So... what are newspaper "Column Inches" in actual inches?

[Gutenberg]

Paul, you have an 11-pica column there. You can set the preferences in your InDesign document to measure in picas. It's simpler. If you are doing a two-column ad, the ad will be 23 picas wide--most newspaper gutters are one pica. A pica is, for some reason, a sixth of an inch. Agates, another common newspaper measurement, are 14 to the inch. The measurements are utterly incompatible and don't divide easily, and that's probably why the printers' guilds love them so much.

Edit: P.S. Send them a pdf, not the ID document. PM me if you need details.