Web Content Management Solutions For Print-to-Web Work Flow

Released on: January 29, 2010, 12:58 pm
Author: Database Publishing Consultants, Inc.
Industry: Marketing

TimeOut family magazines were looking to implement tailored web content management solutions for their business. The project required the integration of TimeOut’s powerful K4 Publishing System used for the print versions of their magazines with the power and versatility of Drupal content management systems for web publishing.

January, 2010 – Content management is an important part of publishing and there are oftentimes difficulties transferring information efficiently among systems designed for paper publication and systems designed for printing to the Web. Many companies resolve data transfer problems by employing designated personnel whose sole responsibility is to copy and paste the content to the Web.

Drupal content management systems are well known for their ability to streamline web publishing practices. They provide web content management solutions for organizations in an open-source format that is easy-to-use, which makes web content management processes accessible to non-technical personnel.

TimeOut family magazines, which include TimeOut New York, TimeOut Kids, TimeOut Chicago, and TimeOut Worldwide, have been using the K4 Publishing System to produce the print versions of the magazines for several years. TimeOut wanted to redesign its website using the Drupal content management systems. The company also wanted to directly connect the K4 Publishing System to the Drupal CMS in order to arrive at a sustainable and more effectual web content management solution.

There was a clear opportunity for TimeOut to gain additional efficiency if it could leverage the power of both systems. Both K4 and Drupal CMS are excellent tools; however, a more efficient integrated solution would require a K4-to-Drupal module to act as a bridge between the two.

TimeOut hired DPCI to implement the K4-to-Drupal module that DPCI had created. DPCI is a content management system consulting business that implements web content management solutions for a wide range of organizations.

By integrating K4 with Drupal CMS the editors at TimeOut were able to publish semantically enriched editorial content directly to designated sections within Drupal. The K4-to-Drupal module leveraged the strength of K4 for content development and allowed for rapid release of articles and images from K4 to Drupal CMS.

The K4-to-Drupal Integration Module permits users to tag articles with keywords and key phrases in order to improve search engine efficiency and effectiveness. The website’s value is increased by having the actual content experts enriching and managing the metadata. In addition, the K4-to-Drupal module supports multiple concurrent work flows, reduces keystroke errors, and saves time.

The strength of the K4 Publishing System and the versatility of Drupal content management systems have been brought together into an integrated solution to improve TimeOut’s print-to-web work flow.

The K4-to-Drupal module, designed by DPCI is incredibly versatile allowing users to generate titles, URLs, meta-data, keywords, category, body copy, images and sub headings while in the K4 environment and it seamlessly generates into Drupal. In addition to the module capabilities implemented for TimeOut’s requirements, the K4-to-Drupal module may be customized further using a programming language (XSLT) to fit particular publisher needs. In short, the K4-to-Drupal module makes the Drupal CMS a seamless extension of the K4 Publishing System.

Contact Details: About: DPCI
DPCI understands how to create competitive advantages in the marketplace by implementing and tailoring drupal content management systems. For the past 10 years, DPCI has acquired the professional and technical experience necessary for consulting, customizing and implementing web content management systems such as drupal cms.

Contact:
1560 Broadway, Suite 810
New York, NY 10036-1518
800-818-2905
http://www.databasepublish.com/contact