Newspaper Advertising Costs: 8 Factors to Consider

Calculating and comparing newspaper advertising costs can quickly get complicated. Once you’ve scoured an advertising rate sheet in a newspaper, you’re faced with the delightful challenge of making sense of it all. There is no “one size fits all” to make life easier. Instead, newspaper advertising costs depend on a number of factors, some of which may surprise you. To answer the question “How much does it cost?”, the answer would be: “It all depends.”

The 8 factors that affect newspaper advertising costs (within a publication) are:

• Ad type
• Size
• weekday
• removable golden section
• page position within a section
• left side vs right side
• color vs black and white
• annual spending/spending commitment

In this article, I will look at the 8 factors that determine newspaper advertising costs in Australia. I will also provide an example of how much it would cost to place a display ad in The Courier Mail (a Queensland newspaper). As you’ll see, newspaper advertising costs can add up quickly. If you’re on a tight budget, like many of us these days, knowing what drives cost the most allows you to cut where you can.

#1 Ad Type – Display VS Classifieds VS Insertions

The first factor that decides the cost of a newspaper ad is the type of ad. Most Australian newspapers offer several different types. Banner ads appear throughout the newspaper and may use colors, illustrations, photos, or fancy fonts to attract the reader’s attention. These provide a great deal of creative control over the content of the ad, not limited to just the copy. They are also not grouped according to classification, unlike classified ads. Display ads are usually charged at a rate per inch of a single column. In other words, the height in centimeters and the width in columns determines the cost of the advertising space. On the other hand, classified ads are usually charged on a ‘lineage’ or per line basis.

Another form of advertising offered by most major newspapers is ‘inserts’: separate advertisements that are placed within the newspaper and may be longer than one page. Inserts are generally charged at a rate of per 1,000 per number of pages. For the purposes of this article, we will limit our discussion to showing ads.

#2 Size matters

The second factor that contributes to the cost of newspaper advertising is size. As mentioned above, display ad costs are calculated based on their height in centimeters and width in columns. Most newspapers have their own standard size ad slots, which your ad must fit into. Some newspapers offer non-standard size slots, such as a ‘U’ shaped ad around the edges of an open newspaper, but be prepared to pay a higher price for irregular sizes and shapes.

Let’s look at the standard sizes available at The Courier Mail, as an example.

• “Small Page Strip”, 6cm high by 7 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day (based on a weekday casual rate of AU$58.51) is AU$2,457.42.
• “Medium page stripe”, 8cm high by 7 columns wide, minimum casual cost per day is $AU3276.56.
• “Quarter page stripe”, 10cm high by 7 columns wide, minimum casual cost per day is $AU4095.70.
• “Half page landscape”, 20cm high by 7 columns wide, minimum casual cost per day is $AU8191.40.
• “Full page”, 38cm high by 7 columns wide, minimum casual cost per day is $AU15563.66.
• “Vertical half page”, 38 cm high by 4 columns wide, the minimum informal cost per day is $AU8893.52.
• “Third page vertical”, 38 cm high by 3 columns wide, the minimum informal cost per day is AU$6670.14.
• “Quarter vertical page”, 38 cm high by 2 columns wide, the minimum informal cost per day is $AU 4446.76.
• “Half page portrait”, 28cm high by 5 columns wide, minimum casual cost per day is $AU8191.40.
• “Portrait Third Page”, 20cm high by 4 columns wide, minimum casual cost per day is $AU4680.80.
• “Quarter page portrait”, 20cm high by 3 columns wide, minimum casual cost per day is $AU3510.60.

Here you can see that the cost of a standard size display ad can range from at least $2,457.42 per day for a small page banner to at least $15,563.66 per day for a full page ad. That’s a lot of money to invest in a single page, which will only be published in a day. Most of us just don’t have that kind of cash to spend, so you’d really need to know what you were doing. This example demonstrates how much the size of an ad affects price.

#3 day of the week

The third factor that contributes to the cost of a newspaper ad is the day of the week the ad runs. Newspaper circulation is generally higher on weekends, so advertising rates for major Australian newspapers are adjusted accordingly. In our The Courier Mail example, rates are cheapest on weekdays, most expensive on Saturdays, and most expensive on Sundays. For the most basic display ads, Saturday ads are 25% more expensive than Monday-Friday ads, and Sunday ads are almost 90% more expensive than Monday-Friday ads.

