Template For Content Control

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April, 2001 by Mark Miller

How to choose the best online content-management system for you, from functionality needs to staff training.

When magazine Web sites began to proliferate in the mid-'90s, they were mostly constructed on Rube Goldberg-like homegrown content-management systems built by the suddenly ripe crop of HTML experts.

Since then, much has changed. Far more is possible now technologically and the seemingly secret society of Web builders has broadened significantly to include even virtual nontechies.

Most of all, the means of putting sites together has altered. It is no longer a jerrybuilt system of wires and modems and HTML coding. It is now generally done via a content-management system that attempts to make life as easy as possible for the left-brain editors by laying Out specific fields for headlines, decks and stories--and requires little, if any, HTML knowledge. Most systems contain numerous page templates so the site takes all the scattered fields and builds the finished Web pages when the last button is pushed at the end of the day. But there are many content-management choices out there and many still arriving on the ever-changing technology scene. What's out there? How to choose? And how do you get your editorial staff to understand it all?

Choosing a System

Currently, there are four choices for content management: the old-school in-house systems, the Web-site-in-the-box, the newer application-service providers (ASP) or the homegrown system.

The larger in-house systems (Interwoven, Vignette, Allaire, Openpages) can initially cost anywhere from a quarter-million dollars to well into the multimillions, depending on your needs. Interwoven and Vignette have been battling since the mid-'90s to become the industry standard. With these four organizations, a company purchases in-house servers, equipment and programs to put together its entire content-management system. Each of these tools is about 20 percent customizable.

As for Web-site-in-a-box solutions, while this can be initially inexpensive (for example, $39.95 from Liquid Logo), this is strictly for the low-tech. "You're stuck with their design, their navigation, their colors. You have almost no control and who wants that?" says Chris Orr, director of Cygnus Interactive, which is shopping around for a replacement to its current homegrown setup. Also, what doesn't come in the box--servers, tech support--can be costly as well.

Building an in-house, proprietary content-management system is becoming less desirable for publishers, mostly because of the potentially exorbitant cost as well as finding and training technical support through the upcoming years. "In terms of having people be able to come in and use a system, it's a lot easier to ramp up when they're already [knowledgeable about the system]," says Bill Folsom, director of Online Marketing and Technology for American Express Publishing, which is in the process of switching from its self-built proprietary system to Allaire. "If you need to retrain [a tech person], that can take three or four months until they get the hang of it." Or as Nicole C. Brown, vice president and general manager for Imagine Media's Business 2.0 Online says, "Keeping the developer talent to maintain your system is a frightening reality to publishers."

Also, with a proprietary system, working kinks out can be difficult. "We got exactly what we ordered and sometimes that's not exactly what you want," says Roseann Henry, Workingwoman.com's executive vice president and managing director. According to Henry, Working Women Networks sunk at least a million dollars into creating its system last year.

Most publishers are coming to the realization that building a content-management system is not their forte. "Best of breed is going to be found elsewhere, from a company that's focused exclusively on solving that problem," says Brown. Business 2.0 just recently switched from a self-built proprietary management system to an ASP, Atomz.

An ASP works as a remote host for your management system. Your company would license the use of the vendor's system. "It's an all-in-one solution," says Folsom. "If you don't have much of a technology infrastructure, this is a good solution. They take care of everything out-of-house: upgrading, tech support, everything." It can be cheaper to go this route in the short term, he says, but since you pay as you go, ultimately, it may be more expensive.

According to Orr, there is no national leader in this field as of yet. "There are a lot of people trying to figure this thing outright now. And I don't know if there will be a clear winner," says Orr. "Companies have diverse needs. I think we'll wind up with a lot of more customizable systems that are more and more specific for different companies' needs."

What to look for

Business 2.0 Online's chief strategist Robert Spears says the main criteria to look for are functionality, ease of use, level of risk, and cost. "With functionality, we prioritized what features are mandatory and which are nice to have in the near future," he says. "The ones we wanted, the vendor can't say, 'Oh, we'll have that next month.' It's got to be in a released version now so we can see it."