New.Journalism.Review

INTRODUCTION – WHAT IS JOOMLA!?

Joomla! is an open source content management system (CMS). It's open source like the Linux OS, so that means it's free to use and people give up their spare time to develop it.

OPEN SOURCE IS GOOD NEWS

Open Source is generally good news for individuals, non-profit organisations and those companies on a budget. You can spend a lot of money on a commercial CMS, but there
are solid reasons for going open source. To start with, your web site
won't be in the hands of a software company that can go bust at any
moment andyou won't be paying expensive maintenance contracts to idiots.  

Static HTML or DYNAMIC site? Take your pick.

a) What is a good news site?

Put simply:

• It has a 'front-end' (home page)  that changes frequently
• A template design that will appeal to the audience and is easy to navigate 
• It also has 'back-end' database that is stacked full of brilliant
  content generated by a team of journalists (or perhaps just you!). 

All major news sites are built around a CMS. Some 'big beasts' include Tridion (used by Emap) and eScenic (used by Daily Telegraph, CNN, Informa  and The Independent) – but you obviously pay a lot for these solutions.

b) Would you benefit from a CMS or are you better using straightforward HTML?

You don't have to be a big media giant to benefit from using a CMS.

1. Do you update your site more than once a week?  
2. Do you have multiple contributors (e.g. writers) to the site?
3. Do you want to keep design separate from content?

If you answer 'yes' to any of the above – a CMS would definitely be worth a look.

JOOMLA! – FREE AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND

There is something about using a CMS that sounds:

A) Really complicated
B) Really expensive

You can certainly make expensive mistakes – particularly if you take the advice of Joe Blogs, the designer, who created a bespoke CMS back in 2005 and he still thinks it's REALLY great.

Or
even worse (!), you take the advice of the IT manager who was taken to a lap-dancing club by a sales rep from a posh software
developer called Contendium

So have a reason to reject open source solutions before looking to a commercial CMS.

There are a number of free CMS to consider, alongside Joomla!

• WordPress (yes, this 'blog' tool is increasingly being used for 'news' sites)
• Drupal see a video of some well-known sites that use it
• Xaraya see my post for more info.(this is used by sites like Handbag.com and Netdoctor.co.uk)

There are others worth looking at like:

• Movable Type

• Expression Engine,
  

• Radiant,
  

• TextPattern

• DotNetNuke.

Having been round a few magazine and newspaper newsrooms, it's amazing the number of editors that seem to 'apologise' for using free tools and want to keep it secret. I won't name them, but they have each had a good look around and have concluded that Joomla!, Xaraya, or WordPress actually fit the bill just fine. So say it loud and proud - I USE OPEN SOURCE!

NOTE: There are some security issues with Joomla, which people need to be aware of. Some say these are very severe problems, but these tend not to be a problem if you keep an eye on the upgrades.

WE WENT WITH JOOMLA!

As a journalism lecturer, I
wanted to teach my undergraduate students about content management.
Students need the skills to write and produce great copy, take images
and produce video for the web.

WARNING: JOOMLA! IS WEAK ON AUDIO/VIDEO INTEGRATION

Just a word of warning, when you download Joomla! all you get is really a basic shell of a CMS. All the exciting applications come via downloaded modules and extensions (and there are lots of them – many are free!) and you will need to install these.

Integration of some functions can be a bit weak compared to commercial providers (particularly audio or video content integration.

ALSO there seems to be no automatic way to 'strip' content from other packages (such as magazine pages made in InDesign).

LINKS:
Drupal and Joomla! CMS's Compared 

Joomla! or Drupal which is best to create a site for journalism students

Choose the best free CMS (.Net Magazine – December 2008) (A great intro guide, but they shouldn't have included Blogger in the feature).

This month's PC Pro magazine (available in the UK, August 2008 issue) reviews the mobile broadband offerings from UK operators – 3, Orange, 0_2, T-Mobile and Vodafone. The article compares the services on price, ease of use, speed etc. It's certainly the most comprehensive review that I've read to date.

I was particularly interested to see how the five networks performed outside London, where mobile broadband coverage can be patchy at best. Part of the tests involved a reviewer using each of the services on a train commute from Sussex to London.

