Guide to great websites for media & publishing firms (part 2)

In part one of this guide, we looked at the chief reasons why media & publishing firms need great websites with great user experiences. In part two, we’re going to break down some of the essential considerations for creating great media & publishing websites, focusing on the technical and UX considerations aspect.

We’ll follow that up with the third and final part of this guide with an examination of the key people/team considerations for creating top-notch media & publishing sites that put them in the best position to outcompete their competitors.

There are quite a few general UX considerations and CMS which apply to any kind of website, not only to media & publishing (e.g. performance and accessibility), so we won’t focus on those.

Instead, this article will highlight those considerations that are particularly relevant or very specific to media & publishing, both in terms of the output (or the actual experience) and the input (how that experience is created and provided).

Great content management capabilities

The major area we’re going to focus on are the content management capabilities, or rather the CMS (content management system) itself. First, the choice of the CMS:

• Open source vs. proprietary: the first important consideration is whether you choose an open source or a proprietary CMS for your media and publishing business. While proprietary platforms make it very easy to create compelling content and experiences quickly, an open source CMS will typically provide more flexibility through customizability, and hence help you deliver experiences that are better tailored to your visitors.

• Decoupled CMS: if your content strategy relies on omnichannel publishing, it is wise to consider a decoupled/headless CMS which enables great customizable experiences on different devices, with these experiences often also being easier to optimize in terms of performance – something that becomes even more important in a sector with heavy competition, which media & publishing definitely fits the bill as we discussed in part one of this guide.

And second, some of the key CMS features to consider for media and publishing:

• User-friendly content creation & editorial capabilities, including features such as content preview and WYSIWYG editing

• A streamlined system of roles & permissions that can power complex publishing and editorial workflows

• Capable multisite & multilingual functionality that can provide localized experiences

• Great media management capabilities, i.e. great tooling for editing and managing diverse media

• Great personalization capabilities which power the delivery of content without compromising on privacy

Low-code/no-code page building and content creation

Another capability which has become so important that it deserves its own separate section is low-code/no-code content creation. It’s closely connected to key CMS capabilities (for example, preview mode and WYSIWYG are indispensable features for no-code/low-code content creation), but with important distinctions:

The platform should be tailored to both developers & non-technical content creators/editors while avoiding silos, friction, and overreliance on one another.

It should empower “ambitious site builders” – a Drupal specific concept closely related to “citizen developers”, meaning users without advanced technical skills that still need great capabilities for creating engaging content and experiences. The upcoming Drupal CMS will be focused around the needs of ambitious site builders, for example.

Low-code and no-code tools are typically very intuitive and easy to get started with, but should be used in combination with custom tailored features and other more advanced capabilities of the CMS to deliver the best possible results.

Privacy, data & AI

In a privacy-aware landscape dominated by AI, it’s crucial for businesses to ensure good, responsible data management which forms the basis for ethical AI implementations, especially in the media & publishing sector. The main considerations here should be:

• Responsible collection and usage of data which does not infringe on privacy, does not introduce biases and/or does not perpetuate existing biases; compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA is a prerequisite, but other more organic approaches for establishing trust should be used as well.

• Responsible usage of (generative) AI, where one of the key things is minimizing the use of AI-generated/aided content (including AI-generated graphics which can often be misleading to less digitally-savvy generations) and properly disclosing wherever AI is being used to generate content or aid in its creation.

Great content

Since media & publishing inherently relies on content, companies need to be particularly mindful of staying on top of the changing habits of their audiences while also staying ahead of the heavy competition (both of which we discussed in part one of this guide).

The content should be engaging, interactive and diverse, corresponding to the differences in audiences as well as other factors such as the shorter attention spans of the digital age which make a lot of people prefer short-form over long-form content.

Still, as with the type of content (i.e. text, audio and video), there should be a balance between short-form and long-form content, which is evidenced by the simultaneous popularity of both shorts and podcasts.

As just stated in the previous section on privacy, data and AI, usage of AI-generated content should be limited and well managed to ensure consistent content quality while avoiding potential misleadings due to AI hallucinations.

In the two years since the public release of ChatGPT, people have become much better at spotting AI-generated content and can sometimes automatically be put off by something if it seems to have too much AI involved in its creation.

Miscellaneous features

Finally, here are some other features for media & publishing which are not a prerequisite for a great experience, but are very often used to drive engagement and growth:

• A paywall and/or subscription

• A custom mobile app to accommodate for the rise in mobile usage & consumption of content

• Means to grow online communities, such as a commenting feature

• Social media integration, e.g. with autoshare options for popular social media platforms

• An intranet for better internal collaboration which in turn yields better outputs

Conclusion

So far in this guide, we’ve discussed the key factors that make it so important for media & publishing firms to deliver great website experiences to their audiences, as well as the key considerations in terms of content management and user experience.

In the third and final installment of the guide, we’ll round things off by breaking down some of the main considerations and challenges in terms of the people, or more specifically, the different teams responsible for the website experience in media & publishing. Stay tuned!