Web Publishing News & Articles

EllisLab, the makers of the ExpressionEngine (news, site) Web CMS software, has released ExpressionEngine 2.2, bringing significant asset management changes, a host of community-driven improvements and the integration of one important acquisition.

They call it Pugpig (news, site) and it just might revolutionize how we publish content to iOS-powered mobile devices. Pugpig is an open source framework that enables you to publish HTML5 content in the form of a magazine, book or newspaper to iPhone and iPad devices. It's slick and feels like you are using a native app (we tested the it on the iPad). Is this the future of mobile publishing?

YouTube (news, site) has just unveiled a new service, putting all the best clips from particular sites or blogs in one place with its 'As Seen On...' pages.

Apple's (news, site) digital subscription policy for iOS applications has been criticized for being pricey and restricting. For one, it wants 30% of publishers' subscription revenue. Further, Apple won't share subscriber data with the publishers. A subtle -- but important -- change in Apple's subscription policy now allows publishers to sell subscriptions outside of the Apple Store at a lower price.

For Microsoft Word users, publishing just got a little easier. Quark released Quark XML Author 4.0 for Microsoft Word, which allows users to more easily create structured XML content. It’s no secret that most content gets created in Word, so it’s only fitting that now you can intelligently create and publish with it, too.

Dissatisfaction is spreading through the world of web content management like an epidemic, and while it’s easiest to pass the blame off on the tools you use, chances are that good ol’ fashioned human failures are the actual culprit. In fact, changing content management platforms could be the most detrimental thing you do for your company this year.

How do you differentiate yourself in the small yet competitive "built for web designers to build a business on top of" niche of the hosted web cms market?

In a move that may shift the balance of power a bit, Google has begun indexing the attribution of content to content authors, rather than just websites.

The Internet and social media have drastically affected traditional news and journalism business models. But smart news gathering organizations are are striking back, and open source tools like the Apache Lucene search engine are proving invaluable.

At the recent Lucene Revolution conference in San Francisco CMSWire interviewed Stephen Dunn, Head of Technology Strategy at British newspaper The Guardian. Dunn shared how The Guardian has reinvented content and news openness with their Apache Lucene-based Open Platform.

Things happen quickly in the industry, including changes in employment. Here's a quick and dirty list of the biggest moves that hit our radar over the last couple of weeks: 

Mobile apps are increasing becoming the delivery method of choice for both consumer- and enterprise-oriented publishers because of the popularity of smartphones and tablets. With this, tools that help develop apps without requiring knowledge of each platform's native programming language will help bring app creation closer to content creators. Conduit (news, site), one such platform, has recently announced the inclusion of iPad app creation and new social features.

VMWare (news, site) makes another buy to broaden its SaaS appeal, picking up enterprise microblogger service Socialcast for an undisclosed amount.

In a major move among the app fraternity, Conduit (news, site) has picked up web and app publisher Wibiya to bolster the numbers and widen its offering. Conduit has also adopted Cotendo's services to speed up its offerings.

UK-based SDL (news, site) announced the release of SDL LiveContent 2011, a multi-channel, context-aware product information platform that uses structured XML to produce different outputs on demand. That’s quite a mouthful. In simple terms, if your business is fast-moving, with frequent changes to product information and you’ve embraced consumerization by supporting multiple devices, SDL Live Content is something you should explore.

Amazon (news, site) has trumpeted the fact that, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, its customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books -- hardcover and paperback -- combined. However, it's important not to take this announcement at face value.