Armstrong (content management system)
Encyclopedia
Armstrong is an open source news publishing platform jointly developed by nonprofit online news organizations The Texas Tribune
and The Bay Citizen
with the assistance of a grant by the Knight Foundation
. The core of the content management system's functionality has been used by The Texas Tribune and The Bay Citizen since 2009, and it was opened to the public in 2011. The Nieman Journalism Lab has described the project as "A Wordpress for news orgs."
Armstrong was designed primarily to simplify the publishing process for other nonprofit news organizations by giving them the option of a CMS specifically created for news. Focuses of the system include media management, search engine optimization, integration with social media, and development of revenue streams. Higinio Maycotte, CTO of The Texas Tribune, said that "literally hundreds of media companies around the globe have expressed interest in moving to Armstrong."
The project to release Armstrong as an open source CMS was fueled by a $975,000 grant from the Knight Foundation
, which is devoted to media innovation, to The Texas Tribune
and The Bay Citizen
. The grant was announced at SXSW Interactive in March 2011.
Armstrong is written in Django, an open source framework for web applications that is written in the Python
programming language.
The Texas Tribune
The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit news organization headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas, devoted to state government and public policy. It aims to promote civic engagement through original, explanatory journalism and public events...
and The Bay Citizen
The Bay Citizen
The Bay Citizen is a non-profit news organization covering the San Francisco Bay Area. It was founded as the Bay Area News Project in January 2010 with money provided by Warren Hellman's Hellman Family Foundation. On May 26, 2010 the organization launched the website, baycitizen.org...
with the assistance of a grant by the Knight Foundation
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is an American private, non-profit foundation dedicated to supporting transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts....
. The core of the content management system's functionality has been used by The Texas Tribune and The Bay Citizen since 2009, and it was opened to the public in 2011. The Nieman Journalism Lab has described the project as "A Wordpress for news orgs."
Armstrong was designed primarily to simplify the publishing process for other nonprofit news organizations by giving them the option of a CMS specifically created for news. Focuses of the system include media management, search engine optimization, integration with social media, and development of revenue streams. Higinio Maycotte, CTO of The Texas Tribune, said that "literally hundreds of media companies around the globe have expressed interest in moving to Armstrong."
The project to release Armstrong as an open source CMS was fueled by a $975,000 grant from the Knight Foundation
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is an American private, non-profit foundation dedicated to supporting transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts....
, which is devoted to media innovation, to The Texas Tribune
The Texas Tribune
The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit news organization headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas, devoted to state government and public policy. It aims to promote civic engagement through original, explanatory journalism and public events...
and The Bay Citizen
The Bay Citizen
The Bay Citizen is a non-profit news organization covering the San Francisco Bay Area. It was founded as the Bay Area News Project in January 2010 with money provided by Warren Hellman's Hellman Family Foundation. On May 26, 2010 the organization launched the website, baycitizen.org...
. The grant was announced at SXSW Interactive in March 2011.
Armstrong is written in Django, an open source framework for web applications that is written in the Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
programming language.