Advertisng department in media

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INTRODUCTION
The word advertising comes from the latin word "advertere meaning” to turn the minds of
towards". Some of the definitions given by various authors are: According to William J. Stanton,
"Advertising consists of all the activities involved in presenting to an audience a non-personal, 2
sponsor-identified, paid-for message about a product or organization." According to American
Marketing Association "advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion
of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor". Advertising is used for communicating
business information to the present and prospective customers. It usually provides information
about the advertising firm, its product qualities, place of availability of its products, etc.
Advertisement is indispensable for both the sellers and the buyers. However, it is more important
for the sellers. In the modern age of large scale production, producers cannot think of pushing sale
of their products without advertising them. Advertisement supplements personal selling to a great
extent. Advertising has acquired great importance in the modern world where tough competition
in the market and fast changes in technology, we find fashion and taste in the customers.
American Marketing Association has defined advertising as “any paid form of non-personal
presentation of ideas, goods and services by an indentified sponsor”. According to Webstar,
“Advertising is to give public notice or to announce publicity”. According to Gardner,
“Advertising is the means of mass selling that has grown up parallel with and has been made
necessary to mass production”.
NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
As an integral mass media vehicle, newspapers are vehicles of advertising meant to appeal to their
readers. As such, the advertising department is the one which is critical because it gets in the

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revenue necessary to sustain the newspaper.Getting in revenue through advertising for the
newspaper happens through various means. There can be several sections in this department one
to look after local advertising, one for classified ads, one for general / national advertising, one for
legal advertising and yet another one for preparing copy and so on. For example, there is a
complete sales team in place, whose job it is to push the newspaper as an advertising vehicle of
choice to advertising and media buying agencies acting on behalf of clients, as well as clients.
The Advertising department will accept and process orders from advertisers, to book space in the
newspapers, as well as create ads, give agencies statistics and information about the circulation
and readership of the newspaper as well, as well as work with the editorial teams to createspace,
the department carries out a number of functions, including accepting and processing orders from
advertisers, creating advertisements, providing media information to advertisers and advertising
agencies, helping businesses develop advertising plans and working with editorial teams to
develop features that will attract advertisers or help clients place their products with a coordinated
editorial write up.
An advertising department for a newspaper is responsible for generating revenue for the business
by selling advertising space to local or national organizations. To sell advertising space, the
department carries out a number of functions, including accepting and processing orders from
advertisers, creating advertisements, providing media information to advertisers and advertising
agencies, helping businesses develop advertising plans and working with editorial teams to
develop features that will attract advertisers.
Business

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The newspaper advertising department plays an important role in helping small businesses market
their products and services. According to Professional Advertising, 57 percent of adults in the
United States read a daily newspaper, and newspapers get the biggest share of advertising revenue
in the country. Over 85 percent of newspaper advertising expenditure is accounted for by local
advertisers.
Classified
Many advertisements in a newspaper are small, low in cost and generally consist of text only,
although some may include the use of photographs. These are known as classified advertisements
and they are published in a special section of the newspaper under different headings or
classifications. The advertising department takes orders for classified advertisements via
telephone, email or the Internet, and processes the orders for publication on an agreed-upon date.
Design
Advertisements that appear within the editorial sections of a newspaper are known as display
advertisements. Generally, they include photographs or illustrations as well as text. The advertising
department may offer design services to advertisers who do not have their own facilities or do not
use an advertising agency; an in-house graphic designer will create and write an advertisement to
suit the space the advertiser has purchased.
Media Data
Providing media data to advertisers is an important function of the advertising department. Media
data includes the circulation of the newspaper, its frequency of publication, geographical coverage

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and a profile of its readership based on audience research. The department also produces a rate
card that lists the costs of different sizes of advertisements, together with discounts available for
multiple bookings. Advertisers and advertising agencies use media data and rate cards to plan their
advertising campaigns. They choose a medium, such as a newspaper or magazine that reaches the
largest proportion of their target audience for the lowest cost.
Features
Advertising departments work with editorial teams to develop special features that will attract
advertisers. An example is a feature on home improvements where the editorial content would
include a series of articles on decorating, furniture placement and small building projects. The
advertising department contacts suppliers of relevant products and services, inviting them to
advertise in the feature and emphasizing the benefits of the editorial environment.
Relationships
To encourage customers to become regular advertisers, advertising departments call or visit
businesses or advertising agencies to discuss their advertising requirements. Advertising
departments also help small businesses plan advertising campaigns. Sales representatives often
meet with advertisers to discuss their business objectives and recommend the best way to use the
newspaper to advertise their products and services. Advertising departments may also offer special
deals or discounts to high-profile advertisers that they wish to attract to the newspaper.

