If there is one thing that marks the year 1741, it would be publishing the first American magazine: “Andrew Bradford's American Magazine.” This magazine came in print, but do you think if it appeared in the 21st century, it would be printed on paper only? Not! Magazines and Mass media, in general, are migrating their content to the internet instantly because unless they do, they would be kicked out of the game!
Attention is going online, and so is the mass media. There are now hundreds (if not thousands) of news and media websites all over the world, and in almost all spoken languages. The more news websites there are, the fiercer the clash gets between them; each platform tries to become the go-to of the news industry.
And while many websites choose to use clickbait and other shady methods to catch their audience, other ones focus on great content creation and take advantage of an open-source CMS - like Drupal for instance - to unleash their team’s creativity and come up with insanely artistic news and media websites. In this article, we’ll be looking at 12 of the best web news sites that were built with Drupal’s open-source operating system.
Here are 14 of the Best News and Media Websites You Will Enjoy:
1- Al Khaleej
Driven by the mission of defending national causes and advocating for truth everywhere, Al-Khaleej magazine joined the press industry in 1970. The platform is a go-to for the Arabic readership, and it gained attention for its approach to writing. Instead of long descriptive empty paragraphs, Alkhaleej's style of writing is very concise and aims to deliver the news instead of manipulating the attention.
Preserving the traditional newspaper style, the media website is extremely SEO-friendly and is developed to suit smartphone users. A big image attracts the eye at first, then it keeps on sliding as the suggested topic changes every 5 seconds. This makes sure the readers don’t miss a piece of popular content while they navigate through the very simple grid online news website that proves how efficient Drupal can be with any type of news website.
2- Al Araby
Alaraby was founded in December 1958 as a monthly magazine that deals with regional issues in the MENA and the Arabic region. It became very popular in many Arabic countries in record time because of its inclusive, engaging, and unbiased content production. Its web news site is no less popular than the print magazine, and both versions showcase the magazine’s logo on the top left side of the screen.
Pretty much the same structure as the former website, Alarby makes it clear that it’s a news website from the very first moment you visit it. Its notice bar and categories/topics keep on being updated periodically based on popular global matters: political, artistic, or sports. The website was built with open-source Drupal to make the news as accessible and attractive as possible to all of its audience.
3- Al Bawaba
Al Bawaba was founded in the year 2000, and ever since, the news website has grown to become a leading source of MENA news, information, and analyses as well. The news platform is now armed with hundreds of journalists and technicians around the world, and its international audiences are growing rapidly! This requires a website design that suits different tastes and cultural backgrounds and also a strong hosting system that wouldn’t crash under the weight of the traffic. That’s why Al Bawaba chose to use Drupal instead of any other operating system.
Albawaba’s brand colors are red and grey, and its website was built to make these colors stand out by contrasting them with the white background. It also displays advertisements in a uniquely attractive and efficient way. Although it gives the impression of an old-fashioned print news magazine, the website is extremely advanced and uses the latest SEO techniques.
4- Independent UK
1986 marks the publication of the first Independent UK magazine. Today, it’s a community-licensed and supported public television station and media organization. The website covers a plethora of topics from politics and sports to art and culture and globalization. And its audience exceeds the UK to Canada and Northern America.
The first thing you’d notice when you visit the website is that it’s very organized. The hover effect is also a nice addition that shows the program details without cluttering the website and distracting the user. Above the hover, the Independent’s Eagle logo is placed to the left side of the notification bar, and an invitation to subscribe to the website’s emails thrones itself to the right corner. The website is very smooth and uses Drupal to improve the website’s UX.
5- Otago Daily Times
Locally owned by the Allied Press, the Otago Daily Times is New Zealand's oldest daily newspaper. It started in 1861 as a very small press startup and its audience base has grown rapidly due to the newspaper’s team of top-notch writers.
The website design imitates the traditional newspaper columns style as a form of preserving and protecting the press’s roots and identity. Keeping it simple, this news and media website uses different degrees of grey, black, and white to organize the articles and the massive amount of content.
6-The Economist
The Economist has been killing it as a business magazine since 1843. In the form of prints, the magazine delivers the latest news in the world of entrepreneurship and business to its large community every week. But being in the business niche made the brand spot the importance of joining the internet during its early stages. Therefore, the Economist built a news website in 2001.
Its website is tailored to suit its audience: concise to the point. The web news site can be described as the alternative of a news magazine; a changing cover picture with a big title is placed at the top center, while The Economist logo stands out to the left top corner in an orange box. Simply put, the Economist has one of the best news sites ever! And this would not have been possible if they had used a closed-source operating system instead of Drupal.
7- Aljazeera
Aljazeera was first founded in 1996 as a TV channel. It focused on delivering all kinds of news: sports, politics, celebrities and interactive media, and science and documentary shows. Less than 5 years after its foundation, the platform created its first news website before creating many other news and media websites in the next few years.
