Len Robbins is taking a vacation on the money his newspaper earned from selling just a few ads for Georgia Newspaper Service's statewide advertising networks.

From experience, The Clinch County News publisher knows that the networks offer a great opportunity not only for his local advertisers who need to reach wider audiences, but also for his weekly newspaper, which gets half of the revenue on any ad it sells.

"It's definitely worth the effort because for the client it's an effective way to advertise. You're reaching a lot of people at a reasonable cost," Robbins said. "For the newspaper, we keep half. You make a sale, you don't have to put that much effort into it and you receive great return on it."

This summer, GNS is emphasizing the opportunity that newspapers have available to them simply by turning businesses in need of reaching Georgians throughout the state onto the Georgia Display Advertising Network and the Statewide Classified Network.

For selling a 2-inch-by-2-inch display ad for the network, a newspaper will earn $700, half of the $1,400 cost. A 2-by-4 ad will earn the newspaper $1,400, half of the $2,800 generated by the sale. A simple classified line ad of 25 words or less would earn the newspaper $175, half of the $350 cost.

Jennifer Graves, service manager for GNS, said businesses such as auction companies, vacation companies and large sellers of real estate are good targets for newspapers to try in their markets.

One ad The Clinch County News recently sold was to a local woman trying to sell a business. After the ad was published, someone from Ringgold, Ga., bought the business.

Homerville's Chamber of Commerce and Better Hometown Program bought a display ad to market the Okefenokee Swamp as a tourist destination.

"You have to train ad reps to be looking for that client that needs to advertise outside the borders of your circulation. Even a small town like ours has a couple like that, Robbins said. "It's a good deal for them and it's effective. It's very affordable for what they get in return.

"The circulation basically sells it for you. When you say you can reach over 1 million people for this amount of money, that sells it for you."

The tourism ad was also placed in the Florida statewide networks, and The News received a small commission for that sale too.

To learn more about selling ads for Georgia Newspaper Service's statewide ad networks, visit www.gapress.org and click on the GNS tab.