SFGate: Media Kit: Specifications:/mediakit/specs/index.dtl
Advertising Specs and
Guidelines
Standard Ad Size and Polite Rich Media
Guidelines
Unit
Name
Dimensions (in pixels)
File Size Limit: GIF/JPG
File Size Limit: Rich Media
½
Banner
234x60
40K
40K
Masthead
234x60
40K
40K
Leaderboard
728x90
40K
40K
Rectangle/Square
300x250
40K
40K
½
Page
300x600
40K
40K
General specs:
No animation may exceed 15 seconds (with some additional
restrictions on certain products as stated below). Ads may permit
re-initiation of animation through user interaction if clearly labeled
Limit of 3 animation loops and 15 seconds total animation time.
All in page ads must have a 1 pixel border to clearly identify where the
page ends, and advertisement begins. If creative has a light colored or
white background, creative must also have a visible border (a dark colored
line) around the ad. SFGate reserves the right to add a border to
non-compliant creative.
No more than three separate creatives/tags
per ad placement allowed at one time
Creative changes: when
creative served by sfgate this is permitted once per week. Exceptions
to be approved by SFGate sales and ad operations departments.
Material Due Dates: 3 business days prior to start of campaign; 7 business days prior for Rich Media.
Landing Page Headline Text (25 characters max) Landing Page Description Text (150 Character max)Contact Information (at least one of the following is required: phone number, physical address, email address or shortcode)
Facebook
110x80
100K
For every ad submit 25 characters for the ad title and 135 characters for the ad body text
Accepted file formats: .avi, .mov, .mpg/mpeg, .mp4, and .wmv
Both 15 and 30 second videos are accepted. 15 second videos will auto play, 30 second videos will show a title card and a play button. Both lengths allow users to replay the video. Other lengths can be used, but will not auto play and are not recommended for user experience reasons.
Frame rate: 20 seconds or more.
Resolution: 640x480 pixels or higher.
Bit rate: 1 megabit per second or more.
Material Due Dates: 3 full business days prior to start of campaign.
Retail Tile Ads on Home Page and Section Main Pages:
Requirements:
gif/jpg only
130x60
no
animation
45 characters of text
Macromedia Flash:
Requirements:
.swf file with a mandatory "clickTAG" in the file.
Failure to implement it properly can delay the start of the campaign.
Animation cannot exceed 24 FPS (Frames Per Second)
CPU Usage: Idle CPU usage typically falls within 8-12%. When testing a Flash file for an ad, CPU usage after the initial loading of the file must be between 20% and 30%. An initial spike of up to 60% is acceptable in the first five seconds. (Idle CPU usage devised upon computer with a 1.8GHz Intel Pentium Processor and 512 MB of RAM running standard programs.)
Submission and Approval:
We only accept Rich Media provided we have
a week to test the creative.
One week of lead time is needed for Rich
Media creative changes.
The advertiser is required to provide SFGate with
an alternative form of creative should the Rich Media fail to perform as
expected.
Up to 3 - 50k supplemental
downloads on mouseover or click
Sound only permitted when user clicks on
ad. Ads with sound must provide a clearly labeled Stop control
Video
ads limited to 24 FPS
High Impact Rich Media ads to be frequency
capped
All ads which automatically expand/display outside of
standard dimensions must contain a 'close' button.
Ads that
expand/display outside of standard dimensions on mouse over must also
contain a close button and must retract on mouseout.
Other
Products:
Newsletters: (depending on type) SFGate newsletter ads can be text, gif or
jpg (300x250 or 728x90). Text limited to 180 characters. Images cannot
be third party impression tracked. 3rd party click tracking is
permitted.
Home Page Logo Links Ad consists of two
components: an 88x31 image in gif/jpg format and text - no animation.
Client should supply both image and text. SFGate can, for a production
charge, create the image.
Images can be 3rd party served, however,
each ad (image and text) must be assembled by SFGate design
group.
Character and text limits: Up to 50 characters, including spaces and punctuation, total (approx
3 lines) of text displayed in mixed case (see example).
SFGate
will track impressions and clicks. Client may also either request
inclusion of tracking pixel to count impressions or serve the image
through a 3rd party system.
All creatives sold on Yahoo! will need to meet the
Yahoo! ad specifications.
728x90: view specs
160x600: view specs
300x250: view specs
Submission and Deadlines:
Material Due Dates: 3
business days prior to start of campaign; 7 business days prior for Rich
Media*.
Political ads: All ads must
indicate who is responsible for paying for the ad (such as "Paid
for by the Committee for Prop x"). Like all other ads, political
ads are subject to SFGate's approval.
Traffic Instructions: All traffic instructions should
be emailed to traffic@sfgate.com. Traffic
instructions should include banner name, referring URL, alternate and
tag text, rotation schedule, production contact and any pertinent
instructions. If banners are not sent as an attachment, instructions to
a pickup page should be included on the traffic instructions. Production
contact is SF Gate Traffic Department, fax (415) 536-5178, email traffic@sfgate.com.
