What ad slots should a local newsletter sell?

Most local newsletters don't need a complicated ad menu. Here's exactly what I run.

"I think you should have it as far as primary, secondary, 'Brought to you by' at the top, and then potentially featured event, featured job. That's just what I do."

What's on my standard ad menu?

1. Primary newsletter ad. Near the top, longer copy, with a GIF of several photos.
2. Secondary ad. Further down, less text, one photo.
3. "Brought to you by" logo. At the very top. Sold alone, or thrown in with the primary.
4. Featured event in the newsletter.
5. Featured job in the newsletter.
6. Partners logo row at the bottom, for advertisers on 3, 6 or 12 month deals.
7. Website featured event and featured job.
8. Website banner ads.
9. Paid stories and expert editorials, clearly labeled sponsored.
10. Social posts.

The two that carry the business are primary and secondary. Here's how I've spec'd them:

Slot	Where and how big	Price I've used
Primary	Second thing in the issue, in the top 10%. About 75 to 120 words, a GIF of around five images, logo and a call to action like "Click here for a quote."	About $200 to $250
Secondary	60 to 75% of the way down, just above the events. About 50 to 75 words, one photo, no GIF, a link.	About $125 to $150
"Brought to you by" logo	Under the newsletter logo at the very top	An upsell, or included in a premium plan around $800 a month

The secondary costs less because it's shorter and fewer people see it. That gap is the point: it gives a buyer an easy choice between the two.

Where should the first ad go?

Second, not first. Some local newsletters open with an ad. I don't love that, because you're not giving value first. My issues start with a short editorial, a little bit of value, then go straight into the longer primary ad. The very bottom is too far down for the first ad.

The "brought to you by" logo is different. It just throws a name out right as people are paying attention, like a sponsor mention before a halftime show.

Put an "Advertise Here" link at the top of every issue too. I found inconsistent, missing and broken ad links across my own newsletters and made fixing them a priority. If a business owner wants to buy, the path has to be obvious.

How do I package the slots?

My basic monthly package is one primary ad and one secondary ad a month. Picture them in every other newsletter, one at the top, one at the bottom. On top of that:

• A website write-up about the business that they can link to from their own site for the backlink.
• A reel about once a quarter on Instagram.
• The "brought to you by" spot once a month in the higher tier. Bigger companies like this one.

For a first advertiser, my working price was about $200 an ad, so $400 to $500 a month for the pair. If you like the business and see potential, that's fine. Just remember the downside of this model: you don't have a lot of ad slots.

Why sell a logo in every issue?

Because it's an easy pitch. Another operator told me businesses love it, and that when they added a partners row of logos at the bottom, it helped sales a lot. Even when a partner doesn't have an ad slot that week, their brand is in every single newsletter.

Compare that with one or two ads a month. Even at two, the business is only seen by about half as many eyeballs as a logo in every send.

How many slots do I actually need?

Fewer than you think. When we planned the ad system in lightbreak, I wanted the menu editable for every operator, with starter templates:

• Just a primary ad
• Primary plus secondary
• The full standard menu
• Blank, build your own

A brand-new newsletter can run primary plus secondary and nothing else. Add slots when you have buyers for them.

The ceiling is real, though. Call it two ads per newsletter. Sending once a week, that's eight ads a month. Once you've sold all eight, go to twice a week and you have eight more. Frequency should follow ad revenue, not get ahead of it.

Which slot is the most underrated?

The featured event. I run one at the very top of the newsletter, big. In one issue it drew 62 clicks, over 1% of readers, the most of anything. Events and real estate are the two things readers look at and click most.

It's also the least valuable slot on its own, because an event host usually only needs it once. I valued it around $100, and a lot of operators charge about $50 for a featured event with a graphic. The better play for a salesperson is selling venues a bundle: buy 12, one a month, and pick the week or event in advance. My own newsletters don't charge for it yet because we haven't put the effort in. That's money sitting on the table. More in how to monetize an events calendar.

What other sections can I sell, and should they move around?

• A restaurant deals section. The plan I described: $1,000 a year per restaurant, one deal a month, room for about 20 restaurants. That caps out around $20,000 a year for one section.
• A real estate section. Readers get used to a section that's always there and always the same, like the real estate pages in an old newspaper.
• A classified section at the bottom. I run mine free for now, so it can convert to paid later without changing anything for readers. See whether to run free ads.

Keep every slot in the same place every issue so it becomes a fixture. Readers stop noticing it as an interruption and start reading it as part of the newsletter. That's what you want, for you and for the advertiser. More on that in how to format a native newsletter ad.