Newspaper Preprinted Inserts

The Sunday papers are famous for them.  They're bright, colorful, and sure to grab your attention. I'm not talking about the Sunday comics.  I'm talking about the plethora or preprinted inserts that come in every Sunday paper around the world, or so it seems.  Preprinted inserts are simply advertisements that the advertiser prints and delivers to the newspaper.  The newspaper then inserts the ads into a specific edition and viewers receive them.  Preprinted inserts include catalogs, brochures, mail-back devices, and perforated coupons.  In the week leading to Black Friday nearly every major retailer will send out a preprinted insert.  Best Buy is especially known for great Black Friday deals and preprinted inserts, like the one shown below, are an excellent medium for showing what deals they have this year.

This years Black Friday preprinted insert ad from Best Buy

Pros and Cons

Preprinted inserts are great for more than just Black Friday because:

• They can be used to target potential customers close to the business.  They can do this because many newspapers allow advertisers to limit their inserts to specific circulation zones.  
• It is generally more cost efficient than direct mail.
• Newspapers are the third-largest medium and over half of adults read the Sunday paper.  This means your ad is likely to be seen by a large number of people. 

Of course there are shortcomings too such as:

• While one can limit their ads to only those close to their business, they can not target by socioeconomic groups.  Newspapers are delivered to a variety of people, unlike magazines newspapers generally try to appeal to everyone.
• If people receive a daily newspaper, chances are they through out yesterdays paper as soon as today's come in.  This means a preprinted inserts life may be extremely short.
• Some people receive multiple newspapers in one day.  Advertisers may be paying to show the same person the same advertisement twice.

Interesting Facts

• Small stickers on the front page of newspapers are becoming a popular way to advertise.  These stickers usually double as coupons and cost about $50 per thousand applied. 
• While newspapers are still one of the top ranked mediums, newspaper advertising is falling and online newspaper advertising is increasing