Calculating and comparing newspaper advertising costs can quickly get complicated. Once you’ve tracked down a newspaper advertising rates card, you’re then up against the delightful challenge of earning sense of it all. There’s no “one size fits all” to produce our lives easy. Instead, newspaper advertising costs rely on numerous factors, some that you may find surprising. To answer the question, “Just how much does it cost?”, the solution could be: “Everything depends.”
The first factor that decides the cost of a newspaper advertisement, is the type of ad. Most Australian newspapers offer numerous different types. Display advertisements appear throughout a newspaper, and may use colours, illustrations, photographs, or fancy lettering to attract the reader’s attention. These give a lot of creative control over this content of the ad, without being limited to just text. naija news Additionally they aren’t grouped according to classification, unlike classified ads. Display advertisements are typically charged at a rate per single column centimetre. Quite simply, the height in centimetres and width in columns determines the cost of the advertising space. On one other hand, classified ads are typically charged centered on ‘lineage’ or per line.
Another type of advertising provided by most major newspapers are ‘inserts’ – separate advertisements that are placed inside the newspaper, and may have several page. Inserts are usually charged at a rate of per 1000 per amount of pages. For the purposes of this information, we’re going to limit our discussion to show advertisements.
The 3rd factor that contributes to the cost of a newspaper advertisement is your day of the week on that the advertisement is published. Typically, newspaper circulation is greatest on the weekends, and so the advertising rates for major Australian newspapers are adjusted accordingly. Inside our exemplory instance of The Courier Mail, the rates are cheaper on a weekday, more costly on a Saturday, and priciest on a Sunday. For the most basic display ads, Saturday ads are 25% dearer than Monday – Friday ads, and Sunday ads are almost 90% dearer than Monday – Friday ads.
This pattern can vary though, with regards to the circulation of a specific publication. For instance, The Age is priciest on a Saturday. To illustrate how much of a distinction it generates – a tiny page strip ad in The Courier Mail on a weekday could be at least $2457.42, and the same ad run using a Sunday could be at least $4637.64.
#4 Different Sections or Lift-Outs
Most newspapers are split into different sections and many have lift-outs – and this is the fourth factor that determines newspaper advertising costs. Different sections attract different readers and different volumes of readers, and so the advertising rates are adjusted to reflect this. As an example, an ad put in the CareerOne (Employment) lift-out in The Courier Mail, costs 2% more than the general section. The rates for CareerOne, also vary with regards to the day of the week, as previously mentioned above. Some samples of other sections that may have different rates include: Adult Services, Funeral Notices, Real Estate, and Business.
#5 Page Position In just a Section
Another factor that could significantly affect the price tag on a newspaper ad, could be the page number on that the ad appears, inside a certain section. Probably the most expensive part of the paper is normally the front section, which could include the very first 10 or so pages, and is called the “early general news” or EGN for short. Inside our exemplory instance of The Courier Mail, page 2 in the EGN section attracts a 60% loading. Similarly, the very first 11 pages have at least a 50% markup. This sort of loading is common practice across Australian news publications. Now let’s say we wanted to put a tiny page strip ad in The Courier Mail on a weekday, on page 3 in EGN, the fee could be at least $4054.74.
The first few pages and back pages of other key parts of the paper, such as Business, also attract a higher loading. For The Courier Mail, ab muscles back page attracts a 65% markup. You can see the way the page position of an ad may have a considerable influence on the price.
#6 Left Hand Side VS Right Hand Side
Another factor can also be related to put of the ad, but pertains to which side of an open newspaper the ad appears in. You could be surprised to understand that, in certain publications, an ad that appears on the proper hand side of an open paper, will surely cost several that appears on the left hand side. This really is related to just how readers actually read a newspaper, and where their attention is focused. This factor may also be associated with the page position of an ad, and which section it seems in. As an example, in The Courier Mail, for ads on pages 12 to 21, a right-hand side ad costs 5% greater than a left-hand side ad.
#7 Colour VS Black and White
Another factor that substantially affects the price tag on a newspaper advertisement, is perhaps the ad features colour, and just how many colours. Colour ads are far more expensive than monochrome or black and white ads. Some newspapers may distinguish between multi-colour advertisements and those that only feature one added colour (called “spot colour”). As an example, The Courier Mail charges 30% more for multi-colour display ads, and 20% more for ‘spot’ colour display ads. Remember, that this really is coupled with any positional loading.
So let’s say we wanted our small page strip ad entirely colour in The Courier Mail on a weekday, on page 3, that would be calculated as: $2457.42 + 30% colour loading = $3194.65 + 65% positional loading for page 3 = $5271.17
Now here’s a factor that also affects the price tag on your newspaper ad, but this time around it’s a decrease, with a catch, of course. When you yourself have the budget, and are prepared to commit to spending a quantity annually, usually by entering in to a 12 month contract, then you may be eligible for a discount. However, the discount depends on how much you’re prepared to spend. As an example, to qualify for a 4% discount on The Courier Mail’s advertising rates, you will need to spend at least $38500 per year. If you’re a small business owner, chances are you’re not working together with this type of budget, so bye-bye discount.
Just in case you’re curious, businesses that annually spend at least $2.3 million with the Courier Mail, be given a 13% discount. I think, this type of discounting simply highlights how biased mainstream advertising is towards big business. Where’s the discount for all your struggling small businesses? But that’s another story.