RE: High Volume Open Source CMS Sites

I really can't think of a WCMS that I've worked with that didn't already
have content types and/or templates that provided out-of-box capabilities to
do newspaper site type functionality.  On the open source side, Zope,
OpenCMS, Bricolage, and the other usual suspects can handle this.  On the
commercial side, most of the big players can, because they cut their teeth
first in the newspaper world.

In regard to needing a customized solution, it probably depends upon what
you want to do with it.  In one of the most storied CMS projects, the
Tribune Company (owns Chicago Tribune and Times-Mirror news properties with
viewership surpassing NYTimes and USA today combined) decided a few years
ago that they would scrap the implementation of Vignette Story Server in
favor of a custom solution that was more flexible to their needs.  The
Tribune had been the largest beta customer for Vignette whose technology was
purchased from CNET back in '96 or ''97 I think and once the Trib launched
with Vignette, that CMS was used by many other online newspaper
organizations.

So, if you have many different properties (Tribune had/has Metromix,
BrassRing, SideWalk, etc. in addition to chicagotribune.com and the online
versions of print papers), and if you're trying to have more of an
interactive/personalized experience for your visitors rather than just
putting print material online, you might need a custom solution, but more
likely, you would want to look at:

1) what open source tools can we start with and extend/customize, rather
than reinventing the wheel
2) what commercial CMS/portal tools might we integrate to come up with the
solution we're looking for

Since there are many CMSes (open and commercial) that have been proven for
newspaper sites, you're likely to find one that will work for you and which
you can just customize to your specific needs.

Ken Wasetis
Director of Technology
SPR Inc.
312.528.2417 (office)
224.628.1665 (mobile)

Please visit our website at http://www.sprinc.com


-----Original Message-----
From: cms-list-admin-/[email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On
Behalf Of Adam Gaffin
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 6:47 AM
To: 'Alec'; cms-list-/[email protected]
Subject: RE: [cms-list] High Volume Open Source CMS Sites



>
> Do most of the larger newspaper sites, like the New York Times,
> rely on custom CMSses ? I would expect they would use customized
> versions of proprietary systems?
>

boston.com, which is a large newspaper-based site (owned by the New York
Times) uses a customized version of Zope:

http://www.zope.com/CaseStudies/BostonComCaseStudy


Adam Gaffin
Executive Editor, Network World Fusion
[email protected] / (508) 490-6433 / http://www.nwfusion.com
"I programmed my robotic dog to bite the guy who delivers the electronic
mail." -- Kibo
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