Client Background and Mission

Established in 2004, the Earth Journalism Network (EJN) has evolved into a worldwide coalition of journalists and media organizations covering nearly every part of the globe. Believing that every story today relates to climate issues, Earth Journalism Network enables journalists to narrate these stories with depth and significance.

The organization's goal is to enhance local journalism that educates communities and decision-makers facing climate and environmental challenges. By providing reporters with tools, training, and resources, Earth Journalism Network supports the media in holding those in power accountable, promoting actionable solutions, and inspiring environmental change through impactful storytelling.

Needs and Challenges

To compete in the publishing industry, Internews required a robust and scalable content platform. Earth Journalism Network’s outdated Python-based CMS had the following issues:

1. Lack of flexible content governance process
2. Inability to efficiently manage multimedia and content types
3. No support for drag-and-drop content structuring
4. Difficulty offering region-based opportunities via time-sensitive forms
5. Limited SEO tooling, affecting discoverability
6. Absence of automation in content governance

In short, the platform lacked the ingredients for modern digital media management.

If you're also facing issues with your legacy platform and looking to upgrade your digital infrastructure, explore our services today.

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Let's continue Earth Journalism Network’s upgrade story!

OpenSense Labs’ Approach

Understanding the demands of the publishing industry, OpenSense Labs proposed a migration to Drupal 8, an open-source CMS offering rich content workflows, media management, and powerful SEO tools.

After assessing Earth Journalism Network’s pain points, several platforms were evaluated, but Drupal was selected due to its:

1. Core and contributed modules tailored for the media and publishing industry
2. Capability to streamline the content governance process
3. Excellent support for SEO, accessibility, and publishing industry solutions
4. Frictionless migration capabilities from Python via the Migrate API

Strategy

The overarching strategy focused on: 

1. Aligning editorial and publishing goals with streamlined content workflows
2. Enabling dynamic page structures through drag-and-drop interfaces
3. Improving SEO visibility and content discoverability
4. Offering scalable, flexible content types to serve diverse storytelling formats
5. Enhancing site-wide performance and user experience

Implementation Details

Design

The redesigned interface followed modern publishing UX trends while incorporating Drupal’s Layout Builder to allow real-time drag-and-drop controls. This enabled Earth Journalism Network’s content authors to curate homepages and feature pages without developer dependency. 

Development

Key modules and features implemented:

1. Layout Builder: Simplified the editorial process with flexible content section management.
2. Migrate API: Enabled seamless migration from the existing Python-based CMS.
3. Webform: Used for global applications, scholarships, and grant submissions.
4. Media Library: Managed large volumes of multimedia content efficiently.
5. SEO Tools: Including Metatag, Schema.org Metatag, Pathauto, XML Sitemap, Redirect, and Google Analytics.
6. Search Enhancement: Integrated Search API and Facets for improved site search.
7. Performance Optimization: Modules like Purge, CloudFlare, and CSS/JS Aggregation were used.
8. Carousel & Visual Storytelling: Implemented using Slick Carousel.

Clean, Intuitive, User-Friendly

Earth Journalism Network’s new website ticks all the boxes:

1. Intuitive digital media management with an improved content interface
2. Fully migrated, with no loss of SEO performance
3. Flexible structure for new content formats across the publishing industry
4. Effective content governance automation with workflow visibility
5. Ability to deliver region-specific experiences using Drupal’s user and form logic

The Results and Impact

1. Improved content governance and editor autonomy
2. 60% faster content publishing, thanks to streamlined workflows
3. Enhanced search engine discoverability, even post-migration
4. High-performing global webforms for application-based programs
5. Elevated user experience through a structured content hierarchy

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Results at a Glance