Jupitermedia , publisher of 150 technology-related Web sites (including this one), said 48 of the sites in its internet.com and EarthWeb networks will offer half-page ad units.
The move comes a month after New York Times Digital introduced its own half-page format, followed by CBS Marketwatch and Forbes.com.
“What’s happening is the ad sizes have finally caught up to what the screen resolution is,” said Chris Elwell, vice president and general manager of Jupitermedia. “This is a good way for us to deliver very high-impact creative without upsetting an audience that’s really sensitive to being intruded upon” by interstitials and similar attention-grabbing formats.
The half-page ads are available on a wide variety of sites in the internet.com and EarthWeb networks, from developer.com to internetnews.com. Jupitermedia said Microsoft and BMC Software are among a handful of advertisers to sign up for campaigns using the new units.
The Jupitermedia half-page format, measuring 360 x 600 pixels, is sized differently from that of the NYTD and CBS Marketwatch, which measures 368 x 800, and Forbes.com’s 368 x 850 unit. Elwell said a creative designed to run on the other sites could be easily reshaped to run on Jupitermedia sites.
The half-page ad, a combination of the skyscraper and large rectangle units, is meant to make the Web page experience similar to that of reading a magazine, while giving advertisers a larger creative palette. The large unit is part of a trend of online publishers offering advertisers fewer but bigger and better-performing units.