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That's a question you will need to answer
for yourself before you get too serious about starting a paper.
And it's a question that takes more than a few comments from me to answer.
You need to have some idea of what the
competition or what other similar publications similar markets are
really charging. Ask for a rate sheet from a local paper or
periodical that's similar — in physical size and readership — to what you want to produce.
That's the first place to look. But
it's only the beginning.
Getting the Real Story
Every industry has its published pricing and then it
has another level of pricing for important clients. Newspapers and
periodicals are no different. So you may need to do some checking
with people who advertise, to get an idea of the real prices being
charged for ads.
Once you know where the other guys are,
then you must determine where you have to be. How many readers can
you claim to have? You may claim, for example, that every copy of
your paper (every mailing address or each copy sold in a store, for
example) has the potential for 3 readers. Some publications, like
radio stations, claim astronomical numbers, stretching things well
beyond any possibility of reality or fact. If you are wise, you
will be conservative. Produce a good publication, and let it sell
itself.
Breaking it Down
After talking with printers, and deciding
which press will run your paper, look at the available space you have to
offer. Let's say you decide to run 16 pages (papers usually run in
multiples of 8 pages, large sheets folded down to make a paper
"signature"). And let's say that each page is exactly 11 inches by
17 inches, and that you will leave a 1/2 inch margin all around (just to
make our example easier to follow). That gives you a total space
per page of 10 x 16 inches. And if you divide your pages into a
default of 4 columns, each separated by a 1/8" gutter, then you have 4
columns (each one about 2.40 inches wide) of 16 "column" inches each.
So, then, if a page has four columns of
16 inches each, that gives you 64 column inches per page. And
1,024 column inches in the entire 16-page paper.
But not all those inches are for sale.
To start with, you have a footer and/or a header for each page. And you must have
something of interest on each page (some actual content that will make readers
want to pick up and read your paper). One standard for the
industry is roughly 50/50. So let's say you go with that standard.
In a 16-page paper, you won't count the front page, since that should
be filled with news and features to draw people into the rest of the paper.
Always reserve your
front page for news and items of interest.
You may also have other pages that you won't sell ads on. But for now, let's figure you have 15 pages,
half of which you can sell advertising on. That gives you 64
column inches, divided by half to leave 32 col. inches per page,
multiplied by 15, to leave you a total of 480 column inches to sell.
That may not sound like much right now. But it'll seem like more
when it's time to go out and sell 480 column inches of ads for the very
first time. Then again, once you get busy selling, it'll be fun.
It can be one of the best very parts of the publisher's job.
Everything else is more serious work.
Counting the Costs
Let's say you're printing about 5,000
copies in the first issue. And let's also say that you mail them
all out at 18 cent each (an arbitrary number, based on Standard rates
for the Postal service). The print shop charges you $600.00 and
the Post Office charges you $900 for postage. There are other
costs to factor in, such as your gasoline, your rent, your own labor and
time, any photo-processing or other related costs, any wages you must
pay for help, and so on.
But to keep it really simple, let's say
your first issue costs you $2000 to produce. That doesn't count
any profit, and we must have a profit, so let's factor in 25% for your
pocket, a generous but fair
amount to start with. Many publishers don't actually take anything
for themselves during the first year or so, and others take out much, much more from the very
beginning.
Take the $2000 and multiply it by 1.25 to
reach the amount you want to make on this first issue (some do a
reciprocal, dividing $2000 by 75% or .75, to reach a slightly higher
figure). $2000 plus $500 (25%) will give you a figure of $2,500
that you really need to make in sales from your first issue.
Can you do it? Let's find out. |
