Another angle. Pricing in the Bee is based on column inch. I sell stuff that is cheap - $40 is our average ticket. But I pay the SAME price for paper space as a CAR COMPANY. If the car company sells ONE car they more than pay for the ad. I have to sell hundreds of $40 items to pay for one ad. How is that fair ? so we never take the risk - it simply is not worth it. If the bee woudl offer a PAGE - Items under $20 - another - Items under $40, Items under $100 - for lower rates - they could fill them. Plus - it'd be a cool page to read - you would go there looking for low cost gifts and cool new stuff from craftspeople, inventors, and small businesses. If the car company complains - simple answer - You sell a car for under $100 and you can be on that page too ! It would bring in many more advertisers and would be a highly read section of the paper.

How about another angle. Let vendors (like my company) buy low cost PRINT & DISPLAY ads in the Bee. Say for a fishing Pole I sell. The ad would then have a link - www.sacbee.com/gofast23 - so if a reader used that URL (or clicked it on a web version of the ad at sacbee.com) - it would click through to my real web page - www.gofastandlight.com I would then pay a PER click fee to the Bee. The BEE could monitor that link and bill me. So if I get lots of action - the bee gets lots of money. It is basically what google does. The Bee should use its PRINT presence to "out google google" Keep in mind that if someone clips that ad out of the paper and puts it on their fridge - then clicks it in 6 months - I am still happy to pay the BEE for that click. The ad in the paper can work LONGER than similar electronic ads. The bee builds a residual payment stream.