• by March 19, 2001

By Debbi K. Swanson

Testing national and regional newspaper ad campaigns at discount rates -- for clients who haven't been using newspaper ads in their media buys -- is now possible. Newspapertest.com went live March 7.

Chuck Boteler, of Newspaper Connection, has been working to get this project launched for about 18 months, more intently since Newspaper Connection's launch last October. "We went live March 7, after two weeks of beta testing," he says. The point of the new site is to allow marketers who have never used newspaper advertising, or haven't used the medium in a while, to be able to buy regionally on a test basis at much lower rates than standard national rates.

"It's meant for people who are so caught up in the glamour of online and broadcast they need to see newspapers are the most credible and effective medium," says Boteler. The theory is that it's a win for the advertiser who gets a good deal and for the papers, which are getting new advertising dollars and potentially long-term clients if they find newspaper advertising effective. The new site has more than 1,150 newspapers involved, representing over 35 million circulation nationally. Some papers are part of the bigger chains, but each paper contracts individually.

"What does a paper have to lose? This program doesn't cost them anything and if they get a new piece of business it's a bonus for them," says Boteler.

There are some restrictions. A client can only test for six months and then has to move on to traditional buying methods, either through Newspaper Connection or other media buying services. And, there is a three-day window for daily papers for running the ads. For example, an ad scheduled for Wednesday can be run as early as Monday or as late as Friday, to allow the paper flexibility depending on space. With weeklies, there's a 7-day window.

"For buyers, the advantage of using the service is that quotes and buys can be done in minutes instead of hours or days," says Boteler. "Anyone can go to the site and click on the Take a Test Drive button to see how it works. There's a drop down menu to select the state, participating newspapers, size of ads, run date, and then create an order."

Once ready to use, buyers will go to the "Structure a New Buy" button, agree to the terms, register the agency, and have access to the papers in network. "Whether two or 200 papers, the buyer can save that quote, adjust it later as needed, and make the buy," adds Boteler.

Any in-house agency, brand manager or ad agency looking to test a geographical area can use the system. One of the first buys on Newspapertest.com was a small one ($50,000 in four weeks) in Southern California for a financial firm that hasn't run in newspapers in four years.

"The cost of the space was 45% less than they would've had they gone direct for national buy. Newspapers take care of local business real well," says Boteler. "National media has been more in favor of new media