BUSINESS POLICY
1. The San Jose Mercury News is published mornings every day of the year including holidays.
2. Minimum space sold is one column inch.
3. Advertising must measure at least as many inches deep as columns wide. Exceptions: Check for availability of special page strip positions.
4. Advertisements more than 18.5 inches in depth will be charged full column depth of 21.5 inches. For tabloid sections, ads more than 9 inches will be charged full column depth of 11.55 inches.
5. Credit for errors shall not exceed the cost of the space occupied by such errors. On multiple insertions, credit for errors will not be given after the first insertion. The Publisher assumes no financial responsibility for typographical errors or for omission of copy. IF THERE ARE DISPUTES OR DISCREPANCIES ADVERTISER MUST PROMPTLY PAY ALL AMOUNTS NOT SUBJECT TO DISPUTE, and present to the Mercury News advertising representative and Credit Department, in writing, a complete and detailed explanation of the discrepancy and any balance withheld.
6. Forwarding of an order is construed as an acceptance of all rates and conditions under which the San Jose Mercury News at the time sells advertising space. Failure to make order correspond in price, or otherwise, with the rate card is regarded as a clerical error and publication is made and charged for upon the rates and terms of the rate card, without further notification.
7. The Publisher reserves the right to edit, alter, or omit any advertisement submitted for publication that, in the publisher’s sole discretion, is determined not to be in the best interest of the newspaper. All advertising positions are at the option of the Publisher. Advertising orders directing insertion of advertising to a special position or on a designated page "or omit" will not be accepted.
8. Advertiser agrees that the laws of the State of California govern the placement and publication of advertising. Advertiser agrees that the City of San Jose and the County of Santa Clara, in which the San Jose Mercury News is located, shall be the venue for any legal action relating to advertising placed or published.
9. Advertiser and/or advertising agency or agent assumes all liability for the content of advertisements published (including illustrations, text, claims, etc.) and agrees to protect and indemnify the San Jose Mercury News, its affiliates, stockholders and the directors, officers and employees of the San Jose Mercury News in which the advertisement appears against any and all liability, damages, loss or expense of whatsoever nature, including attorneys’ fees and costs, arising out of the copying printing or publishing of such advertising including, but not limited to, claims for libel, slander, deceptive statements, unfair trade practice, unfair competition, infringement of trademarks, copyrights, proprietary rights, trade names, or patents and invasion or violation of rights of privacy resulting from publication of such advertisement.
10. The San Jose Mercury News reserves the right to revise its advertising rates and/or terms at any time. New rates will be effective with the billing cycle following the rate change announcement. An Advertiser may elect to cancel their existing contract after the announcement of the change. If the Advertiser cancels their contract then they will be re-billed the difference between the contracted rate and the actual rate earned.
11. If Advertiser wishes to upgrade an existing contract, the Advertiser may do so within the first six-(6) months of the specified contract dates. No contract upgrades will be accepted after this period. The revised contract and appropriate rates will be effective on the first day of the following month from date of the contract upgrade. The San Jose Mercury News will not re-bill any advertising run prior to the effective date of the upgrade.
12. The Publisher reserves the right to insert the word "Advertisement" at the Advertiser’s expense. The Publisher also reserves the right to reset body type in advertising because of the resemblance to the typeface used in news stories.
13. The San Jose Mercury News will not be responsible for an Advertiser’s printing material left thirty days after publication.
14. Every effort will be made to meet reasonable position requests. Failure to meet position requests will not constitute cause for adjustment, refund, or rerun.
15. Submission of an advertisement does not constitute a commitment to publish the advertisement. Publication of an advertisement does not constitute an agreement for continued publication.
16. The San Jose Mercury News shall not be liable for failure to publish all or any portion of the advertising which is the subject hereof when such failure results directly or indirectly from fire, flood, earthquake, other act of God, strikes, lockouts, other labor difficulties, acts of the public enemy, riots, insurrections, government regulations, or any other cause or event beyond their control.
17. If advertising is rejected, any consideration paid to the San Jose Mercury News will be returned to the Advertiser and all parties will be released.
18. Foreign language advertisements will be accepted by the San Jose Mercury News, providing a full translation is also published in equal space. This does not apply to Nuevo Mundo or Viet Mercury.
19. Cancellations, changes of insertion dates, and/or corrections must conform to published deadlines.
20. All disclaimers contained in advertising agency insertion orders or contracts, such as "agency for" are void and suspended by this ratebook. The advertising agency is solely financially liable for all advertising. Credit is not available to advertising agencies with disclaimers.
21. Excessive changes to a proof that are not corrections but changes in either copy or layout are not guaranteed nor warranted to be corrected for any ad scheduled for publication unless 48 hours is allowed. Changes indicated would then be made and charged at 50% of advertiser’s daily contract rate for the space in which the changes are made.
22. The Mercury News reserves the right to revise non-subscriber advertising rates in the event of postage rate changes.
23. Any preprint received that varies from the original order will be charged for any additional costs incurred plus a 25% premium.

