Labrador CMS believes its journalist-friendly approach sets it apart from rivals in the increasingly competitive world of content management systems.
The Norwegian company has designed its cloud-based solution to be so straightforward that users can get to grips with everything in a matter of minutes.
It’s also packed its platform full of innovative features, including AI tools, to free up more time for journalists to research and write their articles.
The result is a state-of-the-art publishing system that enables simultaneous mobile and desk editing, according to Jan Thoresen, Labrador’s chief executive.
“We are giving power back to the journalists,” he said. “Developers have too much control over many newsrooms but we are removing these restrictions.”
Unsurprisingly, this approach has gone down well with publishers at the cutting edge of digital journalism. Labrador already operates in 12 countries and is poised for international expansion.
It currently boasts around two billion page views every month, while its customers include high-traffic online newspapers, magazines and TV stations such as Elle, ComputerWorld and TV2.no.
“We think that we are changing the way media groups are publishing right now and are at the start of a wave,” added Thoresen. “Now we’re going global.”
An alternative to outdated, slow, rigid and complex CMS systems
Labrador’s origins can be traced back to founder Jon R. Hammerfjeld’s time working at Dagbladet, which is one of Norway’s largest newspapers.
As an experienced reporter, he understood the need for an easy-to-use platform in which text, images and data can be quickly pulled together.
He also knew that many existing CMS solutions were not only expensive and quickly outdated, but rigid, slow and frustratingly difficult to understand.
It’s why the Labrador CMS system operates on a WYSIWYG approach (What You See Is What You Get) so journalists can see how their article will look on the page.
Reporters write their stories directly into the system and can then populate the pages with all the images, graphics, data, video and other elements needed to tell the story
“It’s common to hate your CMS,” said Thoresen. “However, our editing system is intuitive and has all the elements needed to tell the story on the one screen.”
This simplicity also makes it ideal for publishing breaking news that need to be constantly updated throughout the day as more information emerges.
Labrador lets editors tailor content for different devices
Another crucial factor in Labrador’s design was the fact today’s readers access stories on a variety of devices. Therefore, they must be as accessible on a mobile as they are on a desktop.
The Labrador system enables users to simultaneously see how the articles will look on different screen types and make any changes required.
“This means the versions don’t have to look the same as each other,” explained Thoresen. “You can tailor one version for the desktop and another for mobile devices.”
The copy is also saved in the cloud so there’s no need for the writer to draft their copy in other programs, such as Microsoft Word, before transferring it onto the Labrador CMS.
AI tools generate summaries, SEO features and tagging
Perhaps one of the most impressive elements is the way artificial intelligence is incorporated into this full-stack publishing platform.
While there are still widespread concerns about AI in publishing, Labrador uses it to access information that’s actually in the copy, as opposed to pulling it in from external sources.
For example, one of its tools automatically generates headlines that capture the essence of the content and help drive audience engagement.
Short summaries can also be generated at the top of articles. These overviews can be generated in seconds and then fine-tuned manually to strike just the right tone.
There are also numerous SEO features built in, such as suggestions to add in extra words to flesh out a description and increase the chances of being found by Google.
Other AI features include automatic tagging and translating articles into 141 languages, which is particularly beneficial if you’re looking to attract a more international audience.
The platform’s new grid element allows writers and editors to arrange images, videos, text, and markup fields into a clean, organised layout.
Automated image captions are also available, as is a social media assistant that makes suggestions designed to help stories get more traction on sites such as Facebook.
Meanwhile, infinite scroll on front pages – which sees more articles automatically loaded as they scroll down – has become one of the company’s most highly requested features.
Tying in with the platform’s focus on being user-friendly, Labrador has also uploaded its user guides and turned them into a chatbot to help editors produce the type of pages needed.
Labrador powers a ‘united and powerful newsroom’ at Norwegian broadcaster
Labrador is already in talks with hundreds of publishing groups across the world and is on the verge of a remarkable international expansion.
Of course, Labrador already has plenty of customers – both niche and more mainstream media groups – around the world that have bought into its approach
For example, every journalist and editor in Norwegian broadcaster TV2.no uses Labrador CMS, according to the company’s manager, Derek André Bjølgerud.
In fact, the system is so important to its business that it’s even become a part owner of Labrador.
“For TV2, Labrador became a causeway between the TV department and the digital department. This was important to create a united and powerful newsroom,” he explained.
Tove Lie, the editor in chief and publisher of Khrono.no, an independent online newspaper focused on higher education, emphasised the importance of Labrador CMS on the site’s remarkable growth journey.
“It has been easy to use Labrador,” she said. “When we started to use Labrador, we became more efficient and it integrates well with everything we need.”
The site is also exploring new functionalities, such as Labrador News Studio, which features AI capabilities for breaking and short stories.
Meanwhile, Martijn Tulp, head of online operations at WINQ, said Labrador’s WYSIWYG features have saved development costs and reduced publishing time.
“We’re very happy with how things have worked out,” he said. “It’s nice to see that a lot of things we want to do with the website, we can do in the CMS ourselves.”
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