Tech Stack

Case Studies

From Medium to Squarespace: A Case Study of a Black-Owned Newsroom’s Tech Decisions

For many Black-owned newsrooms, especially those serving niche audiences, finding the right technology can be a challenge. In this case study, we explore how the founder and editor of a digital-only magazine that covers Black culture and politics, made strategic decisions about his tech stack and what trade-offs he faced along the way.

The publisher launched his magazine in 2018. The publication features reporting on the convergence of religion and politics.

The CMS Journey: Medium to Squarespace

When he launched, he decided to start with Medium, because he thought it would help his magazine grow its audience, which was the main objective initially.

As his magazine gained popularity, the founder realized that he needed to expand his online presence and reach more readers. 

He decided to create a website using Squarespace, a web hosting service that offers templates and tools for building websites without coding. Squarespace was an attractive option for him because it was affordable and he had past experience with the technology. 

He enjoys the automations and integrated solutions that Squarespace provided and saw that his website’s search engine optimization (SEO) improved quickly after transitioning. Squarespace also has the option to optimize articles with SEO automatically.

“I could see that in my analytics, especially when people started…[putting] the name of the website in [in search] or if they wanted to find a story again, it was easy for them to find.”

However, he has also encountered some limitations with Squarespace. The publisher mentioned how Squarespace became more complicated when trying to make the site more sophisticated.

“Squarespace…is easy to use up until…a certain point. Then it gets kind of complicated, especially [with] ad campaigns…They have all those capabilities within Squarespace, but if you’re not familiar with that stuff, it can become really hard to navigate. Sometimes their explainer pages are not that detailed. So, I find myself watching videos that people post which have been really helpful, but it’s also time consuming.”

He also saw limitations with the block technology that Squarespace runs on making certain website assets not look aesthetically pleasing. He said, “Because of the way that you can build within the system, certain things just don’t look good on the website, unless you have someone to code it in…and make it look really good.”

One of the reasons he chose Squarespace was because it had an integrated solution for newsletters, analytics and revenue generation at an affordable price. Unfortunately, the newsletter features required an additional monthly fee. He ran into similar issues with data storage.

“It’s an extra cost to use their built-in newsletter. So if you don’t have enough money, like I don’t, it limits you in that capability.”

When asked about whether he would recommend Squarespace to other publishers, the founder said his recommendation would depend on organizational capacity and the goals of your publication.

The ESP Journey: Revue to Substack

Because of the cost associated with Squarespace’s newsletter feature, the founder started his newsletter on Revue, a platform that allowed writers and publishers to create and send newsletters to their audience. It also enabled them to monetize their newsletters by charging subscribers or accepting donations. Revue was acquired by Twitter in January 2021 and integrated into the Twitter timeline, but it was shut down in December 2022.

When the shutdown of Revue happened, the publisher quickly needed to pivot to a new platform. He decided to use Substack, a platform that allows writers to create and monetize newsletters. Substack appealed to the publisher because it was free, simple, and powerful. He was able to import his email list and start sending out newsletters to his subscribers with minimal hassle. 

He also likes how well Substack and Squarespace integrate both with content and analytics and the increased audience and revenue he saw as a result of being on Substack. 

“As soon as I got on Substack my readership increased…it makes your newsletter really accessible to other readers first and to other people who you know who are writing on Substack. It made it really easier for people in [my region] to just sign up for it.”

Despite these benefits, the publisher doesn’t see Substack as a permanent place for his newsletter. 

“When I become more financially sustainable [and if] I continue to stay on Squarespace, I [want to] send everything out from Squarespace instead of [using several platforms].”

Part of this desire for an integrated solution comes from the additional time it takes to validate links when translating between the platforms. However, Substack also had its drawbacks. The publisher found that embedding tweets and news links into his newsletters was not as easy to do in Substack as it was in Revue, which required him to manually write a description of each article for his newsletter round up. This made the process much more time consuming for him. He also felt that Substack’s design options were limited and did not match the aesthetic of his magazine or website. 

Ultimately, his goal was to have everything in one place: a website that could host his magazine content, a newsletter that could engage his subscribers, and a payment system that could generate revenue. He hoped to eventually have all these aspects integrated within Squarespace instead of using multiple platforms. However, he acknowledged that this would require more technical expertise and financial resources than he currently had.

He gave advice for publishers in a similar situation that don’t know where to start.

