CoPress

The Campanil‘s newly redesigned Web site launched this past weekend, and overall we think it’s a great success. It is still a work in progress — as all Web sites should be — but we hope our readers agree it’s a large improvement from our old site. So: what’s new?

Most importantly, we made the move to open source software. We ended our contract with College Publisher and are now powered by WordPress, with hosting support from CoPress. With the switch we can control our domain name and have much more flexibility overall in shaping how we want our site to look and function, which is really what we were after in wanting to redo the site.

Keeping in mind that any theme we chose for our site upgrade would be much better than what our CP site was at that point able to offer, we chose News Evolved, created by CoPress Hosting Associate Andrew Spittle. Throughout the launch process, Andrew was instrumental in shaping the theme to suit our needs. What we liked about it:

• It’s different: With features such as Dim the Lights and customized section landing pages, News Evolved is fresh and bold. Plus, no one (to our knowledge) has used it yet because the theme has been in development up to this point. Originality is always a plus in our book.
• Customizability: While most WordPress themes can be modified to various degrees, we appreciated the lengths to which News Evolved could be changed. The homepage was created in such a way that we were able to add and take away features that did or did not work for us. Additionally, we were able to choose which layout we wanted for the section landing pages and what content would display on the sidebars. This variety should encourage readers to browse the site more than they might otherwise.
• Hierarchy of content: The main homepage features seven stories without having to scroll, and with a clear delineation; that is, the three rotating stories are the most important and have powerful images. Plus, the category pages also highlight the most important story. In the features and sports sections, we were able to create subheads that easily distinguish both arts and health-related content, while news appropriately lists our most recently updated content.
• No ads: The homepage is free of ads, letting our content take center stage — something that we hope our readers will appreciate. Ads were built into the category landing pages to ensure we still have a mechanism for generating revenue from the site.
• Displays social networks: Our social networks are put front and center on the homepage. On CP, we installed links to our YouTube and Twitter pages on the antiquated CP4 lefthand sidebar, and that was about it. Now, we have prominent links for our Twitter, Publish2 and Flickr accounts, all of which allow readers to keep up to date with the latest of what we’re up to. Thy are visually pleasing and easily accessible in their location right below the homepage slideshow.

In addition to our social networks, we worked with Andrew to install a tag cloud so that readers looking for a specific topic can click on a tag and find all relevant articles and content. (On that note, creating specific landing pages customized for particular topics that we cover regularly is a goal for the future.) Knowing what we know about who usually reads college news sites, our print editions are also available for perusal by readers who might not frequent the Mills campus. Our mechanism for listing events also got an upgrade. On College Publisher, our events calendar was confusing to both use and look at; now, we can easily sync a Google calendar to display events relevant to our community.

A few other goals for the Web site include building an in-site feature to submit letters to the editor and developing a comprehensive archive system so readers can find content uploaded within a specific week, month or year. We’re also receptive to feedback we get from readers; we want to implement those features which in the end help our community to interact with one another and foster a deeper understanding of those issues which affect them. As a small news organization, we are really only limited by the reaches of our technical expertise and constraints of a constantly fluctuating staff. WordPress, as a relatively easy to understand CMS, helps in both regards, as does working with CoPress, an organization of student journalists just like ourselves who are on the forefront of innovation in the field.

Jennifer Courtney is the Editor in Chief of The Campanil, an independent student news organization at Mills College in Oakland, Calif. Follow Jennifer on Twitter at @jlcourtney or email her at eic@thecampanil.com.