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Three types of advertising dominate modern newspapers:
1. Display ads: With photos and graphics, display ads can cost thousands of dollars
depending on their size. These ads, generally placed by department stores, movie theaters
and other businesses, may be prepared by an advertising agency or the advertising
department itself. They are called run-of-press ads and they produce the most revenue.
2. Classified ads: Often called want ads, these appear in a miniature typeface called agate.
These ads come from people trying to buy or sell items, businesses seeking workers or
tradespeople offering a wide variety of services.
3. Inserts: These colorful booklets, which are multipage ads for one store, are trucked to
newspapers in huge bundles for distribution with the Sunday edition. Inserts produce less
revenue than run-of-press advertising. Newspapers charge for distributing inserts, but
otherwise have no control over their content or print quality.
Reasons to Advertise in a Newspaper
Reach: No other advertising vehicle has the reach of newspapers. Nationally, nearly 105 million
adults read a newspaper in print or online on an average weekday and more than 111 million read
a Sunday newspaper. Seven in ten adults read a newspaper or visit a newspaper website in an
average week (Scarborough Research).
Quality: Your very best prospects are newspaper readers. People who are typically labeled upscale
meaning upper income, higher education, professional/ managerial occupations all count
themselves as newspaper readers. In 2010, 79%of adults with $100,000 or more income read a
newspaper or visited a newspaper website in the past week, as did 79% of college graduates and
78% of those employed in professions or in management roles.

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Targeted: From targeting ad placement by section readership to post it notes, to a few residential
blocks, newspapers can fine tune your message. 4. Immediate: Newspaper advertising is among
the fastest forms of advertising with extremely short deadlines that allow ads to be created and run
in a matter of days.
Flexibility: Newspapers, unlike most other media allow the advertiser to build an ad in any size.
Credibility/Trust: More than any other medium, consumers believe in newspaper advertising.
Thirty-six percent of adults surveyed find newspapers are trustworthy or believable, a large gap
when compared to television (8 percent), or the Internet (15 percent). (How America Shops and
Spends 2011)..
Selective vs. intrusive: Shoppers are less willing today to accept advertising that is spooned out
to them. They seek out advertising on their own. Newspapers are the medium shoppers use most
for shopping in an average week. More than half (52%) use newspapers, exceeding others like
television (36%), ads appearing in search engines (11%) or ads on general interest websites (16%)
Frank N. Magid Associates 2011.
Environment: The newspaper editorial environment typically adds credibility and legitimacy to
the brand being advertised. To readers, the advertising in a newspaper is every bit as important as
the news.
ReliedUpon: Newspaper advertising is a valuable commodity to readers. A recent research study
surveyed shoppers’ attitudes about which type of media they preferred for retail advertising. In
terms of media used to check out ads, the most valuable media in planning shopping, used for
comparing prices, most convenient, most up to date, most trustworthy, believable and preferred,
newspapers out distance all other forms combined.

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Results: Newspaper advertising works! While this point should go without saying, the fact
remains that newspapers are frequently thought of as a results medium. Newspaper ads create
traffic, move merchandise and yes, establish brands. We cannot lose track of the notion that, in a
world of thousands of messages a day, advertising in newspapers are one sure thing when it comes
to producing results.
CONCLUSION
Newspapers have been around for centuries, and surprisingly, their relevance hasn’t faded away
with time as most would have speculated. It has become a major part of advertising spends by a
variety of brands today. In fact, consumers till date have continued to place their faith in
newspapers.
This is of course due to the physical presence of a newspaper – the fact that one can see and touch
it makes it a credible and trustworthy medium. Advertisers stand to benefit largely from this. As a
matter of fact, there is more brand recall due to the non-intrusive characteristics of ads.
When people come across newspaper ads, they are not forced to see it in any way. Compared to
television and digital media, newspaper advertising scores full points in this regard. Readers are
more conscious about newspaper ads which are one of the main reasons why they are still relevant
today.

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