Buying Print Advertising without a 3rd Party

I have purchased print from a prominent Seattle newspaper in the past. Print advertising is costly and not always a positive ROI for the company. My decision to work directly with a graphic artist and also negotiate with the advertiser was an attempt to learn more about the business and save some money at the same time.

My experience was pleasant although it was very time consuming. I had worked with the graphic artist in the past so all I needed to have done was a slight redesign of the ad and the message. Easy enough so I thought. Negotiating a rate with the advertiser takes time, persistence and follow up to ensure that the correct reduced rate I had negotiated was actually the rate we were being charged. Yes I did find some errors in our bill rate.

Every week I would receive a proof prior to the ad going to print. This is where you can find errors with your color scheme. I was surprised to find that it took a couple of revisions sometimes to get the colors exactly right. I also had a few ads run in black and white. Proof the black and white ads as well. I did find that they sometimes had a grey tone to them.

I appreciated the learning experience and would pursue this avenue again. Any revision I asked for was done promptly and was revised until it was perfect. Print is very expensive but can be very successful when done correctly.