Reserving Space Introduction The Res. Form: part one The Res. Form: part two The Res. Form: part three The Res. Form: part four The Res. Form: part five The Res. Form: part six The Res. Form: part seven The fastest way to increase sales! Participate in this award-winning, newspaper-specific ad sales course on-site or in a Webinar.  • Get past upfront stalls and objections without any pushing  • Make the account believe he really needs you  • Get better information from your prosepct  • Develop quick ad strategies that work the very first time  • Eliminate size, frequency, content, cost and most other objections before they ever arise  • Get dramatic responses for all kinds of advertisers  • Never have to push an advertiser to run again click here

Special Instructions
Your newspaper's ad reservation form may contain an area for special instructions. Whether you're requesting a spec ad (usually a separate form, actually) or reserving space, this is where you would communicate with the art department any points that aren't included elsewhere on the layout or the form.

The form may also include several check boxes that can be useful. For example if it's a spec ad, the sample form below includes check boxes such as "follow exactly" which limits the artist to the information you've provided exclusively, and "use your own judgment" which asks that the artist follow your layout but also gives them the freedom to interpret any unclear instructions as they see fit. The check box "adjust to best advantage" gives the artist latitude to make improvements on the layout, while the check box "change entire look" communicates that you would like the artist to improve the overall layout of the ad.

Again, in many cases, these special instructions appear not on the ad reservation form, which deals primarily with ads that are sold, but instead on the spec ad request form. In either case, you should have options for how creative you want your artist to be when making your spec ad. If you're not given options, you should probably just write in how much creative control the artist should have.

This degree of creative control only applies to spec ads, since ads that are already sold should require no creativity, since the production people should be following your layout exactly since that's what the customer already agreed to.

If you need help with an ad you sold, you should send it through first to your art department for help. This means you've got to get the ad information from the advertiser earlier so the art department has time to work on the ad before passing it back to you or on to production.

Positions/Pricing
Most newspapers offer premium positions for a fee and these usually include first ad page, second ad page, stock page. One popular request is far forward. While we know of no study that shows far forward is a more effective position in terms of response, some advertisers will insist that you try to get them toward the front of the paper. At some newspapers, there is such demand for "far forward" that they need to charge a premium for that request as well.

You should keep in mind that the account may agree to pay a premium charge, in addition to the total cost of the ad, if their ad receives a premium position in the paper. This doesn't guarantee that the advertiser will get the position he has requested and as you might expect, the advertiser won't have to pay for the premium position if the newspaper can't accommodate it.

There may also be a line on your ad reservation form entitled "special price". If you and your manager agree to a discounted price for your advertiser, it would be written in here. Remember that some newspapers make it policy to never go "off the rate card", so this may be used only in special circumstances, or not at all.

That should be most, if not all, of the things you'll find on your own layout form, although the terminology might be slightly different. I'd suggest you take a look at your own reservation form now and see the similarities. Ask your manager about anything on the form that I haven't covered or any terms you're not sure the meaning of.

Next: Ad reservation form: part seven