Don’t Let the Tools Use You: How a Niche Newsletter Publisher Decided on Ghost

If you are a publisher serving a niche audience, you might be wondering what kind of content management system (CMS) would suit your needs best. There are many options out there, but not all of them are easy to use, flexible, or affordable.

In this case study, we will look at how one publisher uses Ghost, a simple and powerful CMS platform, to create and distribute their newsletter to a loyal and engaged audience. We will also explore some of the challenges and benefits of using Ghost, as well as some tips and recommendations for other publishers who are looking for a CMS.

The publisher runs a newsletter targeting black journalists. She started her newsletter in 2022. When she started looking at technology, she was looking for what was regarded as the best platform across the industry. She quickly realized that there was no perfect solution, and that she needed to figure out which platform worked best, given her goals and her workflow.

While searching, she came across Ghost, due to a program she was a part of that offered the platform free for the first year. But the upfront free year wasn’t the only reason she decided to move forward with Ghost. 

“I took them up on it because I thought first of all, the price was affordable…Secondly… I decided I wanted to do a newsletter [and they cater to newsletter creators].”

The publisher appreciates the community and advice that she’s received from Ghost’s blog post says that Ghost is easy to use and has a clean and intuitive editor that lets her focus on writing. There are easy ways to add contributors, monetize, and have multiple newsletter products. She likes that the analytics component of Ghost gives simple metrics on the health of your newsletter which feels less overwhelming than other products on the market. She can also customize her website design with thousands of themes and WordPress integrations. She says that Ghost helps her save time by making it simple to post her newsletter issues to her website.

Despite this, the founder also admits that Ghost has some drawbacks. One of them is that Ghost requires some coding skills to make changes to the website or the newsletter template. She struggles with coding and sometimes has to hire a developer to help her with technical issues. 

“If I want to… just change the color of a button, I need to find the code for that. So I have to pay someone,” she shared. She did add that her changes haven’t been too expensive up to this point.

Another challenge that she faces is with Google Analytics, which she uses to track her website traffic and newsletter performance. She updated to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), which had led to her not being able to use News Consumer Insights, a free tool that helps publishers build sustainable digital businesses by increasing profitability and building deeper relationships with their readers. News Consumer Insights uses a publisher’s Google Analytics account to provide key insights and actionable recommendations based on a data framework and decision engine designed exclusively for news publishers. News Consumer Insights can help publishers optimize their user funnel, their reader engagement, their reader revenue, and their video content consumption across their site and audience.

In speaking about the challenge of adapting to GA 4, she said, “The old one was complicated enough. I have not had time to learn the new one.”

When asked about whether she would recommend Ghost to others, she said, “It really works for me. I don’t mind that I have to pay someone to change it. If you just need something simple, you’re open to learning some minimum coding, [your primary medium is a] newsletter [and] if you are gonna make money through a newsletter [Ghost is good] especially because they don’t take…percentages.”

But her biggest advice to publishers was actually product agnostic.

Technology Would Kill My Enthusiasm: How a Black-Owned Newsroom Chose Patch Labs to Power Their Website

For many news publishers serving niche audiences, finding the right technology platform can be a challenge. They need a solution that can meet their specific needs, such as engaging their readers, monetizing their content, and optimizing their site for search engines. In this case study, we will explore how one black-owned newsroom decided to use Patch Labs, a platform that offers a variety of tools for independent local journalists, to power their digital-only text website.

The newsroom in question focuses on covering stories that are relevant and important to the Black community in their region. It has a loyal and engaged audience that values its perspective and voice. Its revenue strategy includes advertising and reader revenue, such as subscriptions and donations.

The publisher was looking for a technology platform that could help her grow the newsroom’s audience and revenue, while also maintaining its editorial independence and identity. She wanted a platform that was easy to use, flexible, and affordable. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy to find this platform as the founder had hoped.

She started by looking at a start-up CMS provider that had a selection of beautiful templates. But when she inquired on news use cases, they couldn’t find any. Although they tried to sell her that the technology could meet her needs, she quickly realized that it didn’t. She also looked at TownNews but hadn’t heard good things about them.

Patch Labs is a division of Patch that offers intuitive technology to power independent local news sites across the country. Patch Labs provides everything a journalist needs—from newsletters and analytics to event calendars and revenue processing—built right into the platform.

Before refining her concept and finding Patch Labs, the publisher invested in Mighty Networks, a platform that lets you create and grow your own online community, course, or membership. The goal was to build a community around the news of the region and then monetize the community, but she quickly pivoted away from that concept to a more traditional news site.

