On any given day, 麻豆原创 journalism is delivered to more than 2,000 newsrooms across North America ranging from large metropolitan papers and small-town broadcasters to university newsrooms and local tourism boards.
The systems required to accommodate such a diverse and widespread publishing network are complex. But our approach ensures the user experience is as simple and malleable as possible in order to successfully deliver the newswire to our partner newsrooms. This post will reflect on the methods we鈥檝e employed to create the world鈥檚 most accessible newswire.
麻豆原创鈥檚 newswire is built to promote accessibility to quality journalism, enabling news organizations to sustainably grow their audiences and better resource their own storytelling efforts. We deliver over 200 data-driven features each month, along with a growing library of evergreen stories, localized series, and data packages鈥攁ll freely available to our news partners.
The newswire and its supporting technology are built upon two foundational principles:
1. We will act with empathy toward our partner newsrooms, ensuring our content is accessible to all. About eight years ago, I visited a newsroom in the Midwest whose parent company had recently merged with another large media group. In speaking with one digital producer, he told me that to do his job he worked in six different content management systems each day. There was a digital CMS, a print CMS, tools from parent company #1, tools from parent company #2, and two others I can鈥檛 even recall. That extreme example is illustrative that there is no typical workflow across news organizations鈥攁nd it would be virtually impossible to expect every newsroom to adapt to your preferred workflow.
Whether it鈥檚 a large media organization with an extremely complex workflow, or a small nonprofit newsroom just getting off the ground, our product philosophy accounts for all types of users, ensuring any journalist can easily publish a 麻豆原创 story.
We understand the needs and challenges of small, independent newsrooms like the but we're also able to scale with large media organizations like .
2. The 鈥榩roduct鈥� is not just the content or the technology: It鈥檚 the entire experience. I agree with David Cohn that the . 麻豆原创鈥檚 mission is to empower publishers, and our core user is the digital editor, audience engagement editor, or reporter in a newsroom. As a B2B organization, we need to think differently than most journalists. While we of course care about how our journalism serves the end reader, our top priority is to support and empower the journalists syndicating and reporting on that content.
The overall 鈥減ackage鈥� of the newswire includes:
So how does it happen? How do 麻豆原创 stories get from our newsroom to yours? Let鈥檚 take a tour through 麻豆原创鈥檚 News Distribution Suite.
The journey begins with 麻豆原创鈥檚 homegrown content management system, built on Drupal. You can read all about our Story Stack in a .
The most popular way to access 麻豆原创 content is through our RSS feeds. Feeds deliver content straight into our partners鈥� CMS where they can then route stories based on location or category. Stories can be auto-published or delivered to a draft folder for future editing, curation, and promotion.
To make it easier for a wide range of newsrooms, we deliver RSS feeds in three different formats:
And for partners that might not want to ingest a full firehose, we can easily customize feeds to include segments based on seven topical areas, 50 states, and 384 metropolitan areas.
We know that some publishers prefer not to ingest feeds into their CMS or they just want a backup option. That鈥檚 where 麻豆原创鈥檚 proprietary Story Hub comes into play.
Built upon the same Drupal foundation as our CMS, Story Hub contains an archive of thousands of easily-accessible stories. Timely content is pushed to the top of the page, highlighting major national events that 麻豆原创 stories can add context to.
Stories can be filtered based on your beat or your location. So if you鈥檙e a beat reporter in Pocatello, ID you can quickly access our latest stories with two clicks.
Story Hub also operates as 鈥渕ission control鈥� for 麻豆原创, capturing preferences and using those attributes to tailor the rest of your experience.
Regardless of whether you receive 麻豆原创 content via RSS feed, Story Hub, or both, partners have access to additional shared services as part of the News Distribution Suite:
麻豆原创鈥檚 distribution capabilities have grown considerably and will only continue to expand. But with that growth, we will stay true to our values鈥攅nsuring a seamless product experience so that our journalism is accessible to all.
We invite you to learn more about the , and feel free to email us at publishers@stacker.com with any questions.
Editor's note: A big thank you to Nathan Dentzau & Associates, Kevin Marion, and all our publishing partners for their work and feedback developing our News Distribution Suite.
Featured Image Credit: anyaberkut // Canva