College Publisher 5?

As the online editor for the Mustang Daily (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), I've recently been given the opportunity to make the big leap to College Publisher 5.

I've agreed to go ahead and try it out on a testing server, but I'm not sure if it's a switch I'm dedicated to making quite yet.

There are definite benefits. The new system would allow us to embed sound slide swfs within our articles, rather than having to embed the audio slideshows in a custom, html page that opens on a javascript popup. The process right now is a tedious one when it comes to multimedia-- it all has to be done manually, which is why, naturally, CP5 is appealing.

Among other cool features related articles and bulk story uploads.

But the downside? I don't feel like it's very customizable. I'm very happy with the look of mustangdaily.net. It took years for our former online editor to perfect it, along with my help last year. (I'm also proud to note that our former online editor is now an associate online content producer for the San Diego Union-Tribune).

CP5 doesn't seem to give many options for customization. I'm very happy with our custom, rotating flash slideshow and the very limited length of our page (I hate sites that just keep scrolling and scrolling). I like having multimedia pieces featured on the front page and big, obvious links to our blog, online features, podcasts etc.

I don't want to make the switch because I don't want the Mustang Daily to look like every other College Publisher site. What's the fun in that?

One thing I'm unsure about is whether the new system still limit posts by issue (anyone who has used CP knows what I mean). The industry is based on 24 hour news, and using College Publisher was always difficult for that. When we break news on the weekend, for example, we have to publish it under the date of the last print issue, which is misleading.

But when we get our testing server up, I will definitely have fun tinkering with it. Maybe I will be satisfied after all. Or perhaps just switch to Joomla? :) (Just kidding...)


UPDATE: College Publisher and I have developed a mock-up for the new system that I am extremely excited about. I can't wait to get started.