Webb on the Web: What's a 'Content Management System?' - Part One

If you work for a news organization, chances are good that you're already using some kind of content management system, or CMS, to get your content published to the Web. These days, most news content producers use some kind of content management system. Otherwise, it would be nearly impossible to publish, archive and manage all of that content!

During the next few weeks, I'm going to walk you through what, exactly, a CMS is, how it works, things to consider and the basics about choosing a good platform. Please note - if your organization is currently going through a site redesign and looking for a new CMS, what I have to say will help your discussion. But you're best off speaking with lots of providers and vendors, as well as consultants, on your own.

A CMS is an automated series of tools and commands that supports the creation, management, distribution and storage of digital information. In one place, you can create original content, edit and proof it, publish it to the Web and other outlets and archive it for later use. And you can typically accomplish all of this with a series of simple clicks of a mouse.

There are differences in the available digital content management tools. For example, a digital asset management (DAM) system differs from a content management system in many ways. A DAM easily allows an organization to categorize, re-purpose and retrieve large amounts of digital content that is not necessarily changed or updated frequently.

For most organizations that produce new content regularly, a CMS is the best solution.

Many Web sites use a CMS today, but that wasn’t always the case. Without a CMS, Web developers must hand-code changes and upload them. The process can be time-wasting and tedious, even for very small Web sites. A CMS automates this process, freeing up valuable staff time for other projects. It ensures the timely delivery of your content, and it gives you the ability to manage how your site functions and what it looks like. A good CMS allows consumers to navigate throughout your site and, hopefully, to let others know about your content through feeds and other means.

In many cases, a CMS helps you update an entire site at once by making only one small change. So if someone misspells Mississippi in several different places, you should be able to tell the CMS to go through all of the documents and change it to the correct spelling instantly.

A working CMS is critical to the success of many organizations, especially now that limited staffing has become the norm. A CMS can automate manual publishing tasks and can even be set to make new content live when no one is in the office.

In my next column: How organizations use a CMS to publish their content to the Web, and how CMS systems work.

To read past Webb columns, click here.

Amy Webb is a digital media consultant and head of Webbmedia Group, LLC. She has also launched Knowledgewebb, a new website for multimedia training. You can also follow Amy on Twitter and delicious. Webbmedia Group is a vendor-neutral company. Any opinions expressed about products or services are formed after testing, research and interviews. Neither Amy Webb nor Webbmedia Group or its employees receives any financial or other benefits from vendors. A portion of the What's a Content Management Lesson has been adapted for this column with permission. For the full article, please click here.