A growing company meets a scaling challenge
CherryRoad Media has built its model on what Lee Bachlet calls “marrying two worlds” — combining local journalism with the backing of a technology-driven parent company. That approach has enabled rapid expansion, but it also forced the company to rethink how it operates at scale.
“We want to be the most efficient newspaper operation out there,” Bachlet said. “We look for those pieces we think we do well, and we look at those pieces where we think other people do better than us, and then we find partners in that space.”
For CherryRoad, legal notices — especially affidavits — quickly stood out as an area where a specialist could outperform internal processes.
Manual complexity limiting performance
CherryRoad had already centralized much of its legal workflow, but affidavit production remained a bottleneck. “Affidavits were always a challenge for us,” Bachlet said. “To be honest, we just weren’t handling them that well.”
As the company expanded into new markets, the complexity multiplied. Each state introduced its own rules, formats, and timelines, creating friction across the operation. That friction had real consequences. As Bachlet put it: “Legals don’t get paid until an affidavit is produced.” Delays in production slowed invoicing, tightened cash flow, and increased the risk of service issues for customers.
Partnering for scale
CherryRoad had already been using Column’s platform to streamline legal workflows. But as the business grew, the team made a broader decision to rely on Column as a specialist partner. “As we were really starting to grow, we realized Column was the best partner for us in the legal space,” Bachlet said.
The complexity of multi-state affidavit management made that decision straightforward. “Running affidavits in 19 states across the country is highly complex,” he explained. “In every single state, the affidavits can all be a little different… But Column has it down.”
That expertise became the differentiator. “Column’s knowledge and experience trump ours,” Bachlet said. “That’s what makes them the right partner for us.”
Unlocking growth through focus
By outsourcing one of its most complex and time-consuming workflows, CherryRoad was able to refocus internal resources on higher-value activities — and remove a key constraint on growth. “We got better at handling legals by not handling them,” Bachlet said.
The shift reflects a broader philosophy that continues to guide the company’s expansion: build strength where it matters most, and rely on trusted partners everywhere else. “In the end, we’ve got to make sure every piece of our business is being run as efficiently as possible,” Bachlet said.
About Column:
Column builds the technical infrastructure that powers modern public notice, connecting newspapers, governments, legal professionals, and the public through an efficient, compliant platform. Today, thousands of publishers and tens of thousands of agencies, firms, and individuals nationwide rely on Column to keep their communities informed. The platform centralizes notice placement, proofs, affidavits, and billing in one place. By automating high-friction operational steps and standardizing the back office, Column helps publishers protect and grow public notice revenue while making public information easier to access for local communities. We’re reimagining how public information connects people, institutions, and media.
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