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.
套件涵蓋範圍 (根據供應商回報內容)
| 核心平台，即產品隨附平台 (是/否/Beta 版) | 外掛程式 (是/自訂/第三方) | |
|---|---|---|
|
內容生命週期：建立/分類/編輯/核准/發布/重新利用/封存/丟棄
|
是
|
|
|
基本數位/語音/媒體資產管理
|
是
|
|
|
支援紙本發布
|
是
|
|
|
簡易社群媒體重新發布
|
是
|
|
|
選用模組：表單/意見調查/社交小工具/其他
|
是
|
|
|
連結器資料庫 (OOTB 連結器、API 等)
|
是
|
|
|
套裝組合 CDN (含分散式阻斷服務防護)
|
是
|
|
|
使用者註冊
|
是
|
|
|
訂閱管理與發布 (數位)
|
是
|
|
|
訂閱管理 (紙本)
|
否
|
|
|
個人化
|
否
|
|
|
廣告管理 (數位)
|
是
|
第三方
|
|
廣告管理 (紙本)
|
是
|
|
|
行動應用程式管理
|
否
|
|
|
站內搜尋
|
是
|
|
|
內容和指派項目規劃
|
是
|
|
|
影片管理/OVP
|
是
|
第三方
|
|
音訊管理/Podcast 製播
|
是
|
第三方
|
|
資料視覺化圖像
|
是
|
第三方
|
|
分類廣告
|
是
|
第三方
|
|
留言/社群功能/
|
是
|
第三方
|
|
電子報製作與管理
|
是
|
第三方
|
|
通知與快訊
|
是
|
第三方
|
|
A/B 測試
|
是
|
第三方
|
|
搜尋引擎最佳化
|
是
|
|
|
多出版品管理 (變數繼承)
|
是
|
|
|
複雜版面配置與子網站/子區段複製
|
是
|
|
|
AR/VR 服務
|
否
|
|
|
公開說明文件
|
否
|
|
|
線上使用者/合作夥伴論壇
|
否
|
|
|
定期使用者群組會面
|
是
|
|