Aljazeera’s famous logo is located on the left upper side of the screen, right above the hottest article or piece of news that stands out with a picture and a big title. On the right side of the screen, a bunch of popular and newly published articles is listed in a neat grid. It’s a classic simple design that is very predictable. You may think that it’ll become monotonous but it won't! Aljazeera’s team of developers takes advantage of content diversity and design simplicity to come up with predictable but renewable landing pages.
8- Entertainment Weekly
In 1990, EW started as a monthly entertainment magazine that tries to deliver precise and sensitive information about celebrities’ personal lives. Having faced a lot of challenges back then, the magazine’s current approach to entertainment is very inclusive and professional. It now covers business, TV and cinema, gaming, music as well as books and literature.
The website’s display is pretty simple and engaging. A big picture with a big title in the center of the screen is surrounded by a few trendy articles in a grid style. The notice bar features ads, and then the hover contains the logo and the categories of the website. The colors used are simply black and white, and sometimes you may notice a green line breaking the colors’ monotony. Overall, the website is pretty simple and accessible for all kinds of users!
9- Sports Illustrated
SI stands for Sports Illustrated. It’s one of the largest online news sites that covers news about all sports from the NFL, and NBA, to MLB and other popular sports in Northern America.
This web news site is built with Drupal’s operating system. SI took advantage of the system’s open source to come up with a creative website home page and other landing pages. Its BuzzFeed-ish appearance makes it perfect for sports fanatics who like to stay excited most of the time. The website also uses a brownish-orange notice bar (the color of a basketball ball) and contrasts it with white and black (popular colors in Basketball).
SI knows its audience, and it tries to give them the most optimized UX online news and media websites can do!
10- Forbes
Forbes is probably older than anyone you know! It was founded in 1917 and ever since the magazine’s been covering a variety of subjects in the sports world. Forbes’ web news site is very appealing and eye-catching. The platform takes advantage of Drupal’s open-source system in a minimalistic way to keep it simple but extremely navigational.
The genius-ness of the Forbes team appears in the way they take advantage of popular content to subtly help new articles stand out and gain more attraction. If you visit the website, you’d find a table with the most popular articles, upon which one is new and gaining more views (you can see the numbers) which encourages you to click.
The news website is also very smooth; it plays on black and white to make big titles stand out around a big picture, usually, it’s the cover of the most recent piece of content. Being a writer myself, I enjoy reading Forbes's artistic news articles!
11- The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter is a heavyweight in the entertainment news industry. You may disregard entertainment as a worthy niche of journalism, but we’re talking about a billion-dollar industry. And The HollywoodReporter knows this well, that’s why it came up with an elegant buzzfeed-ish online news site.
The top center thrones the logo of the magazine in unique typography (inspired by comic books styles). Right below, a line of categories -such as Films, TV, Awards…- makes it obvious that it’s an entertainment news website. Below the “Top Story” of the day takes almost all the attention of the visitor, but little of it goes to the small left corner where other titles showcase themselves in a magazine columns-like style.
The Hollywood Reporter's website is a go-to destination for many people. Therefore the website ought to be neat and ready to handle the traffic. The website is doing an awesome job balancing the freedom granted by Drupal and the limitations set by the entertainment niche.
12- The New Republic
The magazine came in print in 1914, and although it didn’t gain much popularity back then, it had a stream of customers purchasing its papers with a growing appetite. Today, the magazine has a very loyal community and it serves them with one of the best news websites ever built with an open-source operating system.
The New Republic is the professional version of the HollywoodReporter. Topped with the topics in the notice bar, the magazine’s logo is centered at the top of the website with its black metallic newspapers typography style. As you slide down, the logo disappears and the content takes up most of the screen. You’d see the trendiest article on the first page, but more and more content will keep on popping up as you navigate through the very navigational web news site.
13- Mother Jones
Mother Jones is an American magazine featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. It was established in 1976, and like the New Republic, it had a small but loyal readership. Describing its audience as the MoJo readers, the online magazine gained popularity in recent years due to its opinions that take advantage of political freedom of speech to the fullest.
Unlike a pop-oriented magazine, MoJo gives the impression of “nerds only” at first sight. Small pictures are generously surrounded by content description and sometimes quotes from a public figure that exposes the whole piece of news, but most MoJo readers are there for the analyses and opinions rather than the news itself.
14- Patch
The magazine was first launched as an online local news reporter in 2007. Gaining popularity very quickly, the platform recruited an army of reporters and journalists to keep track of the vital news arena in the United States. This is not an easy task for people just as much as it is too much to handle by a hosting system...
Patch’s innovative approach to media in general and media sites specifically made it inevitable for them to use Drupal’s open source. The screen is split horizontally into two columns; a big one on which content is listed based on popularity and engagement. A dynamic smaller one keeps on renewing as you navigate the website.
This news site is very simple, yet extremely enjoyable and engaging. It also is backed by a strong hosting system that handles the platform’s gigantic traffic and the continuous content production that reports almost every single event in hundreds of areas around the U.S.
To Wrap Up
There are many news and media websites in the world. Each one functions differently to appeal to its audience and meet their horizon of expectations. But if there’s one thing in common between these websites, is that they always choose to build their websites with open-source operating systems such as Drupal 9 and a professional CMS service provider.