As a college newsppaer, in looking at the options for a content management system for your website there are many things to consider.  Home grown and open source solutions can seem easy to deploy if you have the staff in place, but the one immutable constant in college media is change; turnover is high and internally built systems do not endure over time.

Its not simply the CMS you will manage, there is database management and hosting and maintaining the integrity of security on your site.

That said, College Publisher is not simply a CMS; it is a fully supported, fully hosted CMS with web consulting services…for free.   Sometimes, when comparing apples to apples the details get lost. 

Here is what College Media Network provides with the College Publisher software:

Support:
24 hour customer support (even during finals)
Training Documentation
Live Instant Messager Chat (business hours for the summer)
1-800 number for all questions
 
Expertise:
Webinar Training available upon request
Publishing tips and suggestions
Advice on third party applications

Syndication:
CMN media partnerships
Parent Company distribution network (MTV Networks)

Design:
Redesign assistance
Consulting and mockup creation
Masthead designs

Developer :
Custom coding within CP5 framework
Databases Import

Revenue:
Tutorials on selling advertising
Strategies for alternate revenue streams
Partnerships with Revenue Driving Applications
Revenue Sharing Programs

Technology:
CMS customized for college newsroom
State-of-the-art hosting facility
Best-in-Class Advertising Tools
Domain registration and renewal
Ongoing software development and upgrades
Lamp Accounts
Email Forwards
Custom Script Hosting
Cpanel access
MySQL databases
PHPMyAdmin

Journalist Benefits:
Tickets to Events
Access to mtvU Programming
Contests to Cover National Events

Finally, in electing to use College Publisher, your publication is actually joining the largest (and only) newspaper network in the country.  The network model provides cross pollination of your content on-demand. 

Syndication is the most critical survival tool for news sites, and the College Publisher software has it built in and will be creating new ways to connect with like minded media outlets.