I commute by train from Surrey to Southampton, but South West Trains appear unable to provide WiFi connectivity which would obviously be ideal.

In the meantime, an ever-growing number of my fellow commuters obtain Net access using various dongles and USB sticks.

Vodafone seems to be the most popular service on my particular route. But coverage must be pretty shaky, particularly in the stretch from Winchester to Eastleigh in Hampshire where deep embankments and hills obstruct mobile reception. It's so bad that you can't even make a voice call at times.

Vodafone also comes top in the the PC Pro tests. This comes as no surprise as most people seem to think it has the best coverage of all the operators. T-Mobile is runner-up in the test, followed, perhaps surprisingly, by the cheapest mobile broadband provider, 3. As for 0₂ and Orange the least said about their performance the better.

The article warned that unless you are located in select areas of  London, you're highly unlikely to get the really fast access speeds. Forget those advertising billboards that promise impressive speeds of "up to 7.2 meg", outside the main cities you may only pick up internet via GPRS  -  which can be REALLY slow.

More worryingly, PC Pro is reporting that the 3G mobile networks may be unable to cope with demand in the future.

Watch out for those services that attempt to compress image files, apparently it's really annoying. And on a similar theme, the costs of going over your usage limits (out of bundle costs) can be horrific (up to around £4 per MB when abroad).

The good news is that they all boast easy set-up, although Mac users find that they have to do a little more configuring. But software packages vary in quality. If you hope to use broadband service on a train,  it can be handy to have software that tells you when you are connecting via HSDPA (i.e. fast Internet) and when are slumming it on GPRS.

Where does it leave me? Still looking. I need a service that A) Works on my train commute – Vodafone seems to be the obvious choice for coverage B) Is affordable. I want a PAYG or a short contract because I won't use it every day or even every month. Perhaps T-Mobile at £4 a day will be best.

I reckon for those outside the big cities, these services are still too expensive for the kind of speed and coverage you are likely to receive.

“Quark Strikes Back” reads the dramatic headline on the cover of  MacUser magazine (6 June 2008) It says: “We didn’t expect to feel like this, XPress 8 seems like a product that will get people excited about DTP once more.”

A few years ago the canteen at Quark HQ in Denver had one dish on its menu -  humble pie. The bar around the corner served two cocktails – ‘Total Screw Up’ and the rather sickly-tasting ‘Zero Market Share’.

But fed up with its poor diet, Quark admitted that the release of versions 6 to 6.5 were, frankly, pants and that it had become more than a little arrogant in its dealings with customers.

But now the world has changed. Quark 8 has got a makeover and actually looks and feels like a 21st century bit of software. Indeed, it has more than a little passing resemblance to its great rival, InDesign CS3. This may prove rather handy for those of us who teach both.

Will this be enough? Only time will tell. But it will have a job in winning the hearts of many newspaper and magazine publishers in the UK.

More reviews and opinions:

CreativePro: First Look Quark  8
Random Quote: “For many established designers, it’s probably too late to generate much
excitement. But it seems as if this version of XPress is targeted at
new users as much as old ones, and there is a steady flow of new designers entering the market who are taking a fresh look at the tools available to them.

PlanetQuark: Quark 8 (and 7) features
This links through to comprehensive rundown of new features in X-Ray Magazine. The boss of Quark says that version 8 is the best ever – [well, it should be!].

Tuaw.com: Quark 8 interface and typography
The feedback makes particularly interesting reading. StreetStealth says that Quark will “only win on price”. [I agree,  so  the message to Quark is keep those education discounts!!!!!]

It’s time to update the post: InDesign or Quark – which has largest market share in UK newspaper / magazine publishing? 

What’s the most widely used DTP software in UK magazine publishing? As part of an analysis of modern magazine production methods, I asked a group of 20 students to each interview a magazine editor (or another senior member of staff). The verdict came back loud and clear – we found (based on a survey of around 18 magazines) that 80 per cent used InDesign.

