The document discusses the use of WordPress as a content management system (CMS) by various news organizations, highlighting its capabilities for creating standalone websites, micro-sites, and integrating multimedia content. Examples include KPLU's community site Quirksee, and various projects by The Washington Post and CNN that utilize WordPress for dynamic storytelling. It also differentiates between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, emphasizing the flexibility and control offered by the former.

1. WORDPRESS: CMS
Mindy McAdams
Department of Journalism
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida, USA

2. News organizations use WordPress …
• To create separate, stand-alone websites for special
topics or coverage
• For individual stories that are long and have many visual
elements, such as videos
• To run their entire news website
• And more!

4. WordPress.org
• Open-source software (free)
• Lots of functionality, and lots of developers worldwide
• Thousands of templates (themes) and plug-ins
• Lots of control
• Full-featured comment moderation
• Full-featured spam filtering for comments
• Multiple, separate WordPress sites can be added to
your domain
(We’ll discuss WordPress.com at the end)

5. http://wordpress.org/

9. http://vi.wordpress.org/

10. Case: KPLU
• A public radio station in Seattle, USA.
• A news organization.
• Has a traditional news website (next slide).
• URL http://kplu.org/

12. Case: KPLU
• KPLU also has a separate website called Quirksee.
• The name is an odd word made up from “quirk,” which means a
habit or behavior that is strange or unusual.
• KPLU says Quirksee is a “community of discovery.”
• The site focuses on Seattle, the city where KPLU is
based.
• KPLU invites the public to contribute story ideas to
Quirksee.
• URL http://www.quirksee.org/

15. All of the small photos are clickable. Each one can be
seen large, in a slideshow viewer.

17. WordPress can also be used
to quickly deploy a “micro site”
to aggregate all coverage
of a big breaking story,
to track a long-term ongoing issue,
to cover an event.

18. Screen capture from July 9, 2013

19. Case: The Washington Post
Uses WordPress software to create many different kinds of
micro sites, all under the washingtonpost.com domain:
• A breaking news “blog” for new unrest in Egypt (2013)
• An interactive graphic about the U.S. Supreme Court decision
allowing gay people to marry
• A long narrative story about a U.S. bicycle racer who hopes to
erase the shame of Lance Armstrong
• A photographic journey through the presidential election year 2012

24. Videos, maps, photos and other graphics are integrated in a layout
like a magazine’s.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2013/02/27/cyclings-road-forward/

25. RUN is a visual story about the entire 2012 U.S. election year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/supergrid/run/

26. RUN is a visual story about the entire 2012 U.S. election year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/supergrid/run/

27. RUN is a visual story about the entire 2012 U.S. election year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/supergrid/run/

28. Case: CNN
• The global TV news network uses WordPress to run each
one of CNN’s many different blogs.
• Also to run what is essentially a micro-site for each news
program.

31. Case: Global News
• The site globalnews.ca is the main website for a national
•
•
•
•
•
•
TV news program in Canada.
The entire site runs on WordPress.
Most stories include at least one embedded video.
The site is updated many times each day.
Reporters across Canada contribute to the site — they
can post news from any location.
Reporters in 3 foreign bureaus — Beijing, London and
Washington — also upload to WordPress.
Some reporters post updates with the WordPress mobile
app.

35. The WordPress difference
• Some people think WordPress is a blogging platform, like
Blogger / Blogspot.
• The site WordPress.com allows individuals to have free
blogs.
• However, WordPress.org is different, and …
• The WordPress software (which is 100 percent free) can
be downloaded and installed on your own Web server.
• You have complete control.
• Your software team can modify WordPress.
• You can add free or paid themes and plug-ins to make a
WordPress site do almost anything you can imagine.

36. Edit Flow is a free plug-in for WordPress that provides many helpful tools for
editing teams.
http://editflow.org/

37. WORDPRESS: CMS
Mindy McAdams
mmcadams@jou.ufl.edu
Twitter: @macloo
http://bit.ly/mmwpbasics