 


NATIONAL, NATIONAL AUTO, TELECOM, BAY AREA BUY POLICY
1. Contracts for bulk space discounts cannot be backdated more than 30 days
2. Space used in Television or Sunday Comics may be added to ROP space to fulfill volume/bulk contracts.
3. minimum contracted for, the San Francisco Bay Area Buy will re-bill the difference between the contracted linage level and actual linage achieved.
4. Key numbers and other information the Advertiser deems necessary should appear in printing material. Publisher is not responsible for "pub-set" key numbers.
5. General advertising rates are commissionable at 15%, see "Commission" for details.

Commission
1. A 15% commission is offered to advertising agencies recognized by the San Francisco Bay Area Buy assumes all financial responsibility for all advertising placed by the agency. Depending on Advertiser category, National, National Auto, San Francisco Bay Area Buy or Telecom rates will apply. Agency commission will be disallowed if payment terms are not met.
2. Payment of commission is contingent on the agency providing newspaper with (1) production ready layout, (2) all artwork or other printing material for illustrations or special borders or typefaces other than stock cuts, (3) a written insertion order, and (4) payment within terms.

 


RETAIL POLICIES
1. Retail rates apply to advertising space relating to the retail business operated by the advertiser. Retail rates cannot be used directly or indirectly to cover the advertising of any product for which the advertiser may be a distributor; nor does it apply to any advertising classified as general rate advertising by the Publisher. The space contracted for will not be sublet to others, nor used for other purposes than herein named.
2. Advertising agencies that place advertisements and receive statements on behalf of Retail advertisers are acting as the agent of these advertisers. Retail rate advertisers are at all times liable for payment of all account balances, signing of contracts and all other liabilities. Advertisers are deemed to have received refund payments, adjustments, notices, and all other documents when the same are delivered to their agents.
3. Dollar Volume Contracts cannot be backdated more than 30 days.
4. Retail rates are net and non-commissionable. No cash discounts are offered.
5. In the event that Advertiser spending exceeds the level specified in the contract, the Advertiser will begin earning lower contract rates on spending in excess of the original contracted amount as subsequent contract levels are achieved during the contract period. Rate adjustments will be effective with the first day of the subsequent billing cycle.
6. Advertising dollars invested in San Jose Mercury News products: Retail Advertising, Classified Advertising, Preprinted Inserts, Nuevo Mundo, Viet Mercury and Online Products (Recruitment advertising is NOT eligible) apply toward fulfillment of advertiser’s dollar volume agreement.

 


REAL ESTATE, LOCAL AUTOMOTIVE, CLASSIFIED MERCHANDISE POLICY
1. Only standard abbreviations will be accepted. Proper punctuation required.
2. Every effort will be made to position advertisements within or adjacent to classification ordered, however the San Jose Mercury News reserves the right to edit, reject, sort, position or classify advertisements in the proper classification.
3. In the event that Advertiser spending exceeds the level specified in the dollar volume contract, the San Jose Mercury News will re-bill the difference between the rate level contracted and the appropriate rate level—to a maximum of two levels.
4. If the Advertiser does not meet the minimum contracted for, the San Jose Mercury News will re-bill the difference between the contracted dollar volume and actual dollar volume achieved.
5. In the event that Advertiser spending exceeds the level specified in the contract, the Advertiser will begin earning lower contract rates on spending in excess of the original contracted amount as subsequent contract levels are achieved during the contract period. Rate adjustments will be effective with the first day of the subsequent billing cycle.
6. Advertising dollars invested in San Jose Mercury News products: Retail Advertising, Classified Advertising, Preprinted Inserts, Nuevo Mundo, Viet Mercury and Online Products (Recruitment advertising is NOT eligible) apply toward fulfillment of ’s dollar volume agreement.

