Sponsorship terms.
These are the terms for every placement on the sponsor page. Every price is for a calendar month.
Editorial integrity
Every sponsored placement is labeled as sponsored, and a sponsorship never buys coverage: no pick, no feature, and no listing. We write sponsored copy in the newsletter’s voice, and we turn down any sponsor we would not recommend to a reader.
How a month works
Every edition in the month
A month is every Thursday edition dated in that calendar month, in the email and in the web copy of each edition. When a month has five Thursdays, the fifth edition comes at no extra charge.
Fewer than four editions
If we send fewer than four editions in a month, you get a quarter of that month’s price for each edition short of four, as a credit toward your next paid month or as a refund, your choice.
Two sponsors at most
Each month runs one inline sponsor or one section takeover, plus one footer band. Each placement is yours alone for the month, and two sponsors in the same category never run in the same month.
Your copy
An inline sponsor gets up to two versions of its copy a month. The footer band gets one, and so does the takeover’s sponsor line. We write it in our voice, and you approve the final copy before it runs. Sponsored copy sticks to facts about your business that we can check, and it never says we visited or tried something we did not. A new version is due by 5pm CT on the Monday before the Thursday it first runs.
A report at month end
One report at the end of the month, with a row for each edition: delivered, reported unique opens, and unique email clicks on your link. It carries measured numbers only, with no forecast of clicks, customers, or return. Opens are labeled as reported, because Apple Mail Privacy Protection records some opens that no one made.
What a month does not include
A sponsorship buys no coverage: no pick in any section, no Dish of the Week, no Meet interview (our Spotlight), no Awesome Austinites feature, and no Shortlist listing. It also includes no mention in our social posts or anywhere else on the site.
Booking and payment
One month minimum
The minimum is one calendar month, then month to month. We do not sell single editions.
Booked when paid
We send an invoice. A month is booked only when its invoice is paid, and payment is due by the Monday before that month’s first Thursday. An unpaid reservation holds nothing.
Paying ahead
A month is priced at the rate in force on the day it is paid, and a paid month never re-prices. You can pay up to three months ahead, with no extra discount for it.
Renewing
The sponsor running a placement can pay for the next month in it before anyone else, until the 15th of the current month. That never covers a month another sponsor has already paid for.
Starting mid-month
A mid-month start works only when it is paid together with the following full month. Each remaining edition of the partial month costs a quarter of the monthly price.
Moving a month, and refunds
You can move a paid month once, with at least 14 days’ notice before its first Thursday. Paid months are not otherwise refundable. The one exception is a month with fewer than four editions, credited or refunded as above.
Founding offer
A lower monthly rate for our first sponsors.
Open to the first two businesses on the inline-or-takeover slot and the first two on the footer band, in the order their first month is paid. Each business gets one founding run.
The first founding month must be paid by 11:59pm CT on December 31, 2026, and must run no later than March 2027.
A founding run is up to three consecutive calendar months on the same placement, starting with the first month it runs. No founding month runs past May 31, 2027, and the founding rate holds for the whole run, whatever the list size.
A gap month, a fourth month, a switch of placement, a month after May 2027, or a moved month that breaks the run moves you to the list rate then in force.
A mid-month start before the first full month is billed at a quarter of the founding rate for each edition, and it does not count toward the three months.
Questions about a term, or a month you have in mind? Ask on the sponsor page, or write carissa@theaustinnewsletter.com.
Ask about a month