An introduction to the redesign process for TheMiamiHurricane.com, focusing on the content management system.
Tag: web
Converting to Drupalism
Drupal is looking more and more attractive as a replacement content management system for The Miami Hurricane‘s Web site. Our webmaster, Brian Schlansky, recently downloaded it and set it up on a virtual server on his laptop.
Here are some Drupal-related links:
- Newspapers on Drupal
- What can Drupal do for my newspaper site?
- Newspaper Sites with Drupal
- Now on Drupal HamptonRoads.com and PilotOnline.com
- Vanderbilt student media site opens up to the community » Invisible Inkling
College newspapers with Druapal (Media sites using Drupal):
- InsideVandy (Vanderbilt)
- The Hoya (Georgetown)
- Stony Brook Independent (Stony Brook University)
- Olivet College Echo Newspaper (Olivet College)
I’m going discuss Drupal’s settings and modules in greater depth with Brian and post my thoughts. Stay tuned.
Background: Drupal is a free, open-source CMS and used by other newspaper for their site management, so it definitely seems like a viable option. We currently use College Publisher, which doesn’t give us the freedom we would like and has been very frustrating recently.
Other CMS options I looked at:
- Ellington – a recommendation from Rick Hirsch, managing editor for multimedia at The Miami Herald. The Lawrence (Kan.) Journal World and Naples News, both of which have great sites, use this. The features looked great, but it just wasn’t in our price range.
- Expression Engine – a recommendation from Kim Grinfeder, an assistant professor of visual journalism at UM. Looks nice, but isn’t geared so much towards news sites.
- Joolma – an open source platform similar to Drupal, but it didn’t stack up as well.
- Town News – used by The Independent Florida Alligator, which underwent a redesign during the summer. Looks like a good option, but has a price tag.
Weigh in: What CMS does your newspaper site use? Why is it good or bad?
Howard Owens on the roles of modern journalism
Howard Owens always offers good insight. It wouldn’t be a stretch to call him the Journalism Listmaster (2008 objectives for today’s non-wired journalist).
Here is his latest list, on the Six roles, or job duties, of modern journalism:
- The Ethical Role
- The Guide/Filter Role
- The Understanding and Context Role
- The Conversation Leader Role
- The Aggregator Role
- The Straight News Role
I particularly like the following, which hits on the potential value of having a greater number of reporters and editors blogging:
“I know many really, really smart reporters and editors. These people should have blogs, and they should serve readers better by taking the news of the day and putting it in context, combing articles for the tidbits that need to be weaved together to make a bigger whole, and explaining what it all means.”
New to the neighborhood: EveryBlock
A new hyperlocal site created by Adrian Holovaty and others called EveryBlock was recently reviewed by Al Tompkins, who writes “Al’s Morning Meeting” on Poynter Online.
Check out Tompkins review here, but be sure to give EveryBlock a look-see of your own.
The site currently includes New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Miami should be an interesting one…
Weigh in: What do you think of the site?
UPDATE, Jan. 25 at 12:14 P.M.: Journalismenterprise.com also did a review here.
UPDATE, Jan. 25 at 1:31 P.M.: Mindy McAdams posted about it too.
Get "Wired," journalists
Wired Journalists is a great new social networking site on Ning for journalists that’s quickly taking off. What’s a wired journalist? Howard Owens explains.
To compare “Wired”: It’s like a closely-knit Facebook group. And while it doesn’t have the functionality of Publish2, which I just recently was accepted to and have yet to fully utilize, it’s extremely easy to use and looks like it’s going to be a great forum.
Here are some blog posts on the subject. But don’t take our word for it, check it out for yourself here.