Through our print and online readership, the Western Wayne News reaches thousands of readers in Wayne County, Indiana and beyond. As Wayne County’s only locally owned, independent newspaper we offer a unique opportunity to have your message seen, read and acted on by people living here.

We offer a variety of advertising options:

Read more below or contact us to place an ad: (765) 478-5448 or contact@westernwaynenews.com.

Pricing is per issue (produced weekly) unless otherwise indicated. The below rates are in effect for 2024 beginning with our January 3rd issue.

2025 Rate Changes

For all 2025 ads including those in our January 1, 2025 print edition and later, these rate changes will be in effect:

  • Classified ads will be $15 for up to 15 words, and still $0.30 per each additional word.
  • The rate for color display ads will increase from $11.50 per column inch to $12.20 per column inch.
  • The rate for black & white display ads will increase from $9.30 per column inch to $9.90 per column inch.
  • The cost of an ad on the front page, above the masthead (10″x1.4″, color) will increase from $450 to $500.
  • The cost of an ad on the front page at the bottom of the page (7.25″x1.5″, color) will increase from $300 to $400.
  • The cost of an ad on the back page (4″x6″ color) will increase from $225 to $300.
  • The cost of a notice of administration legal advertisement will increase from $75 to $80.
  • The cost of a summons by publication legal advertisement will increase from $90 to $95.
  • The cost of calculated general legal advertising will increase in cost per line as allowed by state law:
    • 1 insertion: from $0.4999 to $0.5135 per line
    • 2 insertions: $0.7474 to $0.7677 per line
    • 3 insertions: $0.9973 to $1.0245 per line
    • 4 insertions: $1.2472 to $1.2818 per line
  • The cost of an online sidebar ad will increase from $200 to $250 per month.
  • The cost of an online homepage ad will increase from $450 to $500 per month.

All other pricing remains at 2024 levels.

Classified Ads

Classified ads are a great way to post a job opening, let people know about a yard sale, or send a special message to your audience. Classified ads are printed on the Classifieds page(s) inside the paper.

Classified ads are $15 for up to 15 words, $0.30 per each additional word. Get an estimate of your cost:

Word Count: 0 / 200
Estimated Cost: $0.00

Please note that using the above calculator does not submit any information to us, it’s just for your reference. Please use the contact information above to submit your ad.

Classified ads must be submitted and paid by 12 PM noon on the Thursday before publication the following Wednesday. Pre-payment is required for all classified ads. We accept cash, check or credit cards.

Business Card Ads

We print a local business directory each week that feature a business-card size ad for your business. These are $95 per month, paid in advance. Business card ads are good for raising general awareness about your business or organization over time.

Payment must be received by the last Thursday of the month for the following month’s run. We can automatically charge your credit/debit card or bank account if you fill out and return this authorization form, or you can mail us a check. If you pay for 11 months of business card ads in advance, we offer one month free.

When creating an ad, you can send a 3.5″ x 2″ design but the actual printed size may be slightly smaller; we use a 1.75 to 1 ratio of width to height.

We can also design a basic business card ad for you for $45.

Display Ads

Display ads are advertisements that appear as graphic images throughout the pages of the newspaper. They are priced according to the space in the paper they take up, whether they appear in color or in black/white, and whether you are providing a completed design or need design services.

You can estimate your display ad cost here:


Color Black and White
I need design help I'll provide a completed design
Estimated cost: $0.00

We also have special pricing for certain ad locations:

  • Front page, above the masthead, 10″x1.4″, color: $500/week
  • Front page, bottom of the page, 7.25″x1.5″, color: $400/week
  • Back page, 4″x6″, color: $300/week

Other ad sizes are available at $6.10 per square inch ($12.20 per column inch) for color or $4.95 per square inch ($9.90 per column inch) for black and white. Our newspaper uses 2″ columns and the page size is 10″ wide, 16″ deep, 5 columns per page. So for calculating actual ad appearance, 1 column = 1.86″, 2 cols = 3.9″, 3 cols = 5.93″, 4 cols = 7.96″, and 5 cols = 10″.

You can provide your own high-resolution, print-ready display ad design. If you need design assistance to complete your ad, this is included at no charge on ads that are 30 square inches (15 column inches) or less, and is $45 per design/ad on ads that are greater than 30 square inches (15 column inches).

Display ads must be submitted, approved, and paid (or billing terms agreed upon) by 12 PM noon on the Thursday before publication the following Wednesday.

Online Ads

We offer a few limited availability ad spaces on our website, WesternWayneNews.com:

  • Home page, side bar, 300×250: $250 per month
  • Home page, between top articles, 300×250: $500 per month

Inserts

Due to a change at our printing vendor beyond our control, we can not offer insert advertising at this time.

Special Packages

Throughout the year we have a variety of special advertising opportunities that we will contact our advertisers about. If you’d like to learn more about these, please get in touch.

