Compare us

How do you know if a magazine is the best place to advertise your business?

It can all be very confusing; circulation and readership figures, print runs, delivery – there are many factors you need to consider when looking at what a magazine can offer you, but what’s best for YOUR business?

What is an advertising rate card?

A rate card helps a business to understand the different advert sizes and prices a publication has to offer. It may also give other essential information like when the magazine comes out, copy deadlines and artwork sizes, and readership and circulation figures. These last two factors can be confusing, but it’s vital you compare them before you buy space.

Readership vs. Circulation

Circulation – is the number of newspapers or magazines that are printed and distributed. Or, put another way, the actual number of YOUR adverts printed.

Readership – is an estimate of how many readers a publication has, and it’s a made-up figure. You should also consider that many copies of ‘paid-for’ magazines sold in supermarkets never get sold or read.

3-month readership

This a new term used by magazines whose circulation is falling and low, where 3 months of readership (made-up) figures are grouped together to make the numbers look bigger. The lesson here is BEWARE of BIG NUMBERS without understanding exactly what they mean!

Coverage area

“We cover the whole of East Anglia,”… but what does this actually mean?

Let’s say a magazine prints 8,000 copies (so 8,000 copies of your advert). They drop off boxes of these magazines in various place throughout East Anglia, but it doesn’t mean every home in East Anglia receives a copy, does it?

If we send out four magazines to one household in England, one in Scotland, one in Wales and one in Northern Ireland, would it be fair to say that we cover the whole of the United Kingdom? No, of course not! So, again, dig deeper into how a magazine is distributed and who actually gets to read it.

Why choose print?

Print advertising in newspapers and magazines are very likely to be read by your target audience. If you choose to buy an advert in a magazine with a big circulation, you increase the likelihood that you will reach a wider audience.

Let’s compare the numbers of printed copies of publications in our area:

This breakdown shows very clearly that Village People magazines outstrip other regional lifestyle magazines on several counts – it has a far greater print run (68,000+ copies) and is delivered through letterboxes by Royal Mail, which guarantees that the magazines will be read by that household.

If we consider that the average household contains 2 to 3 people, Village People – and your advert – is likely to be read by over 170,000 people! That’s a huge number of potential customers for you. No other regional magazine offers this.

So… don’t buy advertising on price or prestige, review the facts; know how many copies of the magazine are printed, how it’s distributed to its target audience, and exactly who will read it.

Advertising is a numbers game… the more people who see your ad, the more new business will come your way.

Call us now or send us an email to discuss what’s best for your business. We are local, independent, flexible and able to listen to YOUR business needs.

Experts have discovered that print marketing makes information, services, and products more desirable, as readers are able to retain information better. The physical format of a newspaper or magazine must be handled, creating a sensory experience with the reader.