4.2.2 Newspapers: Content Management Framework
Newspapers present a complex publishing environment - multiple systems, legacy content and company organization all present challenges to the successful development and deployment of a content management solution.
There are three critical requirements for newspaper content management systems:
Scalability: Scalability in a news publishing environment is critical. In addition to being able to scale over time as audience grows, a news publishing system needs to be able to accommodate rapid swings in readership. When critical news events occur, online publishers must have the resources at hand to continue publishing despite the surge in traffic.
Extensibility: Technology changes quickly. The ideal content management solution is able to add features readily in order to stay current. By adopting industry standards and leveraging open source software, the online publisher can more easily add new services to existing online publications as necessary. There is no “one size fits all” solution - by implementing an extensible system, publishers can adopt a “best of breed” strategy and plug in the most suitable tools for the current requirements.
Interoperability: In addition to the ability to add new features, a newspaper content management solution needs to be able to integrate with legacy systems and legacy content. It needs to be able to accept data from a variety of formats, and publish data in a variety of formats in order to be fully integrated with the newspaper publishing environment. By effective integration with legacy systems, publishers can leverage existing intellectual property across a variety of media - including online and print - and extract more value from their assets. Integration of systems also enables integration of processes, which promise to lower operating expenses by reducing overlapping work requirements.
Because of the nature of online publishing in the newspaper industry, I prefer the concept of “content management framework” rather than a “content management system.” The reason for this is that there simply is no single system that can address the end-to-end publishing requirements for a news organization. And even if there were one, I do not think it would be a good idea.
An ideal system is flexible enough to work effectively with editorial systems designed for print, newsroom archives, online content management systems, feeds from multiple vendors, and potential integration of unforeseen products. Rather than a CMS, a newspaper organization needs to put in place a framework where all of these different tools can work together effectively.
Open Standards
The only way to accomplish those goals is to take an aggressive position on adoption of open standards. Using open standards in any individual implementation means that it will be able to interoperate with any possible future system that is also based on open standards. Open standards also means access to open source software, which can greatly reduce a newspaper’s IT expenses.
The publishing industry has been active in the various XML standards-setting organizations. In late 2003, the Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata (PRISM) released the PRISM specification, and the PRISM Aggregator DTD, both of which represent formal standards applicable to the newspaper industry. With these releases, many large media companies announced their support of these standards - companies which included Time, Inc., Hearst Magazines, LexisNexis, Adobe Systems, Inc. and many others.
The PRISM Aggregator standard is positioned as the industry standard that defines the format used for news stories that are transmitted by wire services, and to aggregators, like LexisNexis. PRISM encompasses NITF, NewsML, and other newspaper industry standards.
Since PRISM is based on XML, then XML needs to be the centerpiece of any long term content management strategy. The good news for newspapers is that there are a number of high-quality, open source tools available that facilitate the use of XML.
Two of particular interest are Cocoon and dSpace, both of which I will discuss in more detail in future installments.
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