This page describes changes to the way news articles are created and displayed, using the news syndication system, deployed Spring 2024.

News Hub is a system where you can create and manage news articles for your website and send them to KU News for campus-wide syndication. 

You can get to News UI using the same path as you would for the content type: Content > Add Content > News Article.
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Video Instructions

View the following links for video instruction for each of these changes or go to the written instructions below.

• How to use News Hub (video)
• How to Display News on Your Site (video)
• How to add other users to News Hub (video)

Quick Facts

• If you used the CMS News module in the past, your department's News Hub account will be created by KU IT, and your existing articles will be migrated to your new account. The IT team will also assist with updating your site to display the migrated articles.
• If you have not used News before with your site, you will need to request a News Hub account to be able to create news articles, submit them to KU News (optional), and post them to your site and social media.
• Site admins must complete a form to request a News Hub account be set up for your website by Web Services. 
• Once access to News Hub is approved and your account has been created, all articles for your site will be created and managed in this system.
• All articles in the News Hub can be sent to KU News for syndication with a click of a button.
• Once you send news articles to KU News, the articles will disappear from your published area. KU News will automatically share your articles, which can be found by going to the Share article link at the top-right of your dashboard. 
• Articles in your News Hub account can be displayed on your website using the default news page and News sections.

Off-campus VPN

Just like editing your website, if you are working off-campus, you will need to be logged in to the VPN to use News Hub. Learn more about the KU Anywhere VPN. 

If there is a News Hub account already associated with your web site, you may already have access to the system. If no one has set up an account yet, a site admin will need to request an account before you can use the system. Site admins can review instructions on to how to add other users to the account.

What to Expect & Next Steps:

Request Access and Approval

After the site admin has requested an account, Web Services will: 

• verify the site request. If no account exists already, an account will be created.
• assign the requestor the role of manager.
• send a notification to requestor with the following information:
  • Confirmation that the account has been created and role assigned. 
  • Confirmation that News sections have been installed in your CMS and available to display articles on your site. 
  • Links to training resources and contacts for assistance.

Once you have access to News Hub:

1. Go to News Hub and use your KU credentials to log in. If you are working off-campus, you must be logged in to the VPN.
2. Select the news account you want to work in. 
3. Select the Create article link at the top-right menu. 
4. Complete the information for the article.
   • If adding images, review important information below about image quality and alt text. 
5. Optional: Select Media Contacts.
   • Only managers and editors can create media contacts to be displayed for selection. Writers cannot create new media contacts, but they can select contacts that have already been created by managers and editors.
   • Select the link in paragraph below Media Contacts field to create new media contact.
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6. Optional: Designate as a Featured article and create a tag(s).
   • If using News Card Group 1 to display articles, you may need to refresh your page for Featured articles to appear. Refresh must be done while in you are logged in and in editing mode. 
   • Only managers and editors can create tags simply by typing the tag word in the Tag field.
   • Writers cannot create tags, but pre-existing tags will come up when typed into the Tags field.
   • To view all tags, managers and editors can select the Tags option at the top-right in their dashboard. 
   • If you send the article to KU News, all tags are replaced by those used by KU News. 
7. Upload a Featured Image. Review the minimum specifications and recommendations, as well as important information below about image quality and alt text. Your Featured image will also serve as your social media image.
8. Optional: Include Social Media Metadata, if applicable.
9. Select the Save button at the bottom of the interface, which will save the article as unpublished.

• If you are using your article in social media, your featured image will be used as the social media image. 
• If you are adding images to the articles, you must consider descriptive alternative text and the image quality.

Alternative Text

Alternative text, or alt text, is read aloud to users of assistive technology, and it is indexed by search engines. Alt text is meant to be descriptive information that conveys the meaning and context of a visual item in a digital setting. Learn more about how to write alternative text:

• Missing alt text (video)
• Alt text needs improvement (video)
• Alternative text written instructions

Image Quality

Two primary considerations when uploading images: 

1. Images must be high quality, dimensions/ratios: 1200 x 628 pixels. 
2. Do not use images with text. Some of the text may get cropped out, and it creates potential issues for accessibility. 
3. Use images that are landscape orientation. Posters or images in portrait orientation will not match the landscape orientation of the News Hub template and will cut off much of the image. 

