What Are the Different Newspaper Advertisement Sizes?

No matter how you look at it, placing advertising in a newspaper is not cheap. I have placed several ads over the years for my business and have tried to keep track of what works best.

There are always choices of large, small, color, black and white, highlighted words, where to place the ad etc. Many times I think it depends more on the season of the year than the actual ad itself.

What I have noticed is that it seems to pay off if I consistently have some kind of ad running. This seems to bring in more of a steady flow of business, and I am more comfortable with that then big fluctuations.

A smaller sized ad in the center of the page also seems to do better than a medium sized ad at the bottom of the page. There is something about the center of the page that seems to stand out more than being at the bottom.

I don't use newspaper classified ads nearly as often as I used to when I wanted to sell something, but they usually worked well.

We have a small local newspaper, and a larger city newspaper to choose from. The difference in prices to place ads is quite large.

My first choice was to always go with the local newspaper and have a larger ad. I still paid quite a bit less money for this ad then I would for a small ad in the larger paper.

I realize that the circulation is not nearly as large, but figured this was always the best place to start. Most of them time I was able to sell the item I wanted and never had to go with the smaller ad in the newspaper that had a much larger circulation.

When I served as ad director for a newspaper, I was always amazed at how easily confused customers were when it came to ad sizes. I instructed the sales reps to always let their clients know that 2x5 meant 2 column inches, or 3.6 actual inches, by 5 inches instead of literally 2 inches by 5 inches. Still, we ended up receiving ads from them that measured 2 inches wide.

It would be easier to just define ad spaces by fractions of a page. That way, they could not even guess what a sixteenth of a page would be. They would have to rely on actual measurements. However, we don’t do this, because we want customers to have the flexibility of going up or down an inch or even a half inch in height. This keeps them happy.

It is very frustrating to a graphic designer at a newspaper to receive an already designed ad from an advertiser or individual that doesn’t fit the space that they bought. This is because the designer will have to break the ad down into pieces and cut and paste it back together to fit the space, or he may have to redesign it from scratch.

I know this because I worked as an intern at a paper during college. We received a lot of completed ads that didn’t fit the ad space. Often, it was more time consuming to chop the ad up into bits and rearrange them than to work up an ad ourselves.

The sales reps always told the advertisers the size that the ad should be, but sometimes they just sent us an ad they ran with another publication and hoped it would fit. We were told to never stretch an ad, because that would distort the images. The redesign had to match the original as closely as possible.

I am a sales representative for a newspaper. In addition to our daily paper, we publish several smaller special sections of a different size. For our regular paper, we sell ad space by the column inch, but for our special sections, we sell space as either an eighth, a fourth, a half, or a full page.

Our graphic designers have a list of the specific ad space measurements by width. They each keep a copy of it posted on their walls for easy reference. The height of an ad is literal, so a 2x4 ad would be an actual 4 inches tall.

I design ads for a newspaper, so I have the challenge of making text and images fit into a specified space in an attractive fashion. We sell space by the column inch, and our most popular sizes are 2 columns by 4 inches and 2 columns by 2 inches. Advertisers who are trying to save money but have too much to say to fit into a 2x2 will buy a 2x4, but those who just want the basic information, like logo, address, and phone number, buy a 2x2.

We also sell quite a few 3x5 and 3x10.5 ad spaces. Advertisers who really want to get noticed or who want to list a lot of sale items buy these bigger sizes. Car dealers frequently buy 3x10.5 ad spaces and list several cars, along with prices and features.

Full-page newspaper ads are a great investment if you are opening a new business. While they are quite pricey having a full-page ad can really help you attract customers, especially if you add some coupons to the bottom of your ad or a contest.

If you can't go for broke with a full-page advertisement sometimes you can get a good deal if you buy a series of smaller ad space over time. You can make an agreement to run your ad for several weeks and it reduces the overall price. Plus they may throw in a special offer, such as a half-page advertisement when you buy so many weeks of advertising. It is definitely worth asking if the newspaper has any advertising promotions.

Looking at a newspaper is the best way to gauge whether or not the size of an advertisement will suit your needs. My family runs a small business and they sent me out to figure out which newspaper advertisements are the best size, and of course, placement is important too. You'll usually have to pay more money if you want your add in a specific section.

We found that we got the most bang for our buck by purchasing ads that ran alongside articles featured in the home section. My family sells wood flooring, so there is nothing better than strategic placement.