“Workflow and how that is coded into the CMS is a huge issue for newspapers.” — Suw Charman-Anderson
For the past few months, I’ve been hearing a consistent message from some folks working in so-called ‘legacy’ news organization: “our corporate content-management systems and our corporate culture are the main barrier to innovation.”
But I’m starting to wonder if that fenced-in technical reality is leading to fenced-in thinking from those that are in the best position to push for change?
I’ve been around long enough to see some news organizations change their content-management system three or four times. You know what? It didn’t change the way they think about news at all.
From Atex to Movable Type, from NewsGate to Wordpress, from Interwoven to Bricolage: I’ve experienced them all over the last fifteen years. If there’s anything consistent to any CMS, it’s that they all suck. It’s just a matter of which one sucks less in your specific situation.
IMHO, the problem isn’t that news is stuck in the wrong CMS, it’s that new thinking is stuck in something much harder to get out of: the belief that change isn’t possible (or already happening).
Change is happening, it’s just not evenly distributed yet. ;)
There are ‘traditional’ media organizations with wonderful, journalist-friendly enterprise content-management systems out there — just have a look inside of MSNBC or Le Monde. Does it change their thinking dramatically? I’m not convinced.
Innovation can come from anywhere; you just have to be willing to look for it.
Comments
3 Comments
As someone who works in technology in a "legacy" news organization, I, too have seen all manner of CMSes pass through the door. One important lesson I've learned is that existing workflow, and the willingness (or not) of the business to change that workflow, drives how much your CMS sucks.
That said, there are definitely CMSes that suck less, but I propose that we measure suckage against how flexible the CMS is in letting developers adapt it to changing workflows. Five years ago nobody could have seen the need to integrate user-generated-content into a production workflow. You're effectively giving the public [moderated] write access to your platform, something entirely unheard of in a traditional producer-consumer relationship. How flexible is your CMS today in letting developers implement such a workflow with ease? And without voiding your warranty/license with your vendor, if you're on a commercial platform?
I do believe there will eventually be an open-source, extensible, and flexible CMS platform aimed solely at news and media organizations. But the best CMS product won't help reshape legacy workflow and thinking.
You can have the neatest, latest tech and train everyone to use it, but that won't change the mentality or the way people approach their work.
I used to write a lot about workplace issues and all of the experts kept saying the same thing: "culture is king."
Technology is always trumped by organizational culture.
You can buy/install a new CMS, but how do you overhaul the way people think and work together?
Alas, the answers can't be found in a .zip.
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