How should a local media company tier its advertising offers?

Every local media company I'd build today has three shelves. Each one is for a different buyer and sells a different way.

What goes on each shelf?

Shelf	What's on it	How it sells
Low	Directory Pro listing at $49 a month, one-time boosts around $50 to $100	Self-serve
Mid	Single newsletter ads or ad packs
High	Local Partner: for example one ad a month, a homepage story, a homepage ad, one business per category	Apply and talk, sold by a person

Why is the low shelf so cheap?

Because the buyer is tiny. Restaurants and mom-and-pops with fewer than about six employees top out around a $250 ad, or the $50 a month Pro membership in WilCo Guide. The pitch to them is fully digital: claim your free page, do the free interview, get the search and AI-search benefit. Then upsell Pro and ads.

I've also kicked around an even lower rung: a classified-style message in the back for about $20, like the old paper. Ten more businesses at $20 is $200. Whether that's worth the effort is up to each operator. I'm not sure it is.

Why does the high shelf need a person?

"Local Partner is always apply-and-talk, sold by a person. The system delivers what was sold; it does not self-serve sell it."

Exclusive, multi-channel deals involve real money and real customization. Software can handle delivery. A human closes the deal. I wrote that rule into the ad system plan for lightbreak so nobody builds a buy button for the expensive stuff.

What does a premium exclusive tier look like?

Two versions I like:

• Expert contributor. One per category per city, term-limited. Anyone can buy the mid-tier listing, so you could have 20 roofers paying for it. The expert contributor slot is the VIP upsell, totally exclusive.
• Own the city page. A media brand with a local directory where a service business, like an estate planner, pays roughly $500 to $1,000 a month to own the featured spot for a city: an interview, top of the directory, homepage placement and newsletter mentions. That's an idea I'd treat as a later step that needs sales. I'm not selling it today.

Do I need separate sales motions for each shelf?

Yes. Small businesses get an automated, digital path. Bigger brands get a different approach that pitches partnerships instead of ads. Mixing them is how you end up spending an hour on the phone with a business that has $50 to spend, or sending a bank a self-serve link.