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How to Request News Items for the Blink Home Page

Newspaper

Find out how to request news items for the Blink home page.

  1. Determine if your promotion is more appropriate for a lead teaser or a news teaser.
  2. Send the request to wts@ucsd.edu. Include the following:
    1. Email subject: "Blink teaser: [event/teaser name] [event date (if applicable)]"
      Example: "Blink teaser: Learn about Blink teasers 10/15
    2. The URL (web link) to more information. This can be a Blink page, departmental website, or a link to a file on a web server.
    3. A short headline, 1 short sentence.
      1. Lead teaser: approximately 22 words
      2. News teaser: approximately 13 words
      3. See the Blink homepage for examples.
    4. An image. Follow the guidelines for images.
      1. Lead teaser image size: 564 by 376 pixels
      2. News teaser image size: 290 by 145 pixels

All requests and content must follow the UC San Diego Principles of Community.

If you have multiple events, send a separate email for each event.

If you are unsure about what to use for any of the above, ask us. We can help you choose or develop materials with sufficient lead time.

We may need to alter your materials. We often have to edit headlines so they will fit properly in the available space. Images may be changed or replaced if they are too busy, too text-heavy, or too similar to another image, for example.

If you have preferences for when the teaser is posted, include that in the email. We will do our best to accommodate requests for posting dates, but our ability to do so depends on the lead time you give us and how many other teasers have been requested for that timeframe.

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Teaser types

Blink has two types of teasers on the home page.

Lead teasers

The large rotating images in the top left-hand corner of the page are reserved for messages that are for a large UCSD audience. Examples include:

  • Message from UCOP
  • Major process changes
  • Wide-interest stories

News teasers

The four smaller news teaser spots are appropriate for anything relevant to UCSD staff and faculty. Examples include:

  • Chancellor's blog
  • Staff Ed classes
  • Work/life initiatives such as blood drives, wellness lectures
  • Financial news or deadlines
  • Fun stuff (theater tickets, Staff Association events, restaurant specials)

Teaser duration

We've found through analytics that the lifecycle of a news item is about 3-5 days. After 5 days, usage drops off dramatically. Duration is also influenced by the volume of requests we have at the time.

We will post 1-3 lead teasers and 4 news teasers at a time for up to a week.

Teaser priorities

When there are many requests for the same time period, some news teasers may have shorter than normal durations. It is also possible that we won't have room to post a particular teaser. Priority is given to requests roughly in the following order:

  1. Urgent information
  2. Stories of interest to the general employee population
  3. Campus wide event (may be lead or news teasers)
  4. Targeted events (news teasers)
  5. Reminders for news items that have already been recently posted

In general preference is given to teasers for departments that have not posted recently.

Image guidelines

Graphics used for Blink promotions should use text sparingly. This helps keep our overall design uncluttered and supports accessibility. For those that use assistive technology such as screen readers to navigate websites, the screen readers can’t read text placed on images. Also, since Blink uses responsive design, the images will automatically size down when viewed on a smartphone. Busy graphics don't translate on a smaller screen. In general,

  • Images should relate to and enhance written content.
  • Images and designs must be consistent with overall Blink design.
  • Images and colors must meet accessibility requirements and be aesthetically pleasing.
  • Resized images must retain original proportions and must be resized with an photo editor, not sized down with HTML. See below for image dimensions for either lead teasers or news teasers.
  • If you are unsure of a graphic to use, ask us. We can help you create one with proper lead time.

Lead image guidelines

The image size for the lead spot is 564 by 376 pixels. If you have something larger than that, we can crop it for you. The image can be a photo or a graphic.

If it's a graphic, please limit the text as the headline will overlay the bottom of the image when the page is viewed on a smaller screen such as tablets or smartphones.

News image guidelines

The image size for news teasers 290 by 145 pixels. If you have something larger than that, we can crop it for you.

Keep in mind that this is a very horizontal image so portrait orientations will not fit.

Adding Important Dates

The Blink home page also includes an area for listing important dates for staff and faculty. We look through the main UCSD calendars (calendar of events, academic calendar, payroll dates, etc.) and pull out important dates and deadlines but you can also request to have items added here. We list dates for the next 1-2 weeks (depending on space).

Send to wts@ucsd.edu:

  • The name of the event
  • The URL (web link) to more information. This can be a Blink page, departmental website, or a link to a file on a web server.
  • The date

Posting on other sites

See How to Publicize on Campus for instructions on getting news items on the UCSD home page, TritonLink, or Calendar Gateway.

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Note: This page has a friendly link that's east to remember: http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/requestnews
https://blink.ucsd.edu/sponsor/blink/teasers.html
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