WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal Magazine Web CMS Software

WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal Magazine Web CMS Software

Many of the magazine publisher CMS (content management systems) we select today are based on open source publisher web cms software. WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal open source magazine CMS software solutions have reached a level of publishing industry adoption that it’s not hard to find one of these platfoms in every magazine niche. While open source web content management systems contain “no cost” for the CMS software itself, it’s important to understand that there are still costs associated with the planning, design, development, and deployment of OS powered magazine websites. Open source solutions must also be managed, hosted and maintained.

Open Source CMS Software Trend for Publishing

The trends graph for longer periods is harder to interpret*.  The large spike for WordPress is related to publicity for Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com as the company raised $160 million from investors and was a hot topic in addition to what we feel are major improvements in the CMS.

In 2014 WordPress was included in development proposals for publication websites where Drupal had previously been the only option.

From Quora answer we provided in 2016:

[intro]The ability to customize Drupal to the publisher’s exact needs made it our core CMS for customers 5 years ago and we were still creating site in Joomla at the time. WordPress was available and in some cases we used it to run smaller publication websites. Ultimately, the upgrades and maintenance of Joomla drove or team to look for something better and that was Drupal at the time. Around 2 years ago we stopped using Joomla completely and it was 50/50 Drupal and WordPress. Today almost all new sites we create are WordPress but we still redesign others and there are new CMS options that we should all consider.

Ultimately the community involved in the CMS solution is a major factor. Extensions and Plugins and are great for users will less custom needs. There’s actually a good business model around these types of tools now and as WordPress has grown so there’s more money in offering tools around this platform.

But the main move to WordPress is a return to simplicity. With the important of mobile-friendly websites and responsive themes the content usability remains of paramount importance. WordPress can now easily be developed with multiple content types so it can handle the news section, the videos, the buyers guide, and a blog/columnist run using the core original blogging capabilities. Theming and design are more easily achieved due to less customizations performed in the development for channels (views) and many WordPress publisher sites don’t require registration or a paid content model where Drupal 8 could again be utilized.

Major and minor WordPress upgrades have been easier to manage over Joomla and Drupal overall and we feel this will continue to be the case in the near term.[/intro]

The 2016 compare trends graph for long periods is often hard to interpret compared to the older comparisons done 5 years ago below – Google Graph Tooltip: Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. Likewise a score of 0 means the term was less than 1% as popular as the peak.

These magazine publisher CMS solutions have many magazine publisher specific configurations capabilities for optimized publisher periodic content presentation and readership interaction capabilities.

WordPress Magazine CMS

WordPress as a Magazine CMS – Using wordpress for a magazine website provides a low cost and quick setup option. The design can visually rival any modern magazine website but has much fewer customizations and capabilities for meeting typical web based magazine revenue objectives.

Joomla Magazine CMS

Joomla as a Magazine CMS – Joomla magazine websites are a comfortable medium between the simplicity of WordPress and the extreme capabilities available in the Drupal based magazine CMS. Joomla is excellent for publishers with multiple staff members who will interact with the publication website content and can handle most of the readership and advertising functions required to balance out the publisher emedia offerings.

Drupal Magazine CMS

Prior Market Share – Trend Graphs

June 2010 Chart: Overall Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, and TYPO3 Trend by Google Trends.

Updated Jan 2011 Chart: Overall Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, and TYPO3 Trend by Google Trends.

Updated Aug 2011 Chart: Overall Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, and TYPO3 Trend by Google Trends.

Updated March 2012 Chart: Overall Drupal Vs. WordPress Vs. Joomla vs TYPO3 Trend by Google Trends.

Note on 2012 WordPress CMS trend line: The rise of WordPress outperforms it’s comparison in a Drupal vs. WordPress or Joomla vs. WordPress comparison because its also become such a solid platform for regular website design projects and bloggers.

Cloud-based / Enterprise / Saas / Value added OS Solutions

While OS magazine CMS software is trending up, many large publishers still seek commercial magazine website solutions based on more advanced publishing workflows and scalability needs. Commercial web CMS magazine solutions provide necessary integration capabilities and flexibility to meet the specific magazine publishing circulation, commerce, and editorial content workflows. Here are some magazine publishing CMS solutions who provide publishing CMS software or SAAS based publisher CMS solutions:

Note: Advontemedia is always open to working with your selected vendor as we design and configure UX and revenue strategy for your specific magazine website.

ePublishing
Powerful, yet simple-to-use web 2.0-enabled tools manage the creation, publishing and optimization of content, data and eCommerce. A hosted solution, it is the power behind many industry-leading publishers. source ePublishing.com

Oxcyon
Oxcyon’s Centralpoint’s unique CMS Lifecycle Management Solutions provide Publishers with a comprehensive approach to building new subscribers, fulfillment, digital rights, and lead tracking managing the complete information value chain from collaborative creation of content, to management, and to personalized targeted delivery. source Oxcyon.com

Crown Peak
CrownPeak’s Web site management solutions allow the publisher to quickly establish the publishing platform they need, without buying the infrastructure that gets in the way of a successful business. source CrownPeak.com

Metro Publisher
Saas based feature-rich magazine websites with no development required by the publishing team
metropublisher.com

Agility CMS
Agility CMS is an agile next generation of content management systems cloud-based content management system for building and managing responsive websites and apps.
agilitycms.com

Hippo CMS
Open source enterprise content management system designed to help publishers understand their visitors and customers.
onehippo.com

Nstein
Nstein supports some of the largest media organizations from content creation right through to delivery and distribution, operating under the philosophy that for content to have value, it must be connected with people. Nstein.com

EllisLabs/ExpressionEngine
ExpressionEngine is a flexible, feature-rich content management platform that empowers hundreds of thousands of individuals and organizations around the world to easily manage their web site.
ellislab.com/expressionengine

Adobe CQ Web Content Management
Enterprise content management: Web content management capabilities of Adobe CQ provide an open, standards-based platform for delivering engaging, multichannel customer experiences that drive online business success.
adobe.com/marketing-cloud/enterprise-content-management/web-cms.html

Clickability
Clickability’s Platform-as-a-Service gives publishers of all sizes the tools they need to flourish online, without becoming IT professionals. Most users can master the platform in a day or two. Most companies quickly see a 100% increase in site traffic, hand in hand with a 50%-90% reduction in Web publishing costs. source clickability.com

Commercial publishing solutions and general publishing solution providers are also focusing on Saas (Software as a service) or Cloud (operations that take place within the network infrastructure) based solutions to help lower adoption and overall maintenance costs.

As magazine publishing CMS consultants, we evaluate the publisher’s overall web and digital magazine requirements to insure the proper magazine tool is utilized. Taking the time to define the critical emedia elements to be facilitate your publication website will insure ad sales, editorial, and production publishing objectives are achieved.