Editor Guide: Build a News Story

Accessible, well-structured news stories help all site visitors quickly understand your message.

Content that follows digital accessibility and web content best practices is easier for site visitors to navigate, for search engines to interpret, and for editors to maintain over time. Well-structured stories also perform better in search results and are more likely to be shared across social platforms. 

Core News Story Components

Every News Story consists of four required elements, or fields. These elements, or fields, are on the News Story’s Edit Settings screen:

• Headline: Enter a clear, engaging title that encourages readers to stop, stay, and scroll. The headline becomes the page title and appears automatically in news lists and social media shares.

• Thumbnail image: Upload a featured image that displays on filtered news lists and in social media posts when the article is shared. Some search engines may also include the image in results.

• Summary: Add a concise, descriptive summary. The text entered in this field populates the page’s meta description, which appears as the snippet in search results.

• Body: Write and format the full article content here. Include your intro paragraph, section headings, and related images.

Enhance Readability and Engagement

The Body field is where you create the full article content. Use it to add text, images, and structure that make the story engaging and accessible.

To enhance readability and engagement, add the following elements in the Body field:


• Intro text: Begin the story with one or two sentences summarizing the article’s key takeaways. Apply the Intro Text style to this opening paragraph to make it stand out.
   
• Section headings: Use H2, H3, or H4 headings to break up long text blocks and organize information logically. Begin with H2 headings, as the page title automatically uses H1. Proper heading order improves accessibility and helps both readers and screen readers navigate the page.
   
• Images: Add one or two related images within the article. Always include descriptive alt text to ensure accessibility.
   
• Highlights: Use the block quote style to emphasize key information or statistics. These visual elements help readers scan and retain important details.

 

Login to Content Central

• Navigate to the Content Central Login Screen
   
• Click the green ‘Login with your Mason Credentials’ button
   
• Enter your NetID and password at the GMU Sign In Services screen

 

Create a News Story

• In the top admin/editor bar, click on the ’Content’ navigation item
   
• From the content list screen, click the blue ‘Add content’ button 
   
• From the ‘Add content’ screen, select the ’News Story’ option

Build the News Story

Fill out all required fields on the story's 'Edit Settings' screen:

• Headline: Enter title text
   
• Author or Byline: Optional, using the lookup tool to select an author
   
• Summary: Text in the summary field displays as the search result snippet.
   
• Thumbnail Image: Displays in search result snippets, page and social media previews. Upload  a 1:1 (square) thumbnail image using the ‘Thumbnail’ selector field.
   

Place and Format Story Text

Copy unformatted text into the ‘Body’ text area. Use the WYSIWYG formatting buttons to:

• Style the text:  Intro Text, Headers, Block quotes
   
• Add embedded images and videos
   

Topic Tags

Topic tags categorize news items, allowing news items to be found in related searches or displayed together with other same-tagged items in filtered news list.

• Use the ‘Topics’ look-up field to select subject topics relating to the article’s content. Use a comma to separate multiple topic tags.

Share to a Subscribing Site

News stories must be shared with at least one 'subscribing' site. Use the ‘Share to These Sites’ lookup field to select at least one 'subscribing' site to share, or push, the news story to. Use a comma to separate multiple subscribing site names.

'Save' and 'Save and Push'

A news story can be saved and reviewed before it is exported, or 'pushed' to as subscribing site. 

Save and Review a news story:
 

• At the bottom of the 'Edit Settings' screen, click the blue 'Save' button to save the news story
• Click the grey 'Preview' button to review the story

After reviewing the news story and completing any final edits, the news story is ready to be exported, or 'pushed' to subscribing sites. To export, or 'push' a news story to a subscribing site:

• Click the blue 'Save and Push' button at the bottom of the 'Edit Settings' screen
• On the 'Please confirm pushing' screen, make sure box next to the news story title is selected
• Click 'Push Changes'

A Status Message tracking the news story export journey will display. Click the 'View Progress' link in the Status Message for additional export details.