Obviously I am a big fan of WordPress, seeing as this site uses it. I have been using WordPress since its early days as a blog platform. It has always just taken me mere days to design and launch a site using it. Customizing page elements has never been too much of problem, although I know enough PHP to be dangerous. In the past couple of years, the CMS admin system has become more and more robust. I find that with all the controls and features now found in the system, I hardly have to touch the PHP files at all.  Since version 3 of WordPress, it has really grown up to be more than just an open source blogging platform. It is now a fully fledged CMS, capable of providing the backbone for any website.

The design layer has become more flexible and with such a large community of designers supporting it, having a custom theme is quite cost effective.  In the past year or so, I’m seeing larger brand names and publications turn to WordPress for an enterprise solution.  You might ask – What about secure hosting for enterprise sites? Well, now that there are services like WordPress VIP, security is no longer the big concern it once was.

The attitude towards open source platforms has really changed in the last three years. Enterprise vendors are embracing open source products such as Drupal and WordPress and offering it as the other half of their custom business solutions.

Serious news publications are starting to find out how easy it is to use the CMS compared to what they’ve been struggling with on their legacy systems.  Most importantly, businesses are learning that using open source platforms will save them time and money in the development and deployment of web products. Web products have always depended on a speed-to-market strategy. Because you’re only making money while you’re the flavour of the month, products have to constantly offer newer and better features to stay competitive.  It is now becoming apparent that you can do more with a smaller web team and get to market faster than ever before.

Here are some great resources and articles from the WordPress community:

Designing your own themes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crWNonVaHKM

http://psd2cssonline.com/

Word Press VIP Hosting: http://vip.wordpress.com/

Popular Brands Using WordPress: http://www.wpbeginner.com/showcase/21-popular-brands-that-are-using-wordpress/

While the News publishing industry is still trying to figure out how it will monetize content online, the comic book industry, in the form of a new online digital format, is moving ahead.  Marvel Comics has had a free iPhone and iPad app since April and now DC comics is trailing close behind with their own apps. With digital comic books selling anywhere from $0.99 to $2.99, this format is taking off and users want more of it.  I imagine graphic novels will soon follow.

I know first-hand from reading a comic book on the iPad that the experience is visually stunning. The ability to zoom-in and pan on image blocks makes it even more appealing than the print equivalent. Though I suspect there will always be a limited edition print product for years to come. After all, you can’t really call the digital edition a collectible.

Perhaps the rest of the publishing industry can learn something here. Readers want options and they like to consume content that is visually appealing. Maybe the news industry can take a page from the comics (no pun intended) and allow users to consume content in a more visually interesting manner. One of the things Newspapers aren’t doing enough of is leveraging their archives to bring a more cohesive content offering to the table. This, coupled with a better digital format, perhaps scrap-booked around topics, would make for a very powerful online product. Another thing to keep an eye on is Marvel’s Xbox Live-style subscription model. They offer an annual plan for $60.00 per year. This makes it affordable to pretty much anyone.

The difference here is that comics are for a wider audience and newspapers are traditionally meant for a local audience. While most metro dailies are still looking for that local market to go online, maybe it’s time to start broadening the market to a wider web audience.  At any rate, we should keep a closer eye on what the comic books are doing digitally to monetize their product – there is something to be learned here.

Check out the digital editions for comic books:

http://www.comixology.com/

http://marvel.com/digitalcomics/

Now that I’m in the thick of researching citizen journalism for a project I’m working on, I’m realizing how much harder the local metro newspapers will have to work to offer news and information that communities and neighbourhoods care about. How do newspapers gain relevance in the community? It won’t be enough to offer local markets aggregated articles and information. It won’t be enough to offer a list of editor-driven topics with the hope that citizens will contribute content.  Other than stories, pictures and videos – can the newspaper offer readers relevant community information?

As it turns out, a friend of the family happens to work for a community newspaper in Toronto. Her little newspaper, which is actually called, “The Little Paper” is geared towards young families in urban Toronto.  It offers information about community events, activities and stories and it does so from a parent’s point of view. The content is highly targeted and more importantly, highly relevant. They do a great job of making parents in the community feel comfortable enough to be avid readers and contributors.  This is a point of view that continues to elude most metro newspapers.

The metro dailies will need to drastically change their approach to hyper-local content if they have any hope of surviving the inevitable shift from print to online. The daily metro must become an extremely well-informed citizen. This is not a role that journalists are likely to take on. It will require a fundamental change to the newsroom process and citizen-journalist resources that need to be installed in urban and sub-urban centers alike.

I think the newspapers can still transform themselves into a valuable online product.  They already have the urban stories, national and world news. If they can find a way to offer all of the usual within a collaborative news platform that is relevant to the community, they may survive this next step in media evolution.