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If you find dailies to be too expensive, you cansave moneyby only running your ads in the local sections the dailies all provide to their subscribers. These are tabloid-like sections that usually run just one day a week and carry news pertaining to small geographic areas or neighborhoods. For instance, thePost Standardin Syracuse, New York, carries its local publication, called "Neighbors," on Thursdays. This local section is inserted into the appropriate daily papers and distributed to the various suburbs of Syracuse, instead of to the paper's entire coverage area. If your business was based in the Syracuse area, you could choose to run your ad in just "Neighbors East" or "Neighbors West" in order to target your business's neighborhood. As you grow, you would probably want to consider purchasing ad space in the local section aimed at another areaalong with, not instead of, your original area of coverage.

When you look at a paper, you'll see it's divided into columns. Your newspaper ads are sized according to a very set formula: a certain number of columns wide and a certain number of inches long. Multiplying the two numbers together will give you the number of "column inches" of your ad, which determines the ad's cost. For example, because you'll pay a specific dollar amount "per column inch," if your ad covers three columns in width and is five inches long (15 column inches), and you're paying $30 a column inch, that ad will cost you $450.00 (15 column inches X $30.00). This is true for print ads in any newspaper, whether it's daily or weekly.

If you can't afford to run an ad in your daily paper at all, start with your subscription-based, weekly neighborhood publications. Again, you can purchase one area, two areas or all that are available. You don't need a contract for these papers--they're pretty reasonable and are read more thoroughly than the free, local papers or "shoppers" are because people actually pay to receive them.

Both the daily and weekly papers will have special sections (holiday, home improvement, landscaping and so on) throughout the year, and you should ask when something appropriate for your business is scheduled. Your sales representatives should also contact you to let you know what's in the works. It's a good idea to place ads in these special sections even if you're not regularly in the publications--your competitors will. The good news is, many times these special sections carry a less expensive rate, or automatically runs your ad in all papers, in all sections, and sometimes even offer freecolor printing, which is a fabulous perk.