How Magazine and Newspaper Ads Work

When computers became ubiquitous and people started communicating more frequently with email than with any combination of live meetings, telephone conversations or the now (truly) lost art of the written letter, many prognosticators, influenced by environmentalists, declared there would soon be “paperless” offices and indeed, a paperless world.

In fact, of course, the emergence of technology, if anything, has increased the amount of paper that flies around, both in the office and in the consumer world. There are more books published, more magazines printed, et cetera, by a massive amount than there were in 1980. And we think office filing cabinets are getting bigger, not smaller, even if a lot of that stuff is also being scanned into databases.While the newspaper companies themselves may be worried about becoming irrelevant, that has to do with their timing and the freshness and completeness of their information, not the fact that the information is distributed on pieces of inky paper – which still are more functionally reliable than most technology (and certainly easier to carry into the executive john). Newspapers are fundamentally not going anywhere.

What the continuing ubiquity of print publications means to the Internet entrepreneur is that all of the available print outlets for branding, marketing, and advertising are still readily available, somewhat comparatively cheaper than they used to be, and can be used very effectively to supplement and in some cases perhaps replace parts of, any online marketing strategy.

By “print ad” we mean two things:

o A placed, purchased (or bartered) professionally designed advertisement in a newspaper, magazine or other periodical publication, including column ads, partial and full page ads, cover ads, etc

Or

o A classified ad, which can be found in the back of all newspapers and many magazines and trade journals

These are quite different animals, with quite different likely strategies and outcomes, and of course, investment requirements.

Let’s take a quick look at how you can drive Web traffic with a print ad or classified, who is likely to see them, and what kind of businesses will benefit the most.

How Magazine and Newspaper Ads Work, How to Buy, How to Use.