Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Online Newspaper Software

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Dec 04, 2011

Drupal & Hosted Drupal

Newspapers Running on Drupal

This is a demo site showcasing newspapers running on Drupal, a popular open source content management system. These are sites set up using Drupal and then expanded with various modules. There are four newspaper-specific Drupal module packages:

* NodeStream - publish content in newspaper style

* OpenPublish - OpenPublish is an online news platform that emphasizes visitor engagement and ease of content creation. uses automatic tagging

* ProsePoint - online newspaper with configurable sections

* Managing News - Tracks news through RSS feeds and displays where each event is happening on a map

Prose Point Express

This site hosts newspapers - looks like Drupal but I would have to confirm. Modules for facebook like and Disqus comments. Content organized into 'channels'. Separate (and useful) upload for photos. 'promoted story' sider on main page. You can adjust layouts, etc. I was editing fine but then lost the 'control menu'. 

Here's a demo of our site

Hosted service, plans at $19, $39, $99 / month

For an overview, see the case study

Joomla (+K2) and Wordpress newspaper packages - still looking.

Major Commercial

PageSuite

Commercial software, pricing not available, demo not functioning. Focus on subscription, scheduling, advertising and analytics. It looks like there's support for the newer apps. There's a glossy PDF-style magazine publisher.

PressSmart

Suite of products for newspapers, including ePortal and emobile. CMS, templates, classifieds, and cloud hosting, among other features. Major professional suite. I've contacted them for a demo and pricing. Update ePortal Standard Features (US$ 600 per month - includes hosting on Cloud infrastructure) plus extras for additional features. Some examples: http://www.flcourier.com, http://www.thenews24x7.com/

ZMags

Apears to be more of a commerce server, but has something they call online newspaper software. The 'demo' is a video touting ecommerce solutions. A photo of a glossy PDF-style magazine appears. Example: Reboot.

Small Commercial

Flexportal

Newspaper and portal software written in C (which means more installation problems but much better speed). System information here. Available as a hosted solution, or they'll install it on our servers.Demo here is a bit cluttered. Another demo. Here's another example, which is better. Another example. The usual stories, classifieds, layout editor, user management and discussion list, RSS support, and sections, no indication of social features.

Bulletlink

Templates and allarently free hosting, $59/month. Here's an example. Here's another. No demo mode available.

Bondware

Newspaper website software. Demo version.

It looks a bit like WordPress (definitely PHP). Templates would have to be rewritten, as they're not very good. Demo site admin accessed. Here's a 'submit article' page. Note: you have to buy 'epostage' to send emails! $145 monthly (it's broken down into components, like 'core', 'polls', 'calendar', 'newsletter' etc. plus another $550 setup fee). Here's a sample story.

EZY Media

Services include software 'packs' (eg., starter pack ($295), newspaper website ($295), the works ($3K) etc). Hosting starting at $30/month. Here's a demo of the newspaper template. Various link errors on the site. In which case you get a "Page Not Fount" error. Some samples here and here's another.

Tech Cruiser

Newspaper and magazine turnkey hosting. $99 setup fee in some cases, $39/month hosting. Here's a demo site. Here's another. No examples of customer websites provided.

Django

Django

This Python application framework was designed specifically for newsrooms. Some examples: http://www.lawrence.com, Washington Post, LJWorld. An option is a site like Django-CMS, which bundles Django with a CMS and extensions, including newspaper extensions. Here's a demo. See also DjangoSites - some example of newspaper sites

Penny Press 

This is a Django newspaper adaptation.

A resource article on Drupal versus Django

Other Open Source

Props

Open source software available from Sourceforge; PHP and MySQL; not updated since 2008. Example available here and here.


Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 11, 2024 10:59 p.m.

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