Additional Newspaper Testing Strategy

An initial test should address the following items:

• Provide a cross section of market characteristics to include 50% A & B county (metro) papers and 50% C & D county (rural) papers. Advertisers often find that responses can be different from metro and rural counties.
• Ensure that a variety of newspaper sizes is tested. Echo Media recommends a variety of newspapers that range from less than 10,000 subscribers to over one million subscribers.
• Provide strongly negotiated rates. At Echo Media we negotiate off rate card to ensure the best return on investment for our clients.

Additional Testing Strategies Recommended by Echo media

• Test daily versus Sunday circulation. Depending on the offer, "Best Food Day," a daily distribution day, may outperform Sunday circulation.
• Include some niche market papers in the test panel. For example, one advertiser may choose to test Suburban newspapers versus mainstream dailies. The local characteristic of these papers serves to enhance certain brands. Another advertiser may see value in the implied endorsement of the church by using Catholic papers, or want to reach out to the Spanish-speaking community through Hispanic newspapers. The most appropriate niche demographic should be part of an initial newspaper test to see how it responds versus mainstream dailies.
• Test at least one TMC (Total Market Coverage) product.

Execution of a Test Program

As a general rule, newspaper insert tests should be scheduled at least three weeks in advance of the intended insert date, and materials need to be delivered at least 10 days prior to the in home date.

Print Recommendations

Newspapers have fewer size restrictions than many other print media vehicles. To maximize the value of your test, we recommend printing the largest piece possible. Our standard single-sheet insert dimensions are 10" x 12" on 50# gloss stock, or alternatively, 8" x 10" on 70# high bulk with a perforated business reply card (BRC).

Echo media is a full service print agency and can execute the production side of a newspaper buy as well as the placement of distribution orders.

Echo Media also offers access to a wide variety of target market newspapers:

©2005 Echo-Media.com. All rights reserved. Media properties represented on this site are not owned by Echo Media.      Site Map