When the founder had issues transferring the domain, the Patch Labs team helped to resolve the issue. This is just one of the strengths that she found with the platform. 

She likes the ability to easily add contributors and appreciates that it offers a variety of tools that she did not know they needed, such as social media integration, SEO optimization, and email marketing. The speaker also praised Patch Labs for being nimble and responsive to publisher requests. They’ve made it easy to republish information across sister websites. The Patch Lab’s team has a strong expertise in Google Search, which helped them rank higher on search results and drive more traffic to her site. They also have automations that make story roundups and newsletters easier to produce.

“[Patch Labs] will look at how many events you posted and it’ll just automatically do a roundup which is good. You can do a roundup of the weather [or] events just by it looking at what you’ve already done. It will collect stuff, so I don’t have to think of what will be in my newsletter.”

The publisher has also benefited from the consulting they have available. She said, “I have the Ad Managers cell phone number and I have called them a couple times. He came up with a really easy strategy.”

However, the founder also mentioned several drawbacks of using Patch Labs, including that they can overemphasize advertising, which as a result means that some of their advice may not be as useful if that is not your dominant revenue stream. The speaker noted that Patch Labs can be limited in terms of customization, both aesthetically and where certain types of content can populate.

Publishers also can struggle with attaching themselves to the Patch brand, which has been derided by some critics for low-quality journalism, lack of original reporting, dependence on advertising revenue and exploitation of its journalists, who are often paid poorly and work under high pressure. The founder appreciated that Patch branding is not prominent on the website.

Overall, the speaker felt that Patch Labs was a good solution for her website, but acknowledged that there were drawbacks to the platform. The speaker also emphasized the importance of staying informed about new technology trends and tools in the industry to ensure that their website remains up-to-date and competitive.

“I’m still open minded. [I’ve looked at Ghost and Newspack.]  I just know people have to have developers when they have Newspack or Ghost.”

As a result, Patch Labs has turned into a longer-term solution for her publisher. It provides the ease of use that allows her to focus on the work of producing high-quality journalism.

When asked whether she’d recommend Patch Labs, she said, “My advice wouldn’t necessarily be to get Patch Labs. [My question would be] what are they trying to do? Because I don’t know if Patch Labs is going to be somebody else’s solution. It was…very much individualized because of my tolerance level.”

The Solution Isn’t Changing Your Tech Stack: How a Legacy Publisher Enhanced their Digital Presence Without Changing Their Technology

As a Black-owned newsroom that serves a large diasporic audience, this newsroom has been serving its community for decades. The publisher currently operates a digital-only text website that reaches thousands of readers each month globally. Its revenue strategy includes advertising, reader revenue, e-commerce and events.

But running a successful digital news operation is not without its challenges, especially when it comes to technology. In this case study, we spoke with the leader of digital strategy at this newsroom about her experience using WordPress as her digital publishing solution and how she learned through trial and error. 

WordPress to Newspack

During her 10 years at the newsroom, they have stayed with WordPress.

The digital strategist said that her skills have developed over the years with using WordPress, and that she was helped by good consultants and developers that helped explain things to her and showed her how to do things. She also augmented their support by looking things up and testing things out on the website as well to build her knowledge base of the platform. 

Unfortunately, every experience the newsroom had with technology consultants was not positive. She discussed the challenges he faced when dealing with consultants who proposed expensive solutions rather than fixing existing issues, and the importance of finding support from those who understand the fundamentals of technology when evaluating proposals.

“We worked with another agency that did a…site migration for us. They did…a re-layout…I just remember it being such an underwhelming experience…At the end of it. I still had to go back and fix everything myself. What they purported to offer [was not] what we actually got in the end and they nickel and [dimed] us. That was the first experience where I [realized] people are going to try to sell you things and make it seem like they’re doing much more than they actually are [but] you’re still on the hook for a lot of it.” 

There also were limitations to her skills set that started to be less tenable as the audience grew.

She said, “I had very surface and workable knowledge…but not necessarily fully understanding the entire scope of why something is the way it is which is important…At the beginning I had the time the luxury to really play around the site, experiment with different plugins, and see what was possible…without the pressure of like, oh my God, we had thousands of people coming on the site.”

As they started to see surges in traffic, the website started having bandwidth issues she couldn’t easily resolve. During this period, the newsroom dealt with the website crashing which could potentially impact their audience and advertising revenue. It was at this point that she started looking for support to handle the core infrastructure issues. But she ran into another problem.

“A lot of…developers… don’t want to fix what you have. They would rather propose a more expensive solution…they build…from scratch than just help you with what you need…Then we came across Newspack.”

