Advertising is the bread and butter of both newspapers and makes up about 70% of our annual income. Since we are a business, it is important that we be profitable. If we aren’t, the bills would go unpaid and we would be out of business.
Since both newspapers draw an average readership in excess of 6,000 people each week, businesses find the papers to be valuable publications in which to advertise their goods and services.
We have three major types of advertisements in The Pilot and Sentinel – classifieds, display and legal notices.
CLASSIFIED ADS –
Published under their own heading, we publish a full page of ads almost every week. We place ads under different headings or “classifications,” thus the reason for their name is apparent. Classified headings include help wanted, homes for sale, boats for sale, etc. These classifications become more detailed as the paper’s circulation increases to cover its market. The Seattle P.I. for example has many more classifications than does The Pilot or Sentinel.
LEGAL NOTICES –
The Pilot and Sentinel print public notices from the Petersburg Borough, the City and Borough of Wrangell, the Federal government and every government entity in between. City, state and federal laws mandate that the government notify the public of their actions that affect their constituents. IRS liens, U.S. Marshal’s auctions, Forest Service timber sales, bids for purchases of vehicles and equipment, court hearings, election notices and job opportunities are just a few of the many types of notices that appear in the papers each week. Changes in almost any type of law require notification to the public.
The public notice section of the paper carry important news for citizens, and that is why we publish these notices near the classified ads, which make up one of the more popular sections of the paper.
DISPLAY ADS –
Any commercial message with a border around it is a display ad. It can be as small as one column wide by 1” high to several pages in size.
The size of the ad depends upon what information the advertiser needs to include in the ad space and the amount of money in their ad budget. Generally, larger businesses can afford larger ads. All of our advertising customers are important to us and we attempt to call on them regularly.
All advertising is not restricted to the sale of retail items. Many ads are placed to promote ideas, wish a happy birthday, promote political candidates or to make an announcement that will attract attention.
Ads may be printed in color. Color attracts more readers to the ad, and generally results in additional notice by readers.
The size of the newspaper each week is dependant not upon the amount of news, but upon the amount of advertising sold for a given week. Many newspapers devote 60 to 70 percent of their space to advertising and only 30 to 40 percent for news. The Pilot and Sentinel devote about 50% of our space to both news and advertising allowing us to remain in business. Interest payments, paper and labor are our biggest expenses each month, and without a minimum of 50% ratio of news to advertising, we cannot meet those obligations.
Advertising assistance is just a phone call away. To place classified, public notice or display advertising in The Pilot, just call us (772-9393). Our advertising deadline is Tuesday at 5 p.m. Wrangell advertisers may call (874-2301) before 5 p.m. on Monday to place an ad.
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