We have a group of 13 newspapers and tabloids that need a new home. We are currently using a basic newspaper web site company but we want more! Here is a list of key items we want:
1. User submitted stories, photos, videos and blogs
2. Business Listing with ratings
3. Open forums and blogs
4. Easily maintained news stories, photo galleries and comment systems
5. Ability to social network
6. Commenting system to comment and rate stories
7. Calendar system with user submitted data
8. Easy to maintain
9. Be able to extract web content for use in our paper
These are the main features we are looking for. I am looking to see what platform is best for these tasks. Please explain why. Any help would GREATLY be apreciated. Also if anyone has experience with newspapers on drupal, please contact me, we are looking for programmers to help us out. We may have a job for you!
Comments
Both are right for the job.
Having done a newspaper site not long ago, I can confirm the above can be done using Drupal. We had to develop a Drupal distro to be used on 11 newspapers each with individual settings and unique content. The multi-sites feature of Drupal may come in handy for you. A few other things to consider are:
- will all these sites reside on the same server?
- will they require unique content? Anything to share between the newspapers (e.g. user authentication)?
- will they require a single theme for all 11 newspapers?
It's important to mention that having researched the subject, I know Joomla! can also be customised to handle this job. So it really comes down to individual preference and what you feel comfortable developing in. Drupal has a bit of a learning curve but it may work out "easier to maintain" in the long run.
I tried to keep this post non biased even though you're asking this question on a Drupal website!
Good luck with your project, do post your progress and findings for the community to benefit :)
---
Dee
iScene Interactive :: iScene.eu
Different themes and shared
Different themes and shared content. Not trying to make it hard are we? I am posting this on Drupal because its my first choice, but we need to find the people with experience to help with this project. Anyone need some extra money?
Newspapers on Drupal
Perhaps you should take a look at the New York Observer which uses Drupal. Also take a look at how the developers put it together.
Also take a look at Savannahnow.com and Blufftontoday.com.
As for Joomla, the newspaper company I work for has a couple of sites using it, like Nevada Politics and Tahoe World. I also use Drupal for my own blog, as well as some other sites.
A couple of years ago, I might have given Joomla the nod, since it was easier to install and work with than Drupal 4.6. But now with 5.1, it's not even a contest. Joomla is very clunky, slow and hard to work with. We had a security issue earlier this year when someone hacked into one of our Joomla sites and shut down the entire server.
previously drupal was ltl
previously drupal was ltl bit hard 4 few people to install but now with 5.1 even that installation hurdle is gone .... joomla was chosen by many people over drupal because of its ease to install .....
both joomla & drupal can be used for newspaper site but its better to opt for drupal .
u can have 'n' no of levels for you content categorisation which is quiet restricted in joomla!
like this there are many pros/cons ......
decide based upon your granular requirements !
-- Sree --
IRC Nick: sreeveturi
Drupal's better overall...
I did a lot of research on exactly this question, and came to the conclusion that although Joomla was slightly easier to learn from scratch, Drupal appeared better in the long run. Primary reasons were that Joomla has very restrictive user roles and categorisation, whereas Drupal is effectively unlimited in both.
I work for a company that does news-management software (print as well as internet) so feel free to contact me if you have questions.
What should you be trying to do?
The most important question is not what software to use, but rather how should a newspaper be using the Internet? It sounds like you have already done some thinking about that, but I want to underscore it because of the newspaper industry's sorry track record in leveraging the inherent advantages of the Internet and tapping into the participatory opportunities.
I blog, speak and consult extensively about this issue. I'm happy to see Drupal being used and recommended as a community and development platform because, as "community plumbing," it opens the door to the creation of products and services that are not limited to a product-cramming vision of "online newspapers."
You should join the Newspapers on Drupal special interest group, if you have not already done so.
We use Drupal extensively at Morris Communications and have contributed the MySite personalization module. Some of our implementations include:
http://www.blufftontoday.com/
http://www.savannahnow.com/
http://www.myclaysun.com/
I spent the day yesterday in Michigan at one of our newspapers that has been working with the Medill School of Journalism's media management class on a project based on the NewspaperNext innovation model. Their plan includes extensive use of Drupal as a core technology for the online component of the project.
A second Medill team spent the last quarter working with Yahoo on an analysis of Yahoo's tools for local group interaction support, found them wanting, and wound up building a Drupal demonstration that was delivered earlier this week to Yahoo executives.
Inspiration
We actually made our decisions to pursue Drupal based on savannahnow and blufftontoday. We also saw the observer up on drupal now. We are leaning the drupal route, but we dont have the experience needed to take on a project like this on drupal. Any suggestions on which modules and what features you guys went with to get the products like savannahnow.com? Also, do you have any people you would suggest we contact to contract out our project to?
I have a couple specfic questions for people.......
1. What key features do you feel every newspaper should offer online?
2. What is the one thing newspapers are missing to get the younger crowds to start reading either in print or online??
Drupal
Joomla does NOT come with forums and comments as standard. It also tends to be slow to run. 13 newspapers will be a heavy load. The more extensions you instal on Joomla, the slower it gets- so if you have to install comments, forums and other extensions, you will not enjoy the user experience.
Drupal has forums, polls and comments right out of the box, so it seems the obvious better choice. However, Joomla definitely has a much nicer user interface, and the templates are a dream to customise. Drupal, not so much. And the fact that Drupal does not come with a built-in WYSIWYG editor is beyond my comprehension.
So while I would give Drupal a slight edge, I'd suggest you to try both. Fortunately they both have demo sites.
Joomla newspaper
Joomla newspaper site:
http : // vietbao [.] vn
Personally I prefer Drupal,
Personally I prefer Drupal, which I use on a couple of news pages I have where I'm trying to get accepted in google news. However, Joomla isn't a bad option either.