You can Unpublish, Archive, or Submit to KU News by selecting the down arrow next to Publish/Unpublish button and make your selection.
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Managers have access to republish archived articles. 

1. Select the Archived tab. 
2. Select the Publish button at the bottom-right of the article. 
3. Choose a date: Existing (original) published date, Current date, or select the calendar icon below Set a date to select a date of your choosing.
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4. Publish.

Manage Published Dates

If you wish to choose a different date for your article other than the date you published it, you will have the opportunity when you publish it to choose another date
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If you are republishing the article, you will have the option to keep the original date, the current date, or select another date. 
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Send to KU News

1. Select the down arrow at the bottom-right corner of article.
2. Send to KU News.

Once you send your articles to KU News for campus-wide syndication, KU News will become the owner of the articles.

• The articles will disappear from your account.
• All your tags will be removed. 
• If you shared the articles before sending to KU News, these articles will no longer be shared after they are sent.
• Your articles are automatically shared by KU News, so if you want to display them on your account, you can select them in the Shared article area of you account.  

Articles in your published tab will automatically be displayed on the news view of your site. The URL for that page is your site's URL plus /news. For example, cms.ku.edu/news. 

You can display news articles on other pages by using News sections. 

After Sending to KU News

Articles sent to KU News will disappear from your Published area. KU News will share the article for you to bring back to your published area. 

1. Click on Select article from the top-right options (managers and editors only).
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2. Choose Select from the list of shared articles.
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• When the article shows in your published area, you can add tags, if applicable.
• Articles will show on the news view page [/news] or you can add sections to display them on other pages. 

Not Sending to KU News: Display Articles Only on Your Site

If you are not sending articles to KU News and want to display them on your site, you can simply publish the articles and they will show on the news view page [/news] or you can add sections to display them on other pages. 

Not Sending to KU News: Display Articles on Multiple Websites

1. Click the Share button in the lower right area of the published article.
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2. Click on Select article from the top-right options (managers and editors only).
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3. Choose Select from the list of shared articles.
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All articles in your Published tab of the news hub will be available to display on your site. 

News articles can be displayed on:

• Content Page
• Landing Page
• Kitchen Sink

These sections will offer various layouts:

• News 1 – News Card Group
• News 2 – News & Events
• News 3 – Prominent New
• News 4 – News and Related Link
• News 5 – Insert News Block

Once you have an account in News Hub, the News sections will be installed in your CMS site and you can begin adding these to your CMS page(s).

Add News Sections to Your Page

To add the News section to display articles on your web page(s):

1. Open the page where you want the article displayed.
2. Click Edit from the top menu in the grey bar.
3. Select the Add Body Section button.
4. From the section interface, select News from the filter at the top-left.
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5. Select the News section you want to add.
6. Check the Style options tab for additional display features.
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7. Save.

All News Link

When displaying featured articles in applicable modules, you will see options to display a button to take users to additional news articles.
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You can designate that the user see all featured articles, all articles on your site, or you can remove the button.

• All Featured Articles -To have a button that will take users to more featured articles, type /news/featured in the URL field and See More Featured Articles in the text field
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• All Articles on Your Site - To have a button that will take users to all articles on your site, type /news in the URL field and See All Articles in the text field.
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• Remove Button - To remove the button to see more articles, remove text from both fields.
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Managers can use the form below to request that others be added to a list of users in the News Hub system. Generally, these users will be added to the account.

If they are already in the system, but not in your account, the site admin can add them.

1. Log in to your News Hub. 
2. Select the Users option at the top-right of your dashboard. 
3. Select the Add User option from the User screen. 
4. Select the checkbox next to the name of the user you want to add.
5. Assign the user a role by selecting the drop down under Role.
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6. Save.

Technical Support: itcsc@ku.edu  |  785-864-8080

Training Support: training@ku.edu  |  785-864-5155