Putting out the daily edition of a small newspaper is often enough of a challenge without layering the complexity of updating a Web site on top of it. Small staffs typically mean that one person is covering several positions already. Technology budgets tend to center around purchases that can increase the efficiency of already-existing workflows, not ones that add new steps and procedures.

As such, small papers “roll their own” when it comes to adopting software aimed at getting their content online. The Hays (Kan.) Daily News (daily, 12,132; Sunday, 12,648) which serves northwest Kansas, does just that, according to managing editor Mike Corn.

Script-based design

“Our editorial system (Freedom News, now Brainworks Software Development) converts stories to HTML and creates hyperlinks based on the headlines. We have scripts that copy and paste the main story, photo and cutline into a Web page. Every story published in the paper is sent to the Web, specifically for archiving purposes.”

The site is updated on a daily basis, shortly after the newspaper is published. According to Corn, the timing attempts to mimic when people could walk to a newsstand and pick up a copy of the paper. The Daily News posts stories more often in the event of breaking news or during circumstances when the public might be endangered.

How much free?

Like its bigger counterparts, one decision The Daily News had to face was how much of its content to post free-of-charge. “We saw signs that providing all the paper’s content online might actually be causing a decline in circulation,” Corn said. The solution: password-enable the site and allow only print subscribers free access. It’s a decision that sparked outcry from readers, particularly since larger papers weren’t restricting access to their sites, Corn said.

Although The Daily News’ current system works, Corn said he wishes there were online publishing apps specifically aimed at smaller publishers.

“Companies say they care and have such a package, but it comes with a big-paper cost which just doesn’t work,” he said. As a result, we’ve had to work with off-the-shelf software and make the system work.”

Because smaller publishers often don’t have the IT staff necessary to manage apps onsite, many content management software developers build their portfolio of products on an application service provider model, in which the software actually resides at a third-party data center. This approach relieves users from having to maintain software and hardware themselves.

Juggling print and online editions is a tough task, said John Girard, chief executive officer of Clickability Inc., a content management app vendor that works with both large and small publishers.

“I think (the problem) is split between editorial and technical challenges,” he said. “On the technical side, many larger papers are able to share resources among various divisions and are able to create a shared resource that’s more robust and more sophisticated than a small (newspaper) would be able to do by themselves.”

Crimped IT staff

Smaller newspapers are also hobbled by the size of their editorial staff. “If you have a total staff of 60 you can probably afford to dedicate one or two people to the Web site,” Girard said. “But if you’re a four- or five-person newsroom, you may be lucky to have even half of one person’s time.”

That’s where outsourcing can help. By using an ASP or third-party software manager, smaller newspapers can buy a share of the sophisticated network infrastructure required to operate a site.

“The analogy I turn to a lot in the newspaper world is the printing press,” said Girard. “Now, 1/20th of a printing press isn’t terribly valuable by itself, but if a small paper is able to effectively purchase time on such a press, which is what they are doing by outsourcing their Web hosting and management, they save a lot of money.”

PowerOne Media Inc. also offers third-party Web hosting, through its Z-Wire offering, said Karen Schulthein, product manager.

The suite includes content management, classified ad management and archiving, among other capabilities, she said. More than 500 newspapers use the software.

Weeklies have own issues

Weekly newspaper publishers, meanwhile, face their own obstacles maintaining Web sites, with the result that many are now consolidating their newspapers under one Web URL rather than each publication boasting its own Web identity.

That’s the case at Sun Newspapers, which publishes 25 weekly newspapers around Cleveland. The publisher updates its seven-year-old site on Thursdays when the publications are distributed, said Dennis Seeds, editorial systems manager, computer and high-tech.

Sun reporters write stories on Harris NewsMaker; the application lets users export files as text. Once that occurs, Seeds said Sun converts the files to HTML with Microsoft Word. Additional editing is performed with Macromedia Inc.’s HomeSite management app. Photos are managed with Adobe Photoshop.

Once the graphics and text are laid out, the completed pages are transmitted over FTP to leased space on a Web server.

As with many weekly publishers, Sun doesn’t dedicate any staff specifically to the Web site. Seeds wedges oversight of the site along with his other duties.

Sun’s MIS department helps transfer classified ad files and the photographer and graphic editor help transfer graphics to Seeds for Web site preprocessing.

“The biggest challenge we face is the significant human labor it takes to publish the Web site each week,” said Seeds. “However, over time I’ve made many shortcuts that allow basically one person to put together a quality Web site with many offerings.”

Flexibility wish list

The Skagit Valley (Wash.) Herald (daily, 18,999; Sunday, 20,069) uses Lee Enterprises unit TownNews.com to manage its online content.

To post content, the Herald copies content from QuarkXPress layouts into text documents. The files are then uploaded to a FTP server, where the story appears on the daily’s site.

Two Herald staffers divide duties required to update the site, said Brandon Kolp, director of interactive media. The paper’s interactive media department has three people assigned to it, he said.

The Herald doesn’t have a dedicated Internet ad salesperson; instead, the newspaper’s print ad reps also sell electronic ads. Kolp said he puts together all sales support information, trains the sales staff and occasionally travels with reps on “four-legged” sales calls.

Although Kolp said he’s satisfied with TownNews.com’s services, finding a hosting company that offered the flexibility he required wasn’t easy.

“My advice to Web content management developers is to allow the client to have design control over their site if they choose. We found a content management host that would allow us that freedom (but) it was a chore to find such a company.”

Clickability Inc.
415.575.5125
www.clickability.com

PowerOne Media Inc.
800.676.9376
www.poweronemedia.com

TownNews.com
800.293.9576
www.townnews.com