Newspaper as an Advertising Medium

Advantages

Newspapers are still the number one media for local advertisers in terms of where advertising dollars are spent.
Daily newspapers reach a broad audience.
The audience is locally or regionally concentrated.
Consumers often look for ads in newspapers, so their mood may already be more receptive to your message.
Newspapers deliver timely messages because they have an established, regular publishing schedule such as daily, weekly or monthly. This allows you to tailor your message to current events, such as weekend entertainment or April tax time.
The immediacy of a daily newspaper's news will cause readers to pick it up within a predictable time frame (i.e. Tuesday's paper is usually read on Tuesday) so advertisers know when readers receive their messages.
Copy space is unlimited in newspapers. You can write long explanatory copy or a few bulleted lines. Of course, longer, bigger ads cost more.
Technology is improving newspapers' capabilities to create clear photos, better colors and to use new techniques such as scented inks.
Readers are actively involved in reading the paper. The fact that they must hold it and turn the pages produces a higher level of attention.

Disadvantages

Specific audiences are difficult to target. You may only want to reach bike owners, but you will pay to reach the newspaper's entire audience. However, some papers offer "zone advertising" which allows you to run an ad that is seen only in part of the coverage area. For example, you could place an ad for your pizza delivery service in the "Northwest News" insert section delivered only with the newspapers in the northwest part of the city or newspaper coverage region.
Reproduction of photos has long been considered a disadvantage to using newspaper as an advertising medium. This is because newspapers must use inexpensive paper to keep their costs down. No one will buy a daily newspaper if the cost is too high. However, inexpensive paper does not hold ink as well as higher grades of paper and that affects the clarity of pictures.
Many advertisers consider newspapers the best medium for local reach. This can create heavy competition inside the paper for local businesses. You may hear this referred to as "clutter."
Newspapers are not popular with all age groups. Their strength seems to lie with the aging Baby Boomers. Many newspapers are starting pages and sections designed for young adults, teens and kids, but the effectiveness of these efforts in terms of advertising draw is still not proven.
Newspapers are static and two-dimensional. Electronic newspapers may change this - in the future.