Pro's and con's of preprinted newspaper inserts.

• Author: Turner, Jim
• Position: Direct Mail Essentials

Between the alternatives of mass media advertising in newspapers and targeted direct mail, there lies a middle ground: The preprinted newspaper insert that offers some of the advantages of both types of media.

The preprinted or free-standing insert is the piece of paper that falls out of your Sunday paper or is bound into your magazine, often with nice color photography, lengthy copy and a coupon or reply panel.

If you are planning a direct mail campaign, you may be able to use the brochure portion of it as a preprinted newspaper insert and improve your overall direct marketing response at a relatively small additional cost.

Versatile and inexpensive

Newspapers, of course, are a vehicle for comparatively low-cost, low-content mass advertising. In contrast, direct marl offers highly targeted, high capacity content to a very highly targeted audience ... but at a relatively high cost.

The newspaper insert combines some of the best features of tooth. First, consider the cost. For this example, we will assume production for a direct mailing costs about $425 per thousand for a basic flier put into the mail (postage, printing at $100 per thousand, list and lettershop included). Of course, the cost can be somewhat less for a simple mailer or as much as $1,000 or morn per thousand for a more e-laborate mail package.

However, most newspapers will place your flier inside their product at a cost of about $50 per thousand, with some small variance based on the market or the newspaper's circulation. Thus, for example, a distribution covering 20,000 households would cost only $1,000 to insert (excluding the cost of printing your flier).

The cost of printing the insert could cover a wide range based on the graphics--the number of colors, number of pages, paper stock, etc. For comparison purposes, assume the printing cost is $100 per thousand in 20,000 quantities.

Therefore, for printing and distributing 20,000 preprinted inserts inside the newspaper, you might pay a total of $3,000. But the cost to send the same flier by direct mail would be about $8,500 based on the specifications above.

While the cost comparison alone is positive for the newspaper insert, one of the disadvantages is that your advertisement is probably only one of many, or possibly very many, inserts in that day's...