Newsrooms of today have to adapt to changing circumstances at a seemingly ever-increasing pace, which also puts pressure on the technology they utilize. Poynter discussed what is required of a modern content management system, noting that many news organisations are currently thinking about how to improve their CMSs. Based on the experience of three interviewees who have had integral roles in CMS development, Poynter presented some of the ways CMSs are evolving.

Although the interviewed people represented different kinds of publications that have different needs from their CMSs, many common aspects arose across the board. One development is that instead of relying on a single CMS, news outlets increasingly use a combination of integrated systems. According to Poynter, news organisations have realised that a bundle of systems often suits their needs better than a single CMS. And as those needs keep evolving in time, using different software for different needs is a more flexible solution and can be developed more easily to meet the changing requirements. NPR's blog network Argo, for example, is based on WordPress but also uses Django, Delicious and Daylife for particular tasks.

Ever since newspapers started publishing content on the Internet, the question of whether to link to external sites or not has been repeatedly raised. As other parts of the web are more willing to link, the absence of links on some news sites is becoming increasingly glaring.

Some argue that not linking is against the fundamental nature of the Internet as a network. Moreover, citing original sources surely would bolster any news organisations credibility.

Recently, this question was brought up by Doc Searls Weblog, who asked simply "Why not link to sources?" Searls regarded the lack of linking to external sites as another example of mainstream media's "passive-aggressive approach to the Web" - as a proof that they aren't willing to adapt to the Internet but hold on to old ways of doing things.

The post aroused discussion on Twitter, summarised by both Mathew Ingram and Alex Byers.

After introducing a comment feature on their website three years ago, the website of the Janesville Gazette, Gazettextra, is now retracting reader comment capability from certain kinds of its stories.

The elimination of the discussion section comes after comment threads have been bombarded with "troublesome" commentary that often strays from topic and leads into "insults, innuendo and other kinds of offensive remark," editor Scott Angus said in a blog posting.

The comments, which were originally designed to facilitate discussion between readers, "allowed people from all different backgrounds, beliefs and interests" to engage in conversations regarding the stories, but Angus said "it hasn't worked out as well as we had hoped."

Although comments proved to be a popular feature, with readers leaving about 10,000 comments a month, Angus says the site needs to make changes in order to "bring more civility to online discussions," as people don't seem to stop with the inappropriate remarks.

MediaGuardian has run a story chronicling some successful paywall schemes that organizations toying with the idea best pay attention to.

The most popular and successful paywall models aren't really absolute paywalls at all, but 'freemium' models that offer some free content but 'premium' content held back for subscribers only.

Specialty publications have embraced the freemium model, to a certain degree of success. ESPN has 'ESPN Insider' while journals like Nature, Science and the Lancet medical journal have their own limited-access sections for premium subscribers. As mentioned in many other places, specialty and niche news have the best chance of successful paywalls.

Many paywall successes have been at online-online news sources like Slashdot, where a strong community that values the site, its news and community organization, have coughed up a few bucks for things like ad-free pages or live chats with editors.