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Excellent suggestions, but it pays to remember what Jason Rogers, advertising manager for the Chicago Interocean, wrote all the way back in 1919: Advertising is never about column inches. It is about eyeballs. Several years ago, inspired by Rogers, I put his ideas to the test, seeking to overcome the simple fact that the Molalla (Oregon) Pioneer rarely attracted political advertising. Organizing a "Voters' Fair" at the community center, every political group, candidate, party and ballot initiative supporter was invited to set up a booth, free of charge. The Pioneer published the names and locations of the participants in a special fair pull-out section, which participants were free to advertise in or not, at their discretion. Not only were advertisers beating down the doors to advertise, the momentum of the fair attracted several times the normal quantity of ads through the campaign season.

Get your readers excited and the advertisers will follow. If you want to sell grocery ads, sponsor a themed public service cooking demonstration at a grocery store, tied to your newspaper. If you want to sell furniture or home improvement ads, sponsor a home decorating event, again, tied to your newspaper, and if you want to sell auto repair/auto sales advertising, sponsor auto maintenance workshops. Take to heart the Silicon Valley mantra, "If the product is free, the user is the product."

From: Ten Ideas to Update Your Media Sales Game

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