Every line item, priced.
Every ad, sponsorship and paid article we sell, with the price beside it, plus the specs and the deadlines. Online and, starting January 2027, in print.
Rates current as of October 2026. Reviewed quarterly. How it works: Advertise. To print or pass along: the rate card (PDF).
Who reads us
Where they are. The whole state, all year. The Northwoods, lake country, and the Red River Valley, from Cass Lake and Walker to Brainerd, Baxter, Duluth, the Twin Cities, and across the line to Fargo and Grand Forks.
And well past it. Good news travels. People read us from Arizona, Texas, the Dakotas, and further out. Some grew up here, some have family here, some come up every July. Some have never been to Minnesota and read us because it is the one place they can go that is not going to ruin their morning.
Who they are. Year-round residents, cabin owners, and visitors. People who fish here, eat here, and decide where to spend a Saturday here.
Where the paper goes. The print edition comes out free on the first Sunday of every month, starting January 2027. We drop it at grocery stores, cafés, bait shops, resorts, and gas stations in 23 counties, from Duluth to Grand Forks, Fargo, Brainerd, and St. Cloud. It changes its look with the season, and people keep it on the kitchen table all month.
Current audience figures and print distribution go out with every proposal. Ask and we will send you what we actually have, not a rounded number.
Online rates
Everything below can be bought on its own, month to month, with no contract.
Display ads on the site
| Your own ad box, by size in pixels | Rate |
|---|---|
| Between-sections ad, up to 1,200 x 600, across the page between two sections | $920/mo |
| Center column ad, 625 x 625, the large ad in the wide middle column | $750/mo |
| Tall side column ad, 300 x 600 | $320/mo |
| Square side column ad, 300 x 300 | $176/mo |
| Small side column ad, 300 x 100 | $126/mo |
Rates are for the Events Calendar, Happening Around Town, The Great Outdoors and Community Resources. An ad on the home page is double. Each page carries its own ads.
Sponsorships
| Your name as “Sponsored by,” one sponsor each | Rate |
|---|---|
| Top Bar Alert: alert above the masthead on every page, your own paid front-page article, and the top front-page ad in the paper | $3,100/mo |
| Live cam, just under the Cass Lake live cam on the home page | $750/mo |
| Section or category, wherever it appears on the site: Weather, Business, Sports, Fishing, Things To Do and more | $450/mo |
A sponsorship has no ad box. Your name runs on the section and travels with every article in it. The stories stay ours. A sponsorship puts one business’s name on a single section or category, wherever it appears on the site, on the live cam, or on the Top Bar Alert. Each has one sponsor at a time, first come, first served. Stories in a sponsored section follow the usual rule: free to read for six days, then open to members. Happy Headlines, Featured stories, classifieds, obituaries, reviews, paid articles, and whole pages (the home page, the Events Calendar, Happening Around Town, The Great Outdoors and Community Resources) are not for sponsorship.
Newsletter
| Product | Rate |
|---|---|
| Footer | $40/send · $140/mo |
| Top banner | $65/send · $230/mo |
Podcast
| Product | Rate |
|---|---|
| Pre-roll, 15 seconds, host-read | $55/ep · $190/mo |
| Mid-roll, 30 seconds, host-read | $80/ep · $280/mo |
| Interview segment, presented by | $200/ep · $700/mo |
| Episode title sponsor, all placements, exclusive | $325/ep · $1,100/mo |
Live broadcasts
| Product | Rate |
|---|---|
| Presenting sponsor | $450/event |
| Supporting sponsor | $175/event |
| Event package, broadcast plus recap, photos, podcast mention | $750/event |
Paid articles
| Product | Rate |
|---|---|
| Business Spotlight: a paid article in the paper and on the site, written by us or sent by you, marked Paid Content | $1,000/mo |
| Classified bump | $15/week |
Live broadcasts begin January 2027.
Print rates
Per monthly issue. First issue January 2027. Every print ad also runs in the online edition at no extra charge.
Display ads
| Size | B&W | 1 color | 2 color | 3 color | Full color |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full page | $845 | $870 | $880 | $890 | $920 |
| Half page | $425 | $450 | $460 | $470 | $500 |
| Quarter page | $245 | $270 | $280 | $290 | $320 |
| Eighth page | $101 | $126 | $136 | $146 | $176 |
| Business card | $51 | $76 | $86 | $96 | $126 |
Add-ons and other sizes
| Product | Rate |
|---|---|
| Requested placement: page 3, center spread, or back page | +$150 |
| Front page, any size but a full page | Double the ad rate |
| Custom sizes | $8/column inch |
| Ad design, charged once per ad (no charge with finished artwork) | $75 |
Classifieds
| Product | Rate |
|---|---|
| First 30 words | $7.50/month |
| Each word over 15 | 50 cents |
| Add a photo | $7.50/month |
Discounts
Ten percent off a year paid up front. Fifteen percent for nonprofits, churches, and schools. Twenty percent off a first campaign if you have never advertised anywhere before.
Specs and deadlines
JPG or PNG under 200KB, at the pixel size listed with the rate. Creative due five business days before first run.
Static image only, no animation. Dimensions confirmed on the insertion order. Creative due Tuesday for that Friday.
Talking points, not a script. Spots are host-read. Send three or four bullets and a call to action.
Logo as a PNG with a transparent background, minimum 1,000 pixels wide. Two weeks’ notice for a presenting sponsorship.
We write and photograph it, or you send your own with your links. You review ours for factual accuracy about your own business. Two to three weeks from booking to publication. Our staff approves the length. Marked Paid Content.
CMYK PDF at 300 dpi, sized exactly, fonts embedded. Due 5 p.m. the Monday before the first Sunday of the month. We send a proof within two business days.
In the paper: due 5 p.m. the Thursday before the first Sunday of the month. Online: starts the first of the month. The paper and the website are ordered and billed separately.
If you do not have creative, we will build it for $75 per ad, and we match print ads to the season’s look. Send finished artwork and there is no design charge.
How we label it
A paid article is marked Paid Content at the top, in a box, before the headline, with the business named. Every time, same place, on the site and in the paper. A sponsored section says Sponsored by. If a story says neither, nobody paid for it.
Advertising buys ad space, a sponsorship buys your name on a section, and a Business Spotlight buys a paid article. None of them buys a place in the regular run of the site or the paper.
We do not run political ads, payday lending, or programmatic junk. Every ad we run was sold to a real business by a real person.
If a competitor already holds the section you are asking about, we will tell you before you spend a dollar on it.
Ready to order
Gregory Moyer, publisher
218-839-8801 · sales@minnesotanicenews.com
Download the rate card (PDF) · Classifieds · Advertising terms
