It's a phenomenon that happens every day in many a media owner's Advertising Department.

The paper's going down (to print that is) in 4 hours and we've still got a page going begging because, perhaps, a huge client has pulled out or, quite simply, we haven't been able to sell it and whilst Editorial always has reserves to slip in, they'd rather not.

Enter Late Space or sometimes called Distress Space (or, in the US, Remnant Space) where that last frantic page can often be bought for a song or, to sound a little more professional, at a very low percentage of the Rate Card cost.
So let's see how this works.

In simple terms, a newspaper has a certain amount of allocated advertising space – let's say notionally 20 pages. They have a standard Rate Card of, say, £20k per page, and so have a possible maximum advertising sales revenue of £400k per issue.

But that's never going to happen, so the Sales Director and the Board decide that a certain minimum figure is acceptable (note, that's not the target – but acceptable) and let's suggest that figure is 65%, or £260k per issue, and the closer that figure of the minimum £260k gets to the maximum £400, the happier everyone is.

Now, it's 4pm on a Thursday afternoon and tomorrow's issue is going to press at 10pm tonight – and we've still got that damn page to spare.

However, all the other 19 pages of space that have already been sold, for all sorts of varying rates and deals, and have already reaped revenue of £296k – meaning that the last piece of space could actually go for next to nothing – but we have a dilemma.

On the one hand we HAVE to sell that page. We can't have a blank space (not that that would actually happen) and we really don't want to go cap in hand to Editorial asking them to drop in that article on Skiing in Holland that they were saving for next week. On the other hand, we don't want to give it away FREE - we want to get as much as possible for it because we don't want to create cheap precedents.

Media owners know that their product (space!) has a value and they hate giving it away for less than it's true worth, hence they don't particularly like Late Space and they don't like even talking about it. It really is taboo!

But it's a necessary evil and they have to live with it. The only alternative is to bring forward the end of the sales window period to, say, 3 or 4 days before print deadline (as opposed to 3 or 4 hours) giving them a much stronger hand to play with.

OK, we're back in the Sales department. All the guys are back from the pub and they have an hour or so to sell this page for whatever they can, and offer it to the world just £4000, and within no time at all, someone's bought it.

Phew!

The only outstanding problem is that the Production Department (sorry, we haven't mentioned them yet) need copy by 5pm latest and it's a quarter to 5 now, so whoever bought the space better know what they're doing!

So what are the rules from an advertiser's perspective?

There are basically three rules that clients should be aware of regarding the purchase of Late Space .

1.Ensure that the offered Late Space is a publication that is already on the schedule, whether it's the planned and booked 'A' schedule or a schedule of 'B' publications.

The 'B' list contains publications that fit the criteria (target audience, area etc) and would find themselves on the 'A' list except they're considered too expensive. So it could be, for example, Publication X is perfect – but only at 30% of Rate Card (and that can be calculated quite simply using Cost per Thousand against Target Audience readership).

If you are offered Late Space in a different publication and you are told its "perfect for you – ticks all the boxes" then ask why it wasn't on those recommended lists.

I suggest, cynically, that someone's after a bit of quick commission, and at your expense!

2. Make sure you have some guarantee over position.

As we have mentioned elsewhere, a good position is vital and an ad on page 3 could be 50 times more powerful than one on page 52 – and Late Space has a history of poor positions.

And it doesn't require membership to MENSA to understand that if you have one client who has purchased a page at £16k (and spends £4m a year) and another who has paid £4k (and spend a few bob here and there) guess who will get the prime positions?

3 Make sure that the Creative Department has been consulted first!

The one big question mark over the purchase of Late Space is the ability to supply copy, often instantly, and it is pointless making that deal if that isn't possible.

It could (and I have seen this happen so many times) end up in tears as the copy either isn't supplied on time OR the wrong copy has been used OR there was a problem or corruption in file transmission – and when there's such a short time involved (perhaps just 20 minutes!) it's easily done.

Few media people have any idea of the complications that may be involved in producing a specific ad with specific contents to a specific size and specific technical constraints and formats - and possibly all in half an hour!

It may take 2 minutes, it may take 2 hours and we are assuming that we have a person and Mac time laying idle waiting for this panic to happen (the studio may have a dozen other jobs all needed urgently!)

There are, of course, companies that specialise in Late Space purchase and know exactly what is right or wrong for their clients, they know how to address position issues and have their studios set up to handle the complications of last minute production work.

In the right hands, Late Space booking offers an extremely cost-effective addition to an advertising schedule, usually included as a separate budget allocation.

In the wrong hands in can be, literally, a waste of space

David Wood. 2009