Keep it simple when creating web ad rates

Looking for what to charge for your ads on the web? There is no real set standard at this point in scholastic journalism. With all that schools are doing to make the move online and get a site up and running, my advice is to keep the advertising side of things pretty simple.

Most schools don’t need to make that much in advertising to run the site and most don’t have that big of a following to demand a large price tag for real estate.  Keep things as simple as possible and charge what you think sounds reasonable for your target market. (Yes, I am very aware this probably sounds like what professional media websites said at their inception as we all know where they are. So, you need to make sure you know what you need for your program to survive.) We’ve had some posts on the site which you should fine linked below that deal with this issue, but we haven’t really looked specifically at what other high school sites are charging. Three schools have shared what they are doing. Check out their rates below. Feel free to add to the conversation by posting what you all charge at your school in the comment section below.

FHNtoday.com (Francis Howell North High School in St. Charles, Missouri): All ads are sized 120×125 pixels and rotate randomly through four spaces on each page. Each time the page is clicked, new ads appear. Ads can be purchased  by advertisers for $50 for the entire school year or they are given to advertisers who purchase $200 worth of print ads.

HiLite.org (Carmel High School in Carmel, Indiana): Ads are approximately 280 pixels wide. Ads can be purchased by advertisers for $50 per month and advertisers can purchase additional slides for $30.

TheRiderOnline.com (Mansfield Legacy High School in Mansfield, Texas): Ads are approximately 300×250 pixels. Ads can be purchased by advertisers for $50 per month.

Aaron Manfull

Aaron is in his 26th year of advising student media. He is currently the Director of Student Media at Francis Howell North High School in St. Charles, Missouri. He is the Journalism Education Association Digital Media Chair and co-Director of Media Now. He is the 2023 JEA Teacher Inspiration Award Winner and is a former Dow Jones News Fund National Journalism Teacher of the Year. He is one of the authors of the textbook "Student Journalism and Media Literacy." You can find him on X and Instagram @manfull. He's a proud father. A transplanted Iowan. And an avid Hawkeye Fan.

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