Ask HN: Software for running a school newspaper?

[tdoggette]

I've found myself the web editor of the school paper at my college. It's being resurrected from a long slumber, and I'm building both a web edition of the publication and something that can be used as a backend for submitting articles and having them pass from writers to copy editors to general editors to the layout people.

Money for software isn't a concern, but I have a preference for OSS. Right now, we're leaning toward a Wordpress-based front and and a private MediaWiki to manage articles and so on. Something more elaborate (hey, what's Django for, right?) and customized is not out of the question too. What do you think about this? What would you use if it were your project?

[mechanical_fish]

Drupal.

http://drupal.org/nyobserver (though it doesn't have to be this elaborate)

[tdoggette → mechanical_fish]

I've used Drupal before (for a local political campaign) and it served me well, but we don't have a designer that can get something really nice up layout-wise, while Wordpress has more newspaper- and magazine-type themes than you can count on your fingers and toes. If there were something really nifty that built on Drupal (something similar to Plone's publication control) then I'd seriously consider using it, but for now, Wordpress is the favorite.

[asimjalis]

http://collegepublisher.com will host your newspaper for you and even share revenue (through ads). I am not affiliated with them. Just thought it was a neat idea -- and business model. Plus it could help you go live pretty quickly.