Building a distributed publishing platform with Drupal

1. Transforming Digital Publishing at UNH with Drupal
BACKGROUND
The Project: Strengthen the UNH Brand via a new online publication channel.
The Client: Communications & Public Affairs (CPA).
The Details: Build a single platform for the creation and dissemination of UNH-
developed and curated feature stories, series articles and press releases, and for
providing media advice and access to UNH experts.
The Solution: The centrally managed platform includes built-in approval and
publication workflow, enterprise taxonomy, a central database of contributors
and aggregate reporting. Content is centrally created and managed, then
published and distributed.
The Result: A Publishing Platform that meets channel requirements while
remains flexible and extensible. UNH Today now provides central oversight of
over 4,000 feature stories and news articles and can effortlessly scale up to
100,000’s stories. Currently used by CPA editors, contributors and digital asset
managers, the database will soon be extended to departmental content
contributors. Future enhancements include connections to UNH data sources
and digital asset libraries and syndication via web services.
PUBLISHING FLOW
INITIAL REQUIREMENTS
THE NUMBERS
WEB AND MOBILE
Terri Winters, Director
Cynthia Cargill, Manager
Jennifer Dykens, Project Manager
Michael Henninger, Developer
Breanna Farrell, Developer/Designer
COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Joel Seligman, VP, Sponsor
Bridget Finnegan, Creative Director
Neil Larson, Digital Marketing
The original website
was designed to
mimic a print
newsletter.
The content
followed the
standard format,
static format.
There was no
automated approval
process or media
management.
DESIGN AND BUILD PROCESS
GOALS & FEATURES
• Strengthen UNH Brand
• Cater to Audience Types
• Support Media-rich Feature
Articles, Series, News
Articles
• Support Presidential
Initiatives
• Make it Easy to Maintain
• Include Collaboration and
Publishing Approval Process
• Design for Cross
Campus/Website
Consumption
• Train the Trainers
• Editing / Approval Workflow
• Taxonomy
• Article Content
• News Content
• Media Galleries & Support
• Calendar Consumption
• Views and Templates (18)
• Syndication
• Workbench
• Media Gallery
• LDAP Authentication
• Standard UNH Drupal 7 modules
BRAINSTORM & WIREFRAME DESIGN MOCK-UPS
• Headline
• Subhead
• Body Copy
• Related Links
• Internal Notes
• Asset Type
(image/slideshow/gallery/
video)
• Attributions (author,
photographer, …)
• Flags & Tags (series,
primary category,
initiative, college...)
• Publish Date
• Publishing Options
THE TEAM
2,600
Articles
1,800
Press Releases
134
Contributors
134,000
Visitors
GOALS FEATURES
GOALS
MODULES
The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class
public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts
college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's
flagship public institution, enrolling 13,000 undergraduate and 2,000
graduate students.
UNH.EDU/UNHTODAY
BUILD
The University of New Hampshire | Durham, NH 03824 | (603) 862-1234 | unh.edu