The Rate Card Introduction Basic calculations Frequency discounts Volume discounts Combination discounts Modular rates Contracts Ad agencies Market info Readership and Circ. Promotional messages Co-op information Color charges Electronic ads Deadlines Special sections Column widths Line screens Odd sizes Legal disclaimers Ad acceptance guidelines Billing and Credit 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 prospect  • 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

Almost all of the discounted rates described in earlier pages are based on a commitment by the advertiser. This is formalized by the signing of an advertising contract, or agreement, as some call it to make it sound less intimidating. It states how much the account will run, either in frequency or total column-inches (volume) or both, depending on their rate structure. You can find a sample contract at the bottom of this page.

There may be times when an advertiser is unable to honor the contract. What happens if the advertiser commits to running once every 26 weeks but stop running after 16? Once it's clear that the advertiser has not honored or will not be able to honor the contract, usually at or near the end of the time period specified in the contract, the newspaper has a few options.

Usually the first step would be to call or visit the advertiser. It's in your best interests to contact them far in advance, giving them enough time to honor the contract. Remind them that they committed to a contract and suggest that together you explore the possibility of running again.

You might also want to remind them what they agreed would happen if they didn't honor the contract. In our example, if an advertiser has signed up for 26 weeks but has stopped running after 16 weeks, you might think that the advertiser has to pay for the remaining 10 weeks he didn't run.

At almost all newspapers I've worked with, this isn't the case. Instead, once it's clear the contract has been broken, the advertiser isn't billed for the remaining ads but instead we return to the rate card, and see what the discount would have been if the account had originally signed up for 16 weeks. Going back to our frequency rate card shown earlier in this lesson, you can see that there is no 16 week contract, only a 13 and 26 week contract.

This means the advertiser did run enough to qualify for the 13 week contract. So although the advertiser was previously billed and hopefully paid for the 16 ads he did run at the 26 week contract rate, the billing department now will go back and recalculate all sixteen ads at the 13 week rate, which, of course, is a higher rate. Whatever the difference is between what he paid originally and what he would have paid at the 13 week contract rate is billed to the advertiser. This is usually called back charging.

Now, in many cases, this amount is substantial, and this could really upset an advertiser to the point that even if he pays the difference, he could decide never to run again with your newspaper. The newspaper knows this, and so some newspapers decide to go easy on the advertiser and not back-charge them at all in the hopes that they'll be keeping the door open for future advertising from that business.

Others publications take contracts very seriously, and no matter how valuable the advertiser is, they will back-charge them in every instance. While many things don't change from paper to paper, how strict a newspaper is on enforcing contracts is something that varies dramatically, so ask your manager about your newspaper's policy.

Overall, contracts are good for you because they save you the trouble of having to sell an advertiser each week, they're good for the advertiser because he can save him money on the cost of each ad, and they're good for the newspaper because they usually provide a reliable stream of income.

Here's a typical contract:

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