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Click here for our 2024 Advertising Rate Card


We are a print-first free publication, which means we live and die based upon the advertising in the print edition that pays for our local news gathering. We pride ourselves on putting out a quality newspaper every two weeks and maintaining a lively online and social media presence. Our rates are among the lowest in the Hampton Roads market. Our goal is to pay for local journalism, including award-winning coverage of government and the agriculture, as well our extensive local voter guides.

We hope you will consider advertising with us to reach a targeted, local audience that is most likely to do business here. Of course, you do not need to own a business to advertise.

We have an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 readers per month. Our papers generally are distributed in southern Virginia Beach, Kempsville and at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront at free-standing newspaper boxes, supermarkets, convenience stores, businesses, restaurants, libraries, community centers, congregations and the city municipal center. We distribute a limited number of papers in the Thalia and Town Center areas and Currituck County, N.C.

Ours are among the lowest advertising rates in the area. Unlike other publications, we do not charge a set up fee for initial ad designs, but we do charge a $10 fee for stock art we purchase for you, which covers our licensing cost. We are only able to use provided imagery or licensed stock art in our publication. We can discuss helping you with complex ads that change regularly, but please understand this is a small community newspaper and not a professional design firm.

Additionally, we are not considered a paper of record under Virginia law because of our distribution model. We are happy to help you with your ad, but advertising in The Independent News may not meet the legal requirements of certain types of advertising such as legal notices. If you are advertising for a legal reason, we are just not equipped to advise you about that sort of thing. Please read the code and consult an attorney.

Please review our 2024 Advertising Rate Card at this link, or call (757) 502-5393 or email jhd@princessanneindy.com for more information about advertising.

The publisher reserves the right to reject advertising for any reason. Please note that there are some specific types of ads we won’t run or carry, including:

  • Personal attacks on individuals or groups of people.
  • “Advertorial” content that contains a byline or bylines or mimics standard editorial design in print or online. We publish original journalism, and we do not want to confuse or mislead readers by presenting marketing and advertising content as news. This includes so-called “sponsored” content, be they posts or stories. We simply will not publish this. We sometimes run columns by representatives of organizations that we believe to have news or informational value for our readers. However, these are clearly marked as opinion columns and edited as we edit any other content from a contributor.
  • Any “story” or column in which a business representative or professional is writing about or promoting their own service or product. We get this question a lot. We just don’t do it. This essentially would be an ad. We may consider a column by nonprofit or community organization about their work, but this is a different thing. We will not for any reason run marketing content as a “guest post” at our website, and we generally do not even respond to solicitations for such posts.
  • Violent or disturbing imagery.
  • Sexually explicit or demeaning content.
  • Racially or ethnically offensive language and visuals.
  • Profanity.
  • Questionable or unproven medical claims or pseudoscience or any products with uncertain regulatory standards, including any advertising for CBD products or, at present, marijuana.
  • Multilevel marketing products.
  • Political advertising without legally required disclaimers or unclear sources for content and authorship of the ad.
  • Political advertising that includes personal attacks or either questionable or false claims.
  • Political advertising by any political “ticket” unless one campaign depository pays for the ad and the ad is appropriately and legally marked to reflect this.
  • Ads formatted to appear upside down or sideways.
  • Sticker ads. Just no. No way.

Your investment in our work helps you reach engaged citizens.

It also helps us shine a light on goings on in our communities.

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