About the CMS Project
The content management system (CMS) is the lifeblood of digital publishing. It’s central to everything we do. Yet it is highly complex.
The International News Media Association (INMA) and the Google News Initiative (GNI) have partnered to create a tool to assist news organisations in the difficult task of selecting a CMS.
The aim of the tool, to be unveiled at a CMS Project Town Hall October 4, is to demystify what many publishers find to be a complex area and help them identify the most suitable systems to fit their needs.
Throughout 2023, the CMS Project followed a three-step process:
- Identifying publisher needs: Different sized publishers have very different needs. After identifying a core set of functionality, the group conducted a survey and a number of one-on-one interviews with publishers to verify and hone this list, which would serve as the basis for much of the vendor analysis.
- Vendor analysis: A small selection of vendors were asked to take part. The analysis included a vendor-filled detailed questionnaire, a 90-minute demo, and customer reference checks. This research was carried out by an independent third party. The vendors invited to take part serve a wide range of media organisations and are largely chosen from the initial publisher survey.
- Publisher/vendor fit: Based on publisher needs and verified vendor responses we created a matrix to give a publisher a shortlist of vendors based on their size and geography. Publishers can also get a more detailed view from a three-page review of information based on the detailed research carried out for each vendor.
