CMS Vendors
Layout International
Layout International
NewsPublish is originally a print-oriented CMS from Beirut, Lebanon, now headquartered in Dubai, with a traditional focus on the Middle East, supplemented more recently with a broader APAC expansion on the back of a more affordable alternative to established print content management solutions
- NewsPublish has transitioned its legacy print-based editorial interface to a more multichannel (e.g., digital) direction with recent version 7, but can't quite hide its print origins, and the new version has yet to see widespread adoption among customers
- For initial development and operational management, licensees can lean on either Layout International, or a customer's own in-house technical team, but there is no partner network alternative
- Key customers include the Kuwait Times, Qatar Tribune, and Star Media Group (Malaysia)
Likely Fit
NewsPublish is an affordable option for publishers managing both a traditional print edition, as well as digital; though until fairly recently the system was still a classic article editing CMS, and the new version 7 which introduced novel multi-channel functionality remains untested. Consider NewsPublish for Small Independent News Organizations in the Middle East or APAC, or for Mid-Sized Independent News Organizations where cost of managing both digital and print editions is a concern.
At a glance
Primary Customer Fit
Small Independent News Organizations
Secondary Fit
Mid-Sized Independent News Organizations
Most Active Geographies
EMEA, Asia-Pacific
Official Support Hours
24/7
Officially Supported Languages for User Interface
EN, FR, AR
Third-party Language Support Available?
Yes - ZH, HI, JA, MS, NE, PT, ES, SW, TL, TR
License Model
One time license and maintenance cost, or monthly payments including maintenance; $2000-$12000/month
Scope Summary
Affordable alternative for pubishers mananging both print and digital in the Middle East or Asia-Pac
Tech Base
PHP/MySQL
Cloud Model
Managed service on AWS
Headquarters
Dubai, UAE
Head Count
40
What customers report
- Affordable CMS to manage both print and digital editions
- Company is flexible in its mode of cooperation with customers
- Customers report the vendor is responsive to feature requests
- Has only recently started to advance beyond its print origins
- Novel multi-channel model has yet to be proven in real life implementations
- Lack of partner network means relying on the company's developers in Beirut, Lebanon, or your own in-house team
Backgound
- Layout International was founded in 2010, and the CMS "NewsPublish" was originally created to publish print newspapers (using an integration with InDesign). Though nominally headquartered in Dubai, the majority of employees (and all developers) work in Beirut, Lebanon; with some additional support staff in Dubai and Malaysia.
- NewsPublish is based on PHP/MySQL (Laravel), and can be hosted on premises, or the company can host it for customers on AWS as a managed service.
- While it has a rudimentary planning module (with "events" that can have media attached, as well as tasks), most editors seem to work from saved searches in their dashboard (e.g., "for web" and "assigned to me"). Up until version 6 of the CMS, the editor was still showing its print origins (with a fairly straightforward structure and article "blob"). In the recent version 7, this has now been relegated to being used for the print channel only. The main editorial interface has adopted a more modern component based structure, where apart from text, various components can be inserted (such as images, YouTube videos, ad placeholders, and so on). Interestingly, the company is pushing for customers to adopt a multi-channel approach within the single article object -- where sections can be marked as "web", "print", or "shared", for instance (in many other systems, these would be distinct variants of the article). However, as most customers are still planning their move to version 7 of the CMS, this has yet to see much real-life experience. The system also has a flexible page creator, which allows editors to easily create landing pages where they can add "widgets" to their liking.
- Layout International is flexible in its work with customers. The company can manage hosting and development, but some customers instead opt to leverage their own technical resources; in some cases having developed the complete front-end using NewsPublish as a headless CMS. However, given the lack of a partner ecosystem, there is no real alternative outside of that.
- Overall the vendor seeks to provide a more affordable alternative to the traditional print/digital systems; for instance, rather than using the resource intensive and expensive Adobe InDesign server for print editions, NewsPublish can also be integrated with QuarkXPress, instead. This has seen the company mostly gain customers in the Middle East, but also some in the APAC region.
- In version 7, AI features have been added for drafting articles, or for instance suggesting an article title. For the near future, the company plans version 8, with a refresh of the UX of the editorial interface, integration of external web analytics, as well as an upgrade to the core components (Laravel version 11). However, time will tell whether the system can successfully move beyond its print origins; and with scant presence outside of the MENA region, may present challenges for publishers seeking solutions elsewhere globally for now.
Package scope (as reported by vendor)
| Core platform - i.e., bundled in product (yes/no/beta) | Add-On (yes/custom/3rd party) | |
|---|---|---|
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Content lifecycle: author / classify / edit / approve / publish / re-purpose / archive / dispose
|
Yes
|
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Basic digital / voice / media asset management
|
Yes
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Support print publishing
|
Yes
|
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Simple social media re-publishing
|
Yes
|
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Optional modules: forms / polls / social widgets / etc
|
Yes
|
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|
Connector library (OOTB connectors, APIs, etc.)
|
Yes
|
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Bundled CDN (with DDOS protection)
|
Yes
|
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User registration
|
Yes
|
|
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Subscription management and fulfillment - digital
|
Yes
|
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Subscription or membership
|
No
|
|
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Personalisation
|
No
|
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Ad management - digital
|
Yes
|
3rd Party
|
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Ad management - print
|
Yes
|
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Content management
|
No
|
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Research
|
Yes
|
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Content management
|
Yes
|
|
|
Video management / OVP
|
Yes
|
3rd Party
|
|
Audio management / podcasting
|
Yes
|
3rd Party
|
|
Data journalism and visualisation
|
Yes
|
3rd Party
|
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Classifieds
|
Yes
|
3rd Party
|
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Commenting / community features/
|
Yes
|
3rd Party
|
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Newsletter production and management
|
Yes
|
3rd Party
|
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Notifications and alerts
|
Yes
|
3rd Party
|
|
A/B testing
|
Yes
|
3rd Party
|
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SEO
|
Yes
|
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Multi-title management with variable inheritance
|
Yes
|
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Complex layout and subsite / subsection cloning
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Yes
|
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AR- / VR- enhanced services
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No
|
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Audience segmentation
|
No
|
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Online user / partner forums
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No
|
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Regular user group meetings
|
Yes
|
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