Presentation/Spec ad
Check off this box if you don't want to reserve space, but instead want a presentation or speculative ad to be created by the art department. As I mentioned earlier, most newspapers offer this service at no cost to the potential advertiser. In many cases, however, you'll have a separate Spec Ad Request form.

Pickup information
As with our sample, your newspaper's reservation form may have a section devoted to more information about the pickup. This section will usually ask for more details including the day and date the previous ad last ran, the page number on which it appeared and the edition it appeared in, for example Monday, July 20th, eastern edition. You should include a description of the ad and it can also be helpful to attach a tearsheet to your form so the production people know what to look for.

Account Information
On the sample Ad Reservation Form you may see an area for information about the account, including Account Name which refers to their billing name, Account DBA which is the name which literally means the name by which the account does business as. For example the billing name of a company might be "B&G Industrial Concrete & Tile", while the name by which the company does business with the public might be something like "Pools by B&G", same company, two different names. It's important to include both. You'll also need to write out the account's address, telephone and the name of the agency if the account is using one.

Color
There are a few terms on the ad reservation form that you'll want to familiarize yourself with in regards to color, if your newspaper offers that option. Spot Color will probably be the type of color most commonly used by your advertisers. If the ad is running with Spot Color, that is black plus one color, indicate the color requested. The standard colors at most newspapers are blue, yellow, and red, but you can also order special colors if you give the pressmen enough time.

If an ad has a color photograph in it, then process color will need to be used, requiring the three primary colors, again, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow, as well as black, and most likely, your advertiser will be billed for at least those three additional colors. There are also less common uses of more than one spot color which may be referred to as Black +2 or Black +3, meaning the color black plus 2 or 3 of the other colors offered at the newspaper. For each color used in an ad, a separation must be prepared either by your newspaper by an outside company. So for an ad that uses spot red for example, the ad would have two separations, one sheet would contain just the black and white portion of the ad, while the other would contain just the red portions of the ad.