So this is the age old debate. A lot of magazine developers use iJoomla. And, frankly, I think that iJoomla is both clunky and it’s learning curve is huge. So, Joomla sites are good, but only when the developer and the end user are the same person. Even so, as far as Joomla goes, because I think its plugins tend to be a bit ugly (and not very customizeable), and because of its steep learning curve, for most magazines, I think that Joomla is right out. Which means that, as far as PHP CMSs go, it really ends up being a battle royale between Drupal and Wordpress.
So let’s put them in the ring: On my right, the Giant Double-u in the blue shorts, is Wordpress. To my left, the Giant Water Droplet in the…blue shorts…also, is Drupal.
Drupal is a beatiful full-featured CMS with way too much functionality (if there is such a thing). For developers, that means a lot of work. In order to do what you can do with one or two line of coding in wordpress, you have to attach a lot of modules to Drupal. Basically, you add more functionality to what already has way too much functionality. In order to display images alongside a post you have to add the ImageCache plugin, in order to adjust how and what is displayed in each block you need to add the Views plugin to your drupal installation, in order to add Custom Fields to Posts you need to add the Content Construction Kit (CCK) which needs to heavy tweaking, tweaking means that you also need to add programs like ImageField, FileField, imageAPI, and others. A great tutorial exists regarding how to adjust the frontpage at DevLounge. Needless to say, setting up a Drupal website sucks. But the results are amazing. While most of the stuff the plugins I just mentioned can be done with a tiny amount of code in WordPress, the Drupal plugins give you a bit more control over every single section without the coding. For example, you can add pictures to posts using ImageCache, but you can also adjust how it crops photos on the fly, whether or not the pictures are turned, and much more. The customization is a bit easier.
Things can go very very wrong with Drupal, however. A lot of developers like to use Drupal to show off their interwebular prowess (and yes, I make words up). In my hometown, for example, The Shakopee Valley News, the local newspaper, has decided to use drupal. The site has been tricked out with all sorts of goodies. I know, it’s a newspaper site, not magazine, but the article flow is absolutely awful. The site has packed as much poop on the page as they possibly could. So many advertisements, they fall off the edge of a 1000px screen. First rule of web development…and this is just my first rule (and only for this article), either make a fluid website that resizes to the user’s screen, or make a website that fits within a 1000 pixel screen. Not only are the Shakopee Valley News’ internet advertisers getting screwed out of ad views, the website is terrible looking and hard to use (By the way Shakopee VN, if you need a website, I’ll make one for you. Email me, and we can talk price).
Drupal is great for websites that require tons of content. If you are EIC of a newspaper website, and you need multiple blogs, Drupal is a great choice. Developers need to beware not to add too much web-bling, however. It can not only slow a website down, but it can add a fair amount of gaudiness that destroys a website’s appeal. Less appeal = fewer visitors. For big magazines with multiple editors adding content, who want a bit of bling, Drupal is also a good choice. The Rake Magazine in Minneapolis, for example, is a good candidate for Drupal. Their design isn’t completely homogenous, and Drupal allows them to have different designs on different pages. But, to be honest, I think they could have done the entire site, just as easily using WordPress. Anyhow, with a fair amount of work by a developer, Drupal’s backend can be intuitive for any user. If done right, I would actually say it’s more intuitive than WordPress.
For smalltown Newspaper websites where content is manageable and traffic isn’t crazy-nuts, I recommend Wordpress. The problem with WordPress is that there isn’t a good method for managing advertisers. But that’s nothing that an excel spreadsheet can’t solve. The same principle is involved in Magazines. When your pages are homogenous, and your content is manageable, WordPress is great. Although, with plugins like Headspace, even if you want a little less homogeneity, you can apply different style themes to different areas of the webpage. The beauty of WordPress for developers is that you can basically just hand it off to end users. It’s interface is basically obvious. You click on “Write” to write a new post, and you click on “Publish” to publish it. Super intuitive.
Developers must remember to focus on calls to the database. A good caching system is a good start. But if your page requires hundreds of database calls, you can count on a big hit to your SEO. Bad SEO=fewer visitors. In the end, there isn’t really a winner. The two are great. If you are trying to get something up quickly, and your end users don’t need anything too robust, WordPress is not only adequate, it’s perfect. If you need something robust, with tons of features, Drupal has got to be your CMS of choice. Good luck figuring things out. I have confidence that you’ll make the right choice. Either way, Drupal or Wordpress, you will be happy.
