Getting It Right Introduction The production department The layout sheet Indicating copy and art The copy sheet Keying your copy The art sheet Take our ad effectiveness course. Learn what you need to know to get a great response the first time you run. Just $59 • Get more readers seeing your ad • Get more readers reading your ad • Get more readers responding

Before you start, you'll need to get your hands on the publication's layout pad, which is a pad of layout sheets similar to the one below on which you can sketch your ad.

Your advertising representative at that newspaper should be happy to provide you with one. They usually come in a couple of sizes, so make sure you ask for one big enough for your ad to fit on.

As you probably know, the width of every newspaper page is broken down into columns of equal size and the layout sheets indicate the column widths to which your ad will need to conform.

In 1984, most newspapers adopted a standard measure of column widths equaling two-and-a-quarter-inches wide with an eighth-inch blank space between the columns. These newspapers are said to measure in Standard Advertising Units or SAU's.

But a column width can vary from newspaper to newspaper, and will even vary within a newspaper. For example, you've probably noticed that the columns within the classified section where the line ads flow are narrower than in the rest of the newspaper. Make sure you get the right layout for the section in which you're planning to run.

Next: Indicating copy and artwork

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