Other parts of the rate card
As you may recall from the start of this section, the rate card was originally simply a card with the rates on it, but over the years rate cards have expanded to provide more information and also protect the newspaper. I'd suggest you take a look at your rate card and read every word on it. It'll answer a lot of questions you might have. Here are a few things you'll probably find besides rates.

Market coverage information and map
Your newspaper has all sorts of separate information about your newspaper's readers, its market and its coverage of that market, which is collected along with the rate card and put into a folder called a media kit. In addition, some newspapers will print some of that same informative and promotional information about the newspaper right in the rate card in case that's the only thing the potential advertiser reads. For example, you might find numbers on circulation and detailed readership information along with a map of the area with the places in which your newspaper circulates colored in.

Readership and circulation
Remember, there's a huge difference between circulation and readership and your customers can easily be confused by salespeople from competing media. Circulation is the number of newspapers that actually circulate in the area. Readership is based on the fact that more than one person might read the same newspaper. The average number of readers who read the same newspaper, or the pass-along rate as some call it, is usually in the area of 2.5 people per copy. So a 100,000 circulation newspaper with 2.5 readers reading each copy would have 250,000 readers.

Most newspapers conduct readership surveys periodically and can tell you exactly what the pass-along rate is, but again for most newspapers, it's about 2.5 people. So the next time a potential advertiser says that your competitors have double the circulation that you do, make sure that they're comparing apples to apples and really talking circulation, not readership. You might also want to inquire where the competitors got their pass along rates. Maybe it was just an estimate and not based on any legitimate survey.

Promotional messages
You might also find other information from your newspaper's readership and market surveys in the rate card, such as how much the readers make, where they look to buy certain things (hopefully your newspaper), what they're about to buy, how much they'll spend, etc.