Newspack is a platform that offers a suite of features and tools designed specifically for news publishers. Newspack is built on WordPress and is backed by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. Being a major proponent of WordPress, this was a positive attribute of Newspack for the leader. But this was not all that she found valuable.

The strategist also noted that Newspack reduces the need for a variety of products for their tech stack. Most items of the tech stack have easy integrations, and if they don’t, the Newspack team is very responsive to newsroom requests.

When asked whether she’d recommend Newspack to other publishers, she said yes, “I think no matter where you are on your publishing journey, Newspack is a solution. What I would say is that the experience will differ for each publication based on whether or not they have someone in house that can serve as a liaison between Newspack and the team.”

“They have their monthly fee based on the organization size or your revenue. [We pay over $1,000 a month]. I don’t know how feasible that is for other publications. But what I will say though, is they are the cheapest solution.”

She noted that if she knew then what she knows now, she would’ve figured out a way to pay the monthly fee. Based on her experience, she found that having someone build out a solution that does everything Newspack does would end up being significantly more expensive than the monthly cost of Newspack.

Mailchimp to MailerLite to Mailchimp

Another tool that the leader found useful was Mailchimp, an email marketing platform that allows her to create newsletters, campaigns and automations to engage her readers and generate revenue. Her newsroom started off using Mailchimp when it had a smaller email list. As their list grew, Mailchimp became too expensive, so they transitioned to MailerLite.

Mailer Lite is a web-based email marketing platform that allows users to create and send newsletters, landing pages, surveys, and more. It offers a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers with limited features, while Mailchimp’s free option is only available if you have 500 subscribers or less. MailerLite also has cheaper plans for higher subscriber counts than Mailchimp.

Although MailerLite worked for a time they eventually made the choice to move back to Mailchimp. Mailchimp offers more features and has more integrations than MailerLite. 

She was amazed by how much Mailchimp’s product offerings had evolved over the years. She now uses Mailchimp not only as an email service provider, but also as their customer relationship manager. They’ve also maximized the automated email functionality, which has helped them get subscriber feedback and generate nearly $10,000 in reader revenue in less than a year.

She has been pitched several other email service provider and CRM solutions, but said that most of the functionality touted during demos were possible in their existing subscription in Mailchimp.

“The solution isn’t changing your tech stack,” she noted. Instead, she needed to think through how to maximize her newsroom’s use of Mailchimp’s existing functionality to meet their objectives.

Google Analytics

This newsroom has also used Google Analytics throughout their journey. Since being on Newspack, they have gotten access to Site Kit, a WordPress plugin developed by Google that allows you to connect your website with various Google services and get insights about your site performance and audience. With Site Kit, you can easily set up and manage Google Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, PageSpeed Insights, Tag Manager and Optimize on your WordPress dashboard. Site Kit helps you to understand how people find and use your site, how to improve and monetize your content, and how to run experiments to optimize your site.

Because the leader has experience using Google Analytics over the past decade, she finds it to be user friendly but knows it can be overwhelming when getting started. Her biggest challenge is getting the deeper insights within Google Analytics.

“I’m still trying to figure out how to pull the type of insights that I know [are possible]. It has a wealth of information but I just don’t know how to extract the full picture. For example, [I know how to find] where people are going after going to an initial page on your site and mapping [their journey…but that’s only touching the surface.”

She would appreciate training opportunities that help people delve deeper into their analytics to find deep insights.

Sophisticating the advertising technology

When the strategist started a decade ago, her newsroom wasn’t using any software for advertising. 

“We literally would just add an actual image block and then just like hyperlinked it…In the beginning that was okay for advertisers, and there was like no qualms about that but then people started to ask what are your clicks and your impressions.”

At first, the leader was able to estimate impressions based on the analytics of the page where the ad was placed. But when advertisers started asking for geotagging, she realized that it was time for a more robust solution. 

They started with Advanced Ads, a WordPress plug-in, that helps you create and manage different types of ads on your website. It allows you to customize the appearance, placement, and targeting of your ads, as well as track their performance and revenue. With Advanced Ads, you can optimize your ad campaigns. But as her advertisers became more discerning and asked for more advanced advertising functionality, she needed more plug-ins to meet their needs.

“It was a little clunky, with a lot of moving parts…It worked but if you wanted to get geotagging you had to [get] an add-on. So the base plug-in allows you to traffic ads, but then all the other stuff was an add-on. It was just a lot of different stuff to manage.”

