Content Management Matters ™

If there is any doubt that users are going online to read their news, there's finally proof to dissuade you from thinking otherwise.

According to data released in a new report by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), average monthly unique audience figures for newspaper Web sites grew by more than 3.6 million in 2007. This is a record year for the industry and an increase of more than six percent over 2006 numbers.

For "legit" print journalists, the day of reckoning may be approaching more quickly than any of us would like. A survey by web CMS vendor Polopoly reports that, according to European newspaper execs, 40 percent of published content will be user generated.

In the next three years.

Because of this, blogs and other "new media" commodities will become increasingly critical to the news-making populace. And with this trend, personalized online advertising opportunities are also expected to improve.

Belgian media group Cornelio announces Polypoly as their long term partner in providing Web CMS functionality for the company's family of web projects. Polypoly Content Manager will serve as the central platform for the ongoing development of Cornelio's publications in the digital arena.

Digital Technology International, the multinational developer of publishing software for news media outlets, has released a new CMS designed to simplify multi-channel distribution, processing, publication and management of newsroom content.

MediaPool unifies content in a single database and interface structure, using this platform to publish to online, offline and mobile channels. The unified database reduces duplication and streamlines operations, and enables a child-parent tracking of a story's history through edits.

Oh good. Newspapers and blogs are finally getting along. Or so says the LA Times.

Sure, newspapers still talk behind blogs' back, dismissing their whiny opinions and misinformation, but they know that they can drive in the revenue as well as anyone, so they're willing to post and plug them.

There may be nothing sacred left in the eyes of newspaper purists, but then again, this is online media, and nothing is truly sacred anymore. "Any new information source is a potential competitor to a local newspaper. Smart newspapers are figuring out they don't have to fight with those competitors -- they can make alliances with them," said Robert Niles, editor of the Online Journalism Review.

Traffic is high and the living is easy, unless you're a local online paper.

A report from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at John F. Kennedy School of Government called "Creative Destruction: An Exploratory Look at News on the Internet" looked at the traffic of 160 news-based websites over a yearlong period.

What they found indicates that "websites of national 'brand-name' newspapers are growing," while those of many local papers are not.