Advertising in The Beacon (internal)
This should be all you need to know to run ads in The Beacon in the event the regular person who runs it is unreachable. It is a living document so expect things to change over time, as needed.
Table of Contents
- Overview of the Ad Process
- Broadstreet: what it is, how we use it
- Ad Sizes/Content: ad dimensions, text and image recommendations
- Ad Zones: what they are, how they're named, where they show up (coming soon)
- Ad Rates: general tiers, specific tiers (ad variations), terms
- Advertising Philosophy: (coming soon)
- Generating reports for Sponsors (coming soon)
- Sponsor Payments (coming soon)
- How to create a Campaign (walkthrough: video & image snapshot) (coming soon)
- Special Ad scenarios: Single Article ads, Category Page Ads, Entire Site ads, Time-Specific Ads (coming soon)
- Legal Restrictions To know About:
- Reference Links: Broadstreet Login page, Ad Rate download,
Overview of the Ad Process
Generally, the ad process follows these steps:
- Set up Advertiser's account (if needed).
- Select Zone(s) to advertise in.
- Select Advertisement type appropriate to chosen Zones.
- Select Advertisement dimensions appropriate to chosen Zones.
- Collect art & copy to create ad brief for sponsor.
- Generate preview for sponsor signoff.
- Create campaign for ads to set date range and ad page placement.
- Collect payment from sponsor.
- Run ads.
- Set reminder on calendar to check back in with sponsors.
Broadstreet
Broadstreet is The Beacon's ad server. Broadstreet has injected invisible code onto all of The Beacon's web pages, which we should never need to fiddle with. We go to Broadstreet's site to create new ads and edit or delete old ads. All ads on the website and newsletter are served automatically. N.B. As of 3/3/2026, our newsletter template still needs to be set up to include newsletter ads.
Ad Zones
Alongside their preferred budget and type of ad they want to run, sponsors need to decide where ads will show up.
These are called ad "zones". The snapshot below is taken from Broadstreet on 3/3/2026. I've included each Zone's ID# so we can all refer to them without ambiguity even if the ad zone's name get changed one day. It is also possible we might swap out one of these zones for another.
Calendar before nav (...475)
On the calendar page only, above the calendar, but directly beneath the top navigation bar. Ideal for horizontal banner ads.
Homepage before main stories (...470)
The area directly above the main stories on the homepage, but below directly beneath the top navigation bar. Ideal for horizontal banner ads.
Homepage before nav bar (...471)
ddd
In-story (...474)
Appears after the fifth paragraph of any story across the entire site. Obviously a premium ad. Ideal for horizontal banners or large ads.
Landing Page Banner (...473)
These are targeted ads, as needed. They aren't meant for templates, but to give you more control on where an ad might show up.
How to place a Landing Page Banner Ad on Ghost
Paste the following code as HTML wherever you want to see an ad that has this zone selected. Ideal for banners but there appears to be no limit on dimension so it's possible to have a large premium ad.
How to inject HTML code into a Ghost Page
Here's how you can inject HTML code on Ghost (you can also type "/html" on a new line to trigger the green code box, above):
Where to find the Zone code to paste on Ghost
Open up the Zones menu on Broadstreet and click on the three grey dots on the right side of the screen. Select Get Code.
Select Javascript (Standard) in the top menu, then find the second dark box under "Insert this where you want the zone/ad-unit to appear:" Click the copy icon at far right.
Newsletter 1 (...480)
ddd
Newsletter 2 (...481)
ddd
Sidebar (...472)
Not a very useful zone, at the moment. I am trying to get it swapped out for Test Zone Name (...165)
Test Zone Name (...165)
This is a temporary zone that I'm currently working with Broadstreet to solidify. Watch this space.
Ad Sizes
300 x 250
Layout Mistakes (and Best Practices
Changing dimensions will usually mess up the image placement.
Best Practices: Sponsors provide art variations for any ad dimension.
Sponsors should provide multiple art variations (e.g., images with negative space on either side and above and below the subject) to give The Beacon enough flexibility to create ideal ads for any dimension.
Alternative Best Practice: Sponsors provide art specific to their ad dimension.
The client provides their own ad specifically for the ad dimensions they choose. (In the print world, this is called "camera-ready": the final ad couldn't be changed by the printer, which was beneficial to both sponsor and printer because if typos in the ad could not be attributed to the printer because tweaking was impossible.)
Headlines too long
Banner ads have much shorter text areas. Brevity is key.
300 x 600
Tall vertical ad best suited for margin zones. Note how the logo is exactly as uploaded, with no forced white space on top an bottom like it's expecting a 1:1 image.
728 x 90
Banner ad with brief headline text and brief primary text. Ideal for horizontal art.
800 x 600
These are big premium ads, and the image can communicate lots of complicated information quickly. Note how a horizontal logo is shoehorned into a square slot at the top right.
Best Practices: use 1:1 art for logos, and 730 x 447 art for the main image without borders.
970 x 250
A premium horizontal big-ish ad. Best suited for horizontal images and horizontal logos. Ability to have more primary text than other ads.
4:1
A large premium ad with more emphasis on the text. Headline text in bold is reduced.
