Sizes: the entry point
Quarter page newspaper ad cost
3 columns by 10.5 inches. The first size that can carry a headline, an offer, and a coupon without shouting over itself.
A quarter page is 31.5 column inches, usually 3 columns by 10.5 inches. The published arithmetic: at the WSJ Western Edition color open rate of $352.53 per inch it prices at $11,104.70 per run. Metro and local quarters are quote-only; get the per-inch rate and the same multiplication prices any market.
Source: WSJ 2026 General Advertising Rate Card, Issue #92, effective Jan 1 2026, retrieved Jul 31, 2026.
What actually fits in 31.5 inches
A quarter page holds exactly one idea done well: a headline of six to ten words, one image or none, three lines of support copy, an offer with a deadline, and a response device (phone, URL, coupon). It does not hold your service list, your history, and your mission statement; ads that try read like the phone book and pull like it too. The design page shows the anatomy; the examples page annotates real layouts at this size.
First campaign, the craft numbers
Book four weekly runs, not one. A single insertion tests nothing: print response builds on recognition, and the reader who clips your coupon on week three never saw week one as a stranger. Four runs at a quarter page also opens the frequency-discount conversation with the desk.
The same money, other shapes
One quarter page buys two eighth pages or eight 2x2s on a flat per-inch card. Steady small presence suits reminder businesses (plumbers, tutors); the quarter suits offers that need room to persuade.
Price it
Your market, your rate, this size
The Press Estimator: a cost range before you call the desk
Quote-only tier Quote-only tier: no major metro daily publishes an open print rate card in 2026. Enter the per-inch rate the ad desk quotes you below and the estimator will do the arithmetic.
Arithmetic on the rate you enter. For sourced context, the national tier above computes from the WSJ 2026 card, the only published national card on file.
Related: the half page when the offer needs more air, and the column-inch page for the unit underneath all of this.