I want to start an advertising "paper". My thought was to sell business card sized ads to people/companies and them distribute them through local businesses and maybe even direct mail. I figured by staying with business cards that it could be marketed as a place to get good connections....like networking on paper. They could also be distributed in a specific area depending on where the advertiser is located. It could really be a low cost place to advertise..... much less than any of the other papers or direct mail packs. It would be different than the local papers we have around here as it would not have articles or anything....just good contact info. It could also branch into a website or more?????

What do you think?

Turbo, my personal feeling is that without content (articles), there isn't much for readers to care about unless they happen to be in the market for one of the businesses who are advertising. If you could provide some content, that would at least keep the paper in front of people even if they aren't in the market at the moment - a true benefit to your advertisers, who are looking for ways to remain "top of mind" with potential customers.

To get the content, you could invite your advertising businesses to submit articles about topics on which they are knowledgeable - not articles that specifically promote their business, but just that talk about things of interest to readers. For example, a heating/cooling business could write a piece called "The Three Most Important Safety Checks on Your Home's Furnace" or something like that. Put their byline with it (Joe Smith, Smith H&C), and they've got instant credibility. (Tip: businesses are willing to PAY to place this type of article. Use it as an upsell opportunity when you pitch them on their ad. Run a freebie special for the first few issues if you like, to get them interested - say, a free article placement in the premier issue if they purchase three months' of ads.)

Finally - have you considered making this a web-based publication rather than a printed one? I could see a nifty searchable ad-supported business directory that also had the content mentioned above.

Best of luck -