Legal Ads

Legal ad rates are available to government entities, school corporations, legal firms and related organizations that are placing notices required by law as a part of a proposed government action, a government contract or purchase, or a court proceeding. These rates are not available to commercial businesses publishing legally required notices.

For the most common kinds of legal advertisements, these costs must be prepaid before insertion:

  • Notice of Administration, $80, includes 2 insertions
  • Notice of Guardianship, $95, includes 3 insertions (normal size at or less than 45 lines, additional cost for additional lines)
  • Notice of Petition to Change Name, $95, includes 3 insertions (normal size at or less than 45 lines, additional cost for additional lines)
  • Summons by Publication (usually for family law cases), $95, includes 3 insertions (normal size at or less than 45 lines, additional cost for additional lines)

For other kinds of legal advertising, price is calculated based on number of lines used and the number of insertions (issues) where the ad appears, and must be prepaid:

  • 1 insertion: $0.5135 per line
  • 2 insertions: $0.7677 per line
  • 3 insertions: $1.0245 per line
  • 4 insertions: $1.2818 per line

Legals in the Western Wayne News are 9 Pica, 0 Point Column, Type Size 7. Rates are based on allowable amounts set by the Indiana State Board of Accounts.

Legal advertising notices must be delivered in a document format that can be copy-and-pasted (Microsoft Word, plain text, etc). If you are not able to provide ad text in this way and you would like to have us re-type the contents of a PDF or image file for you, we offer transcription for a fee of $0.10 per word with a minimum of $10, in addition to the above fees.

Obituaries

We publish paid obituaries in the print edition of the newspaper with price based on word count and whether or not a photo is included:

  • Under 250 words: $30
  • 251-300 words: $45
  • 301-350 words: $85
  • Per additional 50 words above 350: $15
  • Photo: $5

We generally run obituaries as submitted, though we reserve the right to make minor edits for style and clarity.

Get an estimate of your obituary cost:

Word Count: 0
Estimated Cost: $0.00

Obituaries should be submitted and paid for as early as possible to ensure they can run in the next edition of the paper. Our regular deadline is to receive an obituary by end of the day Thursday to run in the following week’s Wednesday paper. When space and our production process allow, we can sometimes accept additional obituaries after that time.

We do not print obituaries for non-human deaths but those may be submitted as paid display ads (see above).

Design Services

If you need assistance creating the perfect ad to share your message, our design team can help! We’ll work with you to gather up the information, photos and other details we need, and then produce a final proof for you to approve before the ad runs.

Basic ad design services are included at no additional cost for print ads under 30 square inches in size. Basic ad design for ads at or above that size, or for online ads, have a $45 design fee. For all ad sizes, additional ad design services such as multiple revisions, complex designs or making modifications to ads designed by someone else will be billed at $30/hour with a one-hour minimum.

Please allow additional time for ad design services to be completed before our deadlines. Ads designed by the Western Wayne News remain the property of the newspaper and are not licensed for reuse in other locations unless arrangements are explicitly made for reuse.

Advertisement Policy

The Western Wayne News and Civic Spark Media invite businesses, organizations and individuals from across the community to leverage our publications to get the word out about your offerings to a general and diverse audience. We also seek to facilitate an advertising environment that encourages the long-term health and wellness of the community and its residents.

Any offer made in an advertisement must be genuine, accurate, and clear to our readers. We reserve the right to label or otherwise identify the advertisement as a paid message, and to display the name of the person or organization that placed the ad. We reserve the right to reject any advertisement for any reason at the sole discretion of our management and ownership.

In particular, we will not accept advertisements that contain, promote or otherwise advance:

  • gambling or casinos
  • the sale or distribution of cigarettes or tobacco products
  • the sale or distribution of alcohol
  • the sale or distribution of automatic weapons
  • the sale or distribution of illegal drugs
  • the dismantling of democratic institutions or encouraging attacks on their representatives
  • pyramid schemes or multi level marketing opportunities
  • deliberate misinformation, unfounded conspiracy theories or demonstrably false or misleading statements
  • libel or disparagement
  • profanity
  • sexual content, products or services
  • dating services
  • hate speech, harassment or violence against others
  • copyright or trademark infringement
  • payday loans
  • commercial/mass animal breeding operations a.k.a puppy mills

Other Guidelines

  • Pre-designed ads should be submitted as JPG, PNG or PDF files at a high resolution (300dpi) using the size dimensions specified for the type of ad. Low-resolution or under-sized ads will not look good in print and we may not be able to print them at all.
  • In some cases, our layout team may need to ask you for the original source files used to create your pre-designed ad (Photoshop, InDesign, Canva, etc) so please have those ready.
  • When submitting photos for ad designs or obituaries, please indicate what kind of cropping you’d like to see used.