Publishers Are Switching to Drupal, Cost Savings Reported

Open source content management system (CMS) Drupal, is gaining many new types of users, but, as I've noted before, publishers, in particular, should look into it due to the cost savings that it offers over proprietary publishing systems. Part of my conviction on that front comes from the fact that OStatic runs on Drupal, as do publications such as InfoWorld, The Onion, and FastCompany. Now there are some interesting data points on Drupal trickling in from publishers using Drupal, and publishing industry analysts.

The London Paper (no, not The London Times--The London Paper) recently switched to Drupal as part of an overhaul of its web site, and has cut costs by 66 percent, reports Computerworld U.K. The News International publication has an audience of over one million people, and reportedly made the switch to Drupal over a five and a half week period, with integration help from Assanka. London Paper officials told Computerworld U.K. that they have the first newspaper in England to go open source.

Dries Buytaert, founder of Drupal, also cites a market research report on Drupal, from Content Here, which evaluated its efficacy and rate of adoption as a platform for newspaper, magazine and radio/television sites. The report notes:

"Early adopters include Theonion.com and Mtv.co.uk, both with high traffic volumes that silenced doubts about Drupal's scalability. It seems that every day another recognizable media brand announces their migration onto Drupal; most recently Mother Jones, Recovery.gov, and Virgin Radio."

The publishing industry has been especially hard hit by the economic downturn, and it makes sense for a lot of organizations to switch to free, open source CMS platforms. Drupal is not the only choice. OpenSourceCMS remains an excellent way to take the reins of several different free CMS systems. The site allows you to try Drupal, Joomla, WordPress and many other platforms, and you can spend hours functioning as site administrator, watching video tutorials and more.