Template For Newsroom Organization

It’ll never be finished, but I am ready to share my results to date with editing a WordPress template for use as an internal newsroom organization tool. A sample of my progress so far is visible at PhilTenser.com/worktest.

The idea for this project came from my day job and I hope we can start to use all or some of it there soon.

Most of the template is easily recognizable as the freeware template called Twenty Eleven. I’ve modified some of the aesthetics to make more room for content, but the homepage is largely unchanged from the original design. I intend it to be used for internal memos or updates.

I’ve added functions that establish a dedicated post type called assignments, and a new page template that displays them. Assignments incorporate custom metadata fields that would allow an assignment manager to keep track of the equipment a news team is using and plot the assignment’s location on a map. On the assignments page, upcoming assignments move upward on the left side until they become past assignments and begin to move down on the right side. The most current things, therefore, are always near the top.

I’ve also made modifications to other page templates to create good locations for iframe-ing beat check sources, collecting internal or external phone numbers and previewing live content from affiliate sources. Each format is selected within the dashboard’s page content editor.

Using JetPack or another plugin, it is easy to embed frequently used forms into one of those page templates. That could be used for things like logging equipment trouble or requesting vacation time.

This project is based on freeware and so I’m bound to the same standard. If anybody wants to see more, or has any suggested additions, please contact me.