Many large news companies use expensive content management and web publishing systems. And sometimes, being saddled with such systems is a