The University of California, Riverside’s Office of Strategic Communications had a problem. Its decade-old, home-built, campus newsroom had outlived its usefulness. It had a back-end that was overly complicated and universally hated, a database that was irreparably flawed, and a front end that still looked like a pig no matter how much lipstick was put on it. We needed a change, and quickly.
This session will talk about how we rethought the traditional newsroom concept, turning our list of press releases into a newsroom channel of our own using WordPress, how we got the buy-in of management, public information officers, and the co-presenter, overcame the scope creep, and create the site in just six months.
Finally, we can talk about how the versatility of the WP-based site allowed us to improve the news distribution of one or our schools about four years after the site was initially deployed.
Bob will be able to answer questions about the customization that went into the site, while Ross can talk more about the politics, negotiations and logistics that made it happen.
Share-Worthy Sketch Notes | Used by Permission | Created by Ryan Garcia, CSU Channel Islands