Newspaper Display Advertising

Newspaper ads are more than preprinted inserts.  The most common kind of ads, display ads, are printed in part of every newspaper section.  Display advertising consists of copy, photos, illustrations, coupons, headlines, and other visual content.  The Wall Street Market is heavy on display advertisements from watch companies, designer brands, and financial institutions.  This particular issue of WSJ had an ad for the Kindle Paper in the "Review" section.  It is wisely places directly about a list of best-selling books.

Pros and Cons

Advertisers commonly use display advertising because:

• Because newspaper cover a lot of subjects, a lot of people read newspapers.  This increases the reach of an ad.
• Newspaper is an active medium.  They may clip and save or circle ads they like.
• Generally provide geographic selectivity.

But some advertisers shy away from display advertising because:

• They have low production quality.  Even preprinted inserts can be much higher quality.
• Advertisers normally cannot control where an ad is placed without paying an additional fee.
• Newspapers cover one day of news.  After that day they are usually thrown away.