Ad Layout Introduction Put it in writing The layout sheet Indicating copy and art The copy sheet Keying copy Keying art Other things about art Digital artwork How art scales The model release form Proofs Managing proofs Credits and adjustments More on adjustments 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

Even if you laid out everything properly and keyed up everything the right way, there's no guarantee that the ad will appear correctly in the newspaper. An ad can pass through many hands on its way to getting into the newspaper. And remember that when you're creating a brand new product every day or week from scratch, there will always be problems--the ad doesn't make it in the paper, it's in the wrong place, the phone number is wrong, etc.

For example, one newspaper I worked for once ran an ad for a doctor specializing in spider vein treatments, though the ad appeared with the headline "spider vein transplants". The same newspaper made it on the Letterman show when they ran an ad for a restaurant that was supposed to feature broiled chicken, but instead read "broiled children".

Unfortunately, you'll have your own similar stories soon. In fact, you'll avoid a lot of surprises and disappointments if you just assume that one of your ads will appear wrong in each issue.

Something that will help but still won't save you all the time is to request a proof.

When you do send in the ad reservation form (or reserve it directly on your computer) with your ad layout, copy and artwork attached, you can request to see a copy of the final ad that production creates before it goes into the newspaper.

This will mean that you'll have to get the ad to production a little earlier than normal, but at first, or at any time you find your ads aren't coming out the way you hoped, you might want to request a proof.

A proof is basically just a printout or a photocopy of the ad and, as you'll soon see, there will be an area on your newspaper's ad reservation form (or a field if you're entering it directly into your ad reservation system) for you to mark that you are requesting a proof.

A proof is not something you or your advertiser requests to see how an ad will look before fine-tuning it. Before a proof is even requested, the look of the ad should have been decided and communicated clearly to production. The idea of a proof is simply to check the accuracy of the contents of the ad. If you change the proof and hand it back to production, those changes should only be to those parts of the ad that appear differently than what you requested on the layout. Although in an emergency, production will make any changes you need, try to avoid that if at all possible.

Also, keep in mind that you can't request a proof until the ad is reserved and the account has agreed to buy the ad. A proof will simply give him the opportunity to check for any mistakes.

Next: Managing proofs