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Newspaper Discounts - Even a Freebie!© Sharon Hill
This issue continues our discussion of newspaper terminology. Today we first look at the various discount options available to newspaper advertisers.
Open Rate: This simply means the rate that you would be charged for running a one-at-a-time advertisement, without discounts. This is also referred to as the non-contract rate. Bulk Space Contract: This discount is offered for an advertising commitment to a specific number of advertising inches within a specified time period, usually a 52-week period. E.g., if you would promise to place 200 inches of advertising in the newspaper within the next year your per inch rate would be lower than if you ran one ad one time that year. Frequency Discount: This contract rate offers the best discount. Typically you would commit to running a minimum size ad each and every week for a 52-week period, although some newspapers also offer 13 and 26-week commitments. Although this seems like a hefty commitment I always encourage anyone who anticipates advertising with any regularity to sign the 52-week contract. In the case of classified advertising, the minimum commitment is often as small as 3 lines of advertising, and for that you earn as much as a 65% discount on all classified advertising that year. I know it can sometimes seem scary to sign on the dotted line but the worst thing that would happen were you not to fulfill an advertising contract is that the newspaper would charge you the difference between the discount rate they had invoiced you for and the non-discount rate you would have earned had you not signed the contract. There really is no penalty. One word of caution, however: with extremely few exceptions, the classified and retail departments of newspapers keep their contracts separate from each other. In other words, signing a classified advertising contract will not offer you a retail discount, and vice versa. The reason for this is that the sizing is so different from one to the other that trying to convert rates is next to impossible, and in numerous newspapers the frequency discount is available to classified advertisers only. Before we take a look at a buying decision we need to go over sizing. Retail, or ROP, sizing is universal. The term used is SAU, standard advertising units. What this means is that each column width in ROP is always 2 1/16". The depth (height) is measured in standard inches. The total size of a display ad is called column inches, but simply means square inches - width x depth. So, if you have an ad that measures 4 1/8" across and 4" down you have a retail 2x4 ad, or 8 column inches total. You find the per-inch rate and multiply that by 8 for the total cost of the ad.
The copyright of the article Newspaper Discounts - Even a Freebie! in Recruiting Employees is owned by Paym Bergson. Permission to republish Newspaper Discounts - Even a Freebie! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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