully verifiable environment that aligns with how governments and law firms now expect documentation to work.
Together, Column and Proof have modernized one of the most traditional parts of public notice management. The result is a digital system that preserves trust while improving speed, accuracy, and compliance readiness across the entire industry.
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