The Mail & Guardian Online has completely revamped its website sporting a new content management system (CMS) and a more modern front end.<\/p>\n
According to Matthew Buckland, general manager of Mail & Guardian Online, the choice to build their own CMS was made because of the complexity of MG Online and to ensure that that flexibility and customisation was still possible.<\/p>\n
The backend for the site was built using PHP and MySQL. Buckland said the decision to go the open source route was because it “makes good business sense”.<\/p>\n
“It has made good business sense for some really big websites, including Facebook with its 30 million or so monthly users and our local IOL.co.za with its 1,5 million users,” said Buckland.<\/p>\n
The front end is loosely based on TheAge, but draws from various other prominent online news websites like Washingtonpost.com, NYTimes.com and The Guardian Unlimited.<\/p>\n
The Mail & Guardian Online has also recently launched two new blogging platforms – TechLeader and SportsLeader – as spin-offs of its successful ThoughtLeader site.<\/p>\n
The new Mail & Guardian website can be previewed at http:\/\/ww2.mg.co.za\/<\/a><\/p>\n