 


RECRUITMENT POLICY
1. Only standard abbreviations will be accepted. Proper punctuation required.
2. Every effort will be made to position advertisements within or adjacent to classification ordered, however the San Jose Mercury News reserves the right to edit, reject, sort, position, or classify advertisements in the proper classification.
3. The San Jose Mercury News requires that all offers of employment state exactly the work to be performed.
4. Sales employment offer advertising must specifically name the product or service to be sold.
5. In sales ads, the word "salary" or "guarantee" must be included if an amount of money is shown in the advertisement. When earnings are based upon commission, no statement of the amount of money that may be earned is acceptable, nor may the advertiser imply earnings except a specific commission paid per unit sold unless the newspaper receives and approves advertiser-supplied documentation pertaining to average earnings of existing employees, sales agents or both.
6. The Mercury News does not accept ads in these categories: Job Fair or Aggregator Advertising.

Commission
1. A 15% commission is offered to advertising agencies recognized by the San Jose Mercury News. Agency assumes all financial responsibility for all advertising placed by the agency. Agency commission will be disallowed if payment terms are not met.
2. Payment of commission is contingent on the agency providing newspaper with (1) production ready layout, (2) all artwork or other printing material for illustrations or special borders or typefaces other than stock cuts, (3) a written insertion order, and (4) payment within terms.
3. Local and contract employment advertising agencies can earn a 15% commission providing agency submits advertising by remote entry, or provides camera-ready material. Remote entry ads received after deadline (6 p.m.) or that include errors subsequently corrected by San Jose Mercury News staff will not be eligible for commission.

 


CREDIT POLICY
1. Payment must accompany all orders from Advertisers who have not established credit with The San Jose Mercury News, Inc. and Contra Costa Times.
2. Acceptance and publication of advertising does not constitute an extension of credit to the advertiser or advertising agency, if there is one. The San Jose Mercury News may, at its option, extend credit upon completion of an application for credit and/or personal guarantee, along with any other additional information, surety, and credit reference deemed necessary by the San Jose Mercury News.
3. All billed advertising is due and payable 15 days following statement end date. Failure to receive tear sheets will not be considered reason to delay payment beyond the 15th day. In the event that legal action has to be taken to collect a debt, Advertiser agrees to pay all collection costs incurred, including attorney’s fees in any collection suit, any appeal therefrom, or otherwise. Rebates or credits may be applied to advertiser’s/agency’s delinquent account at the discretion of the San Jose Mercury News
4. The San Jose Mercury News may require payment in full for any outstanding balance before accepting copy for publication or require cash payment with copy or both.
5. It is our policy to review accounts to determine if a change in account status is necessary.
6. Contract advertisers who have not been extended credit may be required to pay the open rate until the contract period has been fulfilled. On completion of the contract period, the customer may apply any difference between the open and contract rates to future advertising. If there is no future advertising, and the account has no outstanding balances, the credit may be refunded.
7. Credit is not available to advertising agencies with disclaimers. Advertising submitted with insertion orders or other forms, which deny liability for payment or claim sequential liability (agency will not pay the Mercury News until they receive payment from the advertiser) will not be accepted unless the submitting agency satisfies at least one of the following conditions:
a. Signs a "Confirmation of Liability for Payment" form, which supersedes the denial of liability for payment in any and all insertion orders received from that agency; or,
b. Prepays for the advertising submitted with such a denial of liability
8. Claims for adjustment due to errors must be made within seven days of publication. IF THERE ARE DISPUTES OR DISCREPANCIES ADVERTISER MUST PROMPTLY PAY ALL AMOUNTS NOT SUBJECT TO DISPUTE, and presented to the advertising representative and Credit Department, in writing, a complete and detailed explanation of any payment withheld and reason therefore.
9. Cash discounts are not available.
10. If no claim has been made on a payment by an advertiser within two (2) years, it shall be deemed to have been paid to The San Jose Mercury News, Inc. and Contra Costa Times, for services rendered.
11. The aforementioned terms and general information are not all inclusive and are subject to change at the sole discretion of The San Jose Mercury News, Inc.
12. The San Jose Mercury News accepts cash, check or Visa/MasterCard and Discover for advertising payments.
13. Prepayment of advertising is required for companies located offshore, in Canada or Mexico.