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The Chronicle of Higher Education challenge
Based in Washington, D.C., but with national coverage, The Chronicle of Higher Education is a respected publication that provides news and information to the higher education sector in the U.S.
Being one of the earliest editorial sites to publish on the web, the publication had established a lineage of success. However, this was founded on a legacy CMS that was built to support a print-first mentality and hook ins to Adobe InDesign and other desktop-publishing-focused workflows.
As the digital publishing landscape evolved, The Chronicle of Higher Education faced the challenge of a complex and unintegrated content back end. With its legacy CMS, the process of porting printed stories to the web was time-consuming and created delays that affected the quality of its digital content.
Another issue was the lack of tight coupling between the publication's business-critical subscription and third-party applications with its core publication process.
The Brightspot solution for The Chronicle of Higher Education
Reader trust is vital for any publication. But no matter how relevant and well-regarded the content, even the strongest readership will fall away without an accessible and easy-to use digital version.
To address these vital challenges, The Chronicle of Higher Education needed not only to transform the digital experience for its readers, but a modern CMS that would offer a better digital authoring experience for its writers.
With Brightspot, things just move faster.
Brightspot CMS provided the perfect solution for the publication, delivering a fully decoupled CMS that would simplify, speed up and secure the content creation process. With Brightspot CMS at the center of its publishing workflows, The Chronicle of Higher Education is today equipped with a streamlined and effective digital-news delivery process.
In addition to providing a transformative publishing experience, the solution had to assist in the publication's shift from a print-based subscription and advertising business to a revenue-generating digital platform. This meant that it had to seamlessly integrate with essential tools used in modern digital publishing business models, such as paywall metering for accessing free-to-premium content, entitlements for digital and print subscriptions, subscriber account management, digital advertising solutions, branded content placements, and other similar features.
The outcome for The Chronicle of Higher Education
The benefits of Brightspot CMS for The Chronicle of Higher Education are many.
With Brightspot, The Chronicle of Higher Education shifted from print-based to a fully digital-first approach. Tools to drive growth and revenue for the business include paywall metering, subscription entitlements and online account access and management. And, with the ability to manage all its online subscriptions and paywall processes effectively using Brightspot, The Chronicle of Higher Education has streamlined its third-party vendor dependencies and prevented duplication, resulting in huge value for the brand.
Brightspot allows us to create a better product in a shorter amount of time.
Brightspot CMS has put the publication on a sound footing for the future, ensuring that it can continue to provide quality content to its readers while adapting to the changing digital landscape.
That changing landscape also included the shift from print-based advertising and subscription revenue to a digital model that has sustained and grown the publication's journalism across digital screens as well as on the printed page.
The success story of The Chronicle of Higher Education's digital-first approach serves as a testament to the importance of a modern CMS in achieving digital transformation. With the right CMS in place, publishers can overcome complex challenges and achieve their digital goals while maintaining reader trust and delivering high-quality content.
The partnership between Brightspot and The Chronicle of Higher Education is a prime example of this, highlighting the value of a decoupled CMS and how it can empower publishers to achieve their digital publishing objectives.
The Chronicle of Higher Education in brief
