Publishing a paper

Publishing a Paper
You will need business associates.

The newspaper must be printed. The Internet is a great way to communicate, but a newspaper still must be printed and distributed to let people in your area know that you even exist. If you want to get and keep advertisers, you must offer them something real in exchange for their money. A print publication sells ads and serves the advertisers who want to reach your market area.

So you will need a print shop with a web press. A web press can produce a newspaper, fold it and even label it, for a fraction of the cost of sheet-fed presses. The larger commercial print shops in your region or town will have web presses. You may have to buy printing from a larger newspaper in a nearby town, or in your city.

This is not optional if you expect to operate a newspaper.

You will also need a distribution method. Either you will personally deliver your newspapers to homes and businesses in your area (and this may be the best way) or you will need to use the Post Office or hire a distributer.

Keep in mind that the best way to serve your advertisers is to send the paper to everyone in your community or market area. Subscriptions will cost you more than you can charge for them. Free papers distributed to every home, every business, is the best way for a newspaper to guarantee coverage, and it costs you less than trying to deliver papers here and there to paid subscribers. I suggest you only sell subscriptions to readers outside of your regular market/distribution area.

Always place some papers in convenience stores, supermarkets, restaurants and other places for folks to grab. This is a good distribution method when combined with door-to-door delivery. It is not a meaningful way to distribute papers if it is all you do. Your advertisers will not stay with you if they do not get results, and they cannot get results if no one ever gets the paper and reads it.

Reporters and other content contributors. Make it easy for local writers to contribute articles or even columns to your paper. Often, you can simply offer them a byline in the paper. Cartoonists, sports photos, product reviews and other content will also help to add interest and readership to your publication.


Bartering is good, up to a point. A night in a hotel room, a meal at a nice restaurant, and other products or services can be traded for ad space in your paper. But bartering does not pay the bills. And Uncle Sam will expect to get his cut, even when no cash changes hands. So be careful how you work deals. Make sure it is a valuable and workable deal before you shake hands. And keep good records, if you expect to collect.

It's best if you never suggest a barter deal when selling ads. Just sell in a normal fashion. In time, if the paper becomes popular (and it will if you do a good job), you will be contacted by business owners who want to trade. If the business and product advertised ads value to your paper and fits in with what the publication is all about, then proceed with professional caution and friendliness.

Along these lines, you should avoid writing articles in exchange for money or barter. Once you start offering "news" that isn't news, you begin losing credibility with your readers and with your advertisers. If you can be bought, you're not a journalist, at all.

On the other hand, you should have a column or some section of the paper where you do mention the happenings, successes and developments of local businesses. A column works great because you don't have to write an entire article on every sale or other special event a business may have. In a column you can simply mention anything new or noteworthy going on in local businesses.

When a business adds a new major expansion to the operation, though, that merits special notice, and an article with photos is certainly in order, even if no ad is sold. Selling ads is one part of business and writing up the news is another, so you need to be ready to wear different hats in the same day. Don't give preference to advertisers who buy more space when reporting the news. Instead, reward them by producing a great ad.

Selling ads, is of course, the primary business association you will have with the area you serve. If you don't enjoy selling ads, you will be more prone to failure. But don't panic yet.

If you have never sold an ad, or if you already know you hate selling anything, you may think that you will hate selling ad space for your own newspaper. Nothing is farther from the truth. This paper is your baby, your career, your special project. And you are the top boss, the head honcho (etc.), the one who can make things happen. You are going to love selling ads for your paper.

And people will love talking to you because you are the one who can guarantee them them whatever you offer. It's a who different thing from selling anything else you might ever sell.