Newspaper ads: cost and reach

Booking a newspaper advertisement is more negotiable and more technical than it appears, and most advertisers accept the first offer.

The numbers behind the rate

Three different figures get quoted and confused.

Circulation is copies distributed. Readership is people who read a copy, usually estimated at two to three per copy. Attention is the share who saw your page, which is far lower and rarely quoted.

Plan with circulation and treat readership multipliers as optimistic. The number that actually matters is the response you measure.

Position beats size

An advertisement half the size in a good position outperforms a larger one buried among competitors. Position surcharges are often modest and almost always worth paying.

What to negotiate

1. Discount from card. Start by asking what is available. Reductions of a third are common.
2. Series rates. Committing to six insertions typically halves the per-insertion cost.
3. Remnant space. Ask what is unsold close to deadline and take it at a fraction of the rate.
4. Free placement in the online edition, frequently thrown in.
5. Editorial adjacency, which costs nothing to request.
6. Production, which many publications will do at no charge.

What the advertisement must contain

Local newspaper advertising fails most often for the same three reasons: no clear offer, no reason to act now, and no easy way to respond.

The minimum: one headline stating the benefit, one specific offer or reason, the business name, and one obvious response route in large type. A telephone number set in 8 point is not a response route.

Frequency over size

A quarter page six times outperforms a full page once, in almost every measured comparison. Recognition builds through repetition, and a single insertion is seen by a fraction of the readership.

If the budget allows only one insertion, reconsider whether newspaper is the right channel.

Deadlines and artwork

Booking deadlines are typically several days before publication and artwork deadlines earlier. Missing them means either no insertion or an advertisement assembled hastily by the publication.

Supply artwork at the specified dimensions, in the specified colour space, with fonts embedded. Files rejected at the last moment are the most common cause of a wasted booking.