Eventually, the newsroom’s developer introduced them to Google AdSense, a program that allows website owners and publishers to earn money by displaying targeted ads on their sites. The ads are generated from advertisers who use Google’s AdWords program. Google pays the publishers a portion of the revenue that it receives from the advertisers for each click or impression on the ads.

While using AdSense, the strategist realized that by using Google’s Ad Manager as well, they could have a one stop solution and monetize the site more. Google Ad Manager is a platform that allows publishers to manage and optimize their digital advertising inventory. It enables publishers to create and sell ad units, target specific audiences, and measure the performance of their campaigns. Google Ad Manager also integrates with other Google products, such as Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Google AdSense.

The transition to Ad Manager corresponded with their transition to Newspack, which integrates the platform well. She noted that the platform helped her better understand digital advertising inventory, a concept she was previously unfamiliar with. Digital advertising inventory refers to the amount of online space that a publisher or a platform has available to sell to advertisers. It is usually measured by the number of impressions or views that the ads can generate on a website, an app, or a social media network. The inventory can vary depending on the demand and supply of the market, the quality and popularity of the content, and the targeting and pricing options offered by the seller. Ad manager helped to ensure that the newsroom could give realistic estimated impressions based on their inventory.

“I would definitely suggest all publishers be on [Google Ad Manager] because it’s [a] one-stop solution. If you have WordPress, or if you’re on Newspack, it fits in nicely with it.”

When reflecting on her experience with newsroom technology over the last decade, she noted:

People Matter: How One Newsroom Has Evolved Their Technology Over the Past Decade

This magazine is a space that is designed to support and project a more inclusive social narrative, to promote entrepreneurship, and to be a beacon for art, culture, and politics in its region. Founded in 2011, the magazine serves a small but loyal audience of African-American readers who are interested in local stories and perspectives. The magazine’s primary medium is print, but it also has a digital presence through its website and social media platforms. The magazine’s revenue strategy includes advertising, reader revenue, e-commerce and events.

In this article, we will explore the magazine’s journey in selecting and integrating technology for its publishing operations, based on a recent interview with one of the newsroom leaders. We will also discuss the challenges and opportunities that the magazine faces as a Black-owned media outlet in a rapidly changing industry.

From Microsoft Publisher to Adobe Suite

The newsroom leader started with Microsoft Publisher, a desktop publishing software that he used to create their print magazine. For a time, he was able to manipulate the software to give a higher end look.

Their first news product was a print newsletter, so Publisher worked for them. However, once they transitioned to a print magazine, he ran into issues with full-bleed printing. He decided to invest in Adobe Suite, a collection of software applications for graphic design, video editing, web development and more. He had previous experience with InDesign, so he didn’t have a learning curve.

From Squarespace to WordPress to Newspack

When the leader refocused on building their digital presence, he started on Squarespace. It worked for a while, but once they started trying to grow their advertising inventory and revenue, they realized it wasn’t an ideal solution.

“We were winging it on Squarespace. I had somehow rigged it so that I could create a banner space and we had these awkward banners…So we knew we had to go to a new site to create more ad positions [and improve functionality].”

The leader decided to use WordPress as his website platform because it made generating advertising revenue easier and it had a lot of plugins that suited his needs. He had experience using WordPress, so he was quickly able to get up to speed with the new platform. 

However, the founder soon encountered some challenges with WordPress. One of them was the search feature, which he found to not be robust enough to help people find content. Another challenge was the website design, which he felt was outdated and did not reflect his magazine’s brand and vision. He says that he wanted a more modern and responsive website that would attract and retain more visitors.

“I try to be future focused…I think aesthetically [the website is] starting to look a little old to me. It needs a refresh. That’s just me. Everybody else might think it is fine.”

The founder decided to look for alternatives to WordPress. He came across Newspack and is considering moving his website to Newspack in the near future.

From Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign

The magazine leader started using Mailchimp as his email marketing tool because it was a popular tool and it helped them to better understand their audience with features like predictive demographics. Predicted demographics is a feature that Mailchimp offers to help you understand the gender and age of your contacts. It uses data science and Google Ads categories to analyze your audience and provide you with insights that you can use to refine your marketing strategy and increase engagement. You can use predicted demographics to create segments and target contacts based on their age and gender.

As the newsroom grew they saw the need to be able to have a solution that had a customer relationship management feature that their sales team could use, and Mailchimp didn’t meet those needs. Then the founder came across ActiveCampaign.