However, this pattern can vary, depending on the circulation of a particular publication. For example, The Age is more expensive on a Saturday. To illustrate what a big difference it makes: a small-page strip ad in The Courier Mail on a weekday would cost at least $2,457.42, and the exact same ad running on a Sunday would cost at least $4,637.64.

#4 Different sections or elevations

Most newspapers are divided into different sections and many have elevators, and this is the fourth factor that determines newspaper advertising costs. Different sections attract different readers and different volumes of readers, so ad rates are adjusted to reflect this. For example, an ad placed in the CareerOne (Employment) lift-out in The Courier Mail costs 2% more than the general section. Rates for CareerOne also vary by day of the week, as mentioned above. Some examples of other sections that may have different rates include: Adult Services, Funeral Notices, Real Estate, and Businesses.

#5 Page position within a section

The next factor that can significantly affect the price of a newspaper ad is the page number the ad appears on, within a given section. The most expensive part of the newspaper is usually the front section, which can include the first 10 or more pages, and is known as “early general news” or EGN for short. In our The Courier Mail example, page 2 in the EGN section attracts a 60% load. Similarly, the first 11 pages have at least a 50% markup. This type of upload is common practice in Australian news publications. Now let’s say we want to place a small page strip ad in The Courier Mail on a weekday, on page 3 in EGN, the cost would be at least $4054.74.

The front and back pages of other key sections of the newspaper, such as Business, also attract a higher load. For The Courier Mail, the last page attracts a 65% markup. You can see how the page position of an ad can have a substantial influence on the price.

#6 Left Side VS Right Side

The next factor is also related to ad position, but it relates to which side of an open newspaper the ad appears on. You may be surprised to learn that, in some publications, an ad that appears on the right side of an open newspaper will cost more than one that appears on the left side. This has to do with how readers actually read a newspaper and where their attention is focused. This factor can also be related to the page position of an ad and in which section it appears. For example, in The Courier Mail, for ads on pages 12-21, a right-side ad costs 5% more than a left-side ad.

#7 Color VS Black and White

Another factor that substantially affects the price of a newspaper ad is whether and how many colors the ad has. Color ads are more expensive than monochrome or black and white ads. Some newspapers may distinguish between multicolored ads and those that only feature an added color (called “spot color”). For example, The Courier Mail charges 30% more for multi-color display ads and 20% more for color ‘spot’ display ads. Remember, this is combined with any positional loading.

So let’s say we want our full color small page strip ad in The Courier Mail on a weekday, on page 3, which would be calculated as: $2457.42 + 30% color charge = $3194.65 + 65% positional charge for page 3 = $5271.17

You can see here how our ad cost has more than doubled after taking color and ad position into account.

#8 Annual Expenditure/Expenditure Commitment

Now here’s a factor that also affects the price of your newspaper ad, but this time it’s a decrease, with a catch of course. If you have the budget and are prepared to commit to spending a certain amount annually, usually by entering into a 12-month contract, then you may qualify for a discount. However, the discount depends on how much you are willing to spend. For example, to qualify for a 4% discount on advertising rates from The Courier Mail, you must spend at least $38,500 per year. If you’re a small business owner, chances are you’re not working on this kind of budget, so goodbye discounting.

In case you’re curious, businesses that annually spend at least $2.3 million with Courier Mail receive a 13% discount. In my opinion, this form of discount simply highlights how biased mainstream advertising is toward big business. Where’s the discount for all the struggling small businesses? But that is another story.

Summary:

To recap those 8 factors again and how they will affect your ad cost:

• ad type – display VS classifieds VS insertions – rates based on different units of measure
• size: pay more for larger ads
• day of the week – weekends are more expensive
• section or survey: the first general news (EGN) is more expensive
• page position within a section: front and back covers cost more
• left side VS right side – RHS is more expensive
• color VS black and white: pay more for full color
• annual spend/spend commitment: get a discount if you spend a lot

Now that you know what affects the price of a newspaper ad, you’re better prepared to decide where and how you want to spend your advertising dollars. If newspaper advertising seems out of your budget, then it might be worth considering more cost-effective alternatives, such as online advertising.