So should new journalists forget about Quark?
No. It is still common to find Quark used in the newsrooms of local newspapers and in book publishing etc. Students who already have a good grasp of Quark learn InDesign very easily. It’s just a case of finding out how you access the various tools, using the ridiculous number of palettes. My students have found that InDesign generally offers more functionality than Quark 6.5. On the downside, like a lot of Adobe products, InDesign is totally bloated. I’ve also come across a lot of compatibility issues, particularly when moving files between various versions of InDesign. These need to be patched.

What DTP skills do employers want?

Guardian Media Job adverts  (based on a non-scientific survey conducted 11th May 2007. Note: This is not just job adverts in journalism, but includes areas such as marketing, book publishing, PR and telecoms etc)

• InDesign mentioned in 58 adverts (publishers looking for these skills include:HACHETTE FILIPACCHI (Art Director), Future Publishing (Designer)
• Quark mentioned in 66 adverts (publishers looking for these skills include Centaur (sub-editor) and Informa Professional (middleweight designer)

What DTP package gets the best reviews?

Random review quotes on Quark 7:

MacWorld:
"Quark has added some good features to XPress 7, including Unicode,
transparency, drop shadows, improved palette handling, synchronizing
objects, composition zones, job jackets, as well as a multitude of
smaller but very useful features such as PDF/X support and Font
Fallback. And users who stick with Quark XPress will be happy that the
company is adopting some of the InDesign features that began turning
heads four years ago. But the new territories Quark is staking
out—especially composition zones and job jackets—will hardly excite the
broad design community, and they’re difficult to learn."

PC Pro

"Throw in a major reduction in
the standalone price and a good-value upgrade, and it’s clear Quark has
not only heard all the criticisms but acted on them. QuarkXPress
certainly isn’t going down without a fight. It isn’t enough to cause a
return mass migration, but it’s an essential upgrade."

CreativePro.com

"Quark has
eliminated enough of XPress’ glaring omissions to stop people from
migrating to InDesign. It may even bring some of the bigger publishers
back to the Quark fold."

..and random review quotes about InDesign CS3

MacWorld
"Despite a few wrinkles and omissions, InDesign remains the most capable
page layout software available. The more I use this new version, the
more I appreciate the subtle retooling throughout, not just the obvious
new features."

PC Pro
"At times, the advanced power it
offers leads to complexity, and those QuarkXPress fans who are happy
within their comfort zone will accuse it of bloat – and rightly so, if
they wouldn’t use the additional power. Ultimately, though, InDesign
CS3 is capable of tackling harder jobs and producing better end
results, and doing so even more efficiently than its rival. It fully
deserves its professional publishing crown."

InDesign or Quark – which is cheaper?

The old advice still applies. If you need things like Photoshop or even Dreamweaver, you’ll want to buy the entire Adobe Creative Suite. But there are numerous versions these days. Adobe has created a flash based product selector and it’s torturous to use!

The basic advice is that if you work predominantly in print, you’ll need Adobe CS3 Design Standard – £944.98 on Amazon. These products are always cheaper if you’re upgrading. If you’re lucky enough to be a student (lecturers are excluded from the deal) you get Adobe Design Standard CS3 Student for £161.99. But the "bargain" for students (if software is ever a "bargain") is the feature packed CS3 Masters Collection for PC – you get the entire Adobe collection including all the web stuff for £400. The standard price is over £2,000!

Looking to buy InDesign CS3 alone? It’s £668 (no student discount).

Thank God purchasing Quark is easier. You just buy the DTP software and that’s it! Students and teachers can get Quark 7 Education for £98.99. Standard price Quark 7 Full Edition is £869.

So, what does this all mean?

Quark is certainly fighting back and is attempting to win over the education market. But that InDesign / Photoshop combo is pretty compelling in publishing. But I can’t stand the fact that Adobe has so many versions of CS3. You also have to check that the product you buy work with your OS – be careful Vista users! Adobe needs to make its student deals available to lecturers as well!

Still yet to write a full review of Online News by Stuart Allan – so here is a review by Peter Bradshaw (he’s former editor of a defunct low budget magazine called Internet Monthly). Of course, sensible people used to read the upmarket, now defunct, Internet Magazine.

Good news! Online Journalism:  principles and practices of news for the Web by Foust is now in the library