The newsroom leader decided to switch from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign, an email marketing and CRM platform that offers more advanced features and functionality. He says that ActiveCampaign has helped him improve his email marketing performance by enabling him to create personalized and targeted email campaigns based on his subscribers’ behavior and preferences. He also says that ActiveCampaign has helped him consolidate his CRM data from different sources into one platform.

“It’s a more powerful tool for us because it allowed us to consolidate our email marketing and our sales apparatus because it has a built-in CRM.”

ActiveCampaign wasn’t as intuitive or user friendly as Mailchimp, but he found the functionality to be more powerful. He also saw his open rates increase immediately after switching from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign. Their sales team was able to track their sales relationships on the platform. They also found it easy to import data from Mailchimp into ActiveCampaign.

Despite enjoying his experience on ActiveCampaign, he still thinks his journey was the right one and encouraged publishers to start with a simpler solution.

Advertising & Analytics

The newsroom also added Google Ad Manager this year, a platform that allows publishers to manage and optimize their digital advertising inventory. They had a developer code the different positions on the website for more revenue generation. It led to better analytics and greater efficiency.

“It’s more efficient than the way we were doing it. We were kind of doing a bootleg ad manager within WordPress and it wasn’t like it wasn’t efficient. We weren’t able to get great analytics.”

They’ve also used Google Analytics throughout their entire time online. While it provides some useful insights, there are some limitations on the information it provides that would make it more useful for internal decision making.

“It’s good for grants and…targeting. It was good for seeing the baseline [audience]. We had no idea about where we were [before]….It helps with sales too. That’s where it’s been helpful.”

When reflecting on his experience, he advised other publishers to think about their enterprise as a whole and what technology they need to deliver high-quality content in their different channels. He also highlighted that the people you have matter more than the tech stack you use.

You Have to Embrace Technology: How a Publisher is Enabling Digital Transformation in a Legacy Publication

The news industry is constantly evolving and adapting to new technologies and platforms. Publishers need to find innovative ways to reach and engage their audiences, while also managing their workflows and resources efficiently. In this case study, we will explore how one publisher is using technology to power their newsroom and deliver quality journalism to their community.

The publisher is a local newspaper that covers news, sports, entertainment, and lifestyle topics for the Black community in their region. The publisher has been in operation for nearly 30 years and has a loyal and engaged readership. It produces content for both print and digital platforms, including a website, a newsletter, and social media channels.

Since the newsroom had been around for several decades, changing some of their workflows to be digital first has been a challenge. To overcome these challenges, the publisher has invested in various technology tools and solutions that help them streamline their workflows, enhance their productivity, and increase their reach and impact.

From TownNews to Newspack

The newsroom was originally on TownNews but found the website cumbersome. The publisher also thought the updates to the CMS weren’t keeping up with the latest trends. 

In their search for a CMS that would better serve their needs for the present and future, they happened upon Newspack. Newspack simplified the technical aspects of running a news site, so that the team could focus on producing quality content and engaging their audiences. The publisher noted that this experience with Newspack was “so much better” than what they previously experienced on TownNews.

The publisher has also invested in internal systems to help improve their workflows and communication. Some include:

• Google Workspace: The publisher transitioned from Yahoo Mail to Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) for email, calendar, cloud storage, document creation, and collaboration. Google Workspace allows the newsroom staff to communicate seamlessly, share files easily, and access their work from anywhere. They also do newspaper layout using Google Docs.
• Monday.com: The publisher uses Monday.com for project management and workflow automation. Monday.com helps the newsroom staff to plan, track, and execute their tasks and projects efficiently and transparently. They plan to integrate it into their print layout workflow.
• Stacker: The publisher uses Stacker for news publishing and distribution. Stacker is a platform that allows publishers to create engaging and interactive stories from their existing content sources. Stacker helps the publisher to reach new audiences, drive traffic to their website, and monetize their content.

Despite upgrading to these technologies, the publisher still faces the challenge of getting the team trained and using the tools to their full potential. He still has some people who use the older technologies, which leads to the team using multiple products with similar use cases. 

“We should be able to do all of our stories right on our Google Drive because we’ve got the Doc template setup to put all the stories in. But [some of our staff] don’t like using that. So they’ll do it in Microsoft Word, then transpose it into the Google Doc and save it [in two different locations]. I’m like, Oh my God, we just have way too many things.”

Despite this challenge, the publisher still thinks investing in technology is important to stay current and to effectively engage with their audiences. However, he did note that it’s important to evaluate your needs before choosing a package.