Echo Advertising Policies

The Echo reserves the right to refuse or revise any advertising deemed to adversely affect the integrity and credibility of the newspaper as a source of truthful and accurate information, or be in conflict with the educational mission of the university community served.

Advertising space in The Echo may be purchased by campus, local and national advertisers. Requests for unpaid publicity space will be considered in terms of probable reader interest, competition from other newsworthy events and the time and space available.

It shall be the advertising policy of The Echo to print all advertisements that are consistent with the ethical responsibilities of the newspaper to its readers. The following are guidelines within which the acceptability of advertising can be evaluated. As a general rule, the student newspaper shall accept no advertising:

1. That is misleading or that may be misinterpreted as to intent

2. That personally attacks any individual or group on or off campus

3. That pertains to the use of alcoholic beverages, tobacco, illegal drugs, X-rated movies, a term-paper writing firm, or racetrack or other forms of gambling

4. That specifies that a person of a specific race or ethnic background is preferred

5. That arrives at the last minute and opens up issues or makes charges too late for the opposition to respond to (e.g., in the case of election material)

6. That uses a campus address for an off-campus advertisement, where money is to be mailed to the university for forwarding to another agency.

Further, advertising approval by the editor in chief is required when:

1. When the good faith of the advertiser is held in doubt

2. When ads are indecent or vulgar, offensive directly or by suggestion

3. When ads may mislead because of ambiguous wording.

General Policies for Advertisers

Ad material must be received no later than the Friday before publication.

Advertisement Rates (for more details see Media Kit) 

National: $10.50/column inch (color) and $9.50/column inch (black and white)

Local: $8.50/column inch (color) and $7.50/column inch (black and white)

Campus (departments, clubs, organizations) $5.50/column inch (color) and $4.50/column inch (black and white)

Advertisement Payment

All financial considerations shall be processed through CLU’s Business Office in accordance with recognized accounting practices. All checks must be made out California Lutheran University.

No ads are to be run without either an insertion order (written request) or advance pay. All political advertising must be paid in advance of publication.

Political advertisements shall be located in the paper at the discretion of the business manager. However, great care shall be taken that equal exposure is given to all sides. Bills not paid within three months may be submitted to CLU’s Business Office for follow-up action. Further advertising will not be accepted from firms or individuals who do not complete payment. Anonymous advertisers will be discouraged.

Advertisement Presentation

The copy, art and layout for ads shall be supplied on the same standards of good taste and appropriateness as applied to other material appearing in The Echo.

Note: Federal statutes require that any ad that has the appearance of news or editorial material be labeled “advertisement.”

• Advertising shall not be run on the front page or opinion pages.
• Advertisers will not receive special editorial consideration.
• Political advertising must be labeled “paid advertisement” and must list the sponsoring organization.
• To the extent possible, advertisements shall be rotated so that each advertiser has equal exposure throughout the semester.
• The spelling in ads must be checked, corrected and rechecked by the business manager before the final deadline.

Advertisement Error/“Make good”

The Echo makes every effort to reproduce advertisements as intended by the advertiser and to a satisfactory quality. Should an ad not be published as ordered (poor reproduction quality, blurred imagery, incorrect ad published) The Echo’s liability is limited to the amount paid for the ad and as such The Echo will run the correct ad free of charge in the next possible issue.

Sole responsibility for the content of an ad lies with the advertiser. In the event that the advertiser has provided a poor file, or provided the incorrect advertisement, etc. The Echo is not responsible and the advertiser is responsible for any and all expenses incurred as a result of the publication of such ad. No “make-good” ad will be published.

The Echo reserves the right to institute such other general policies as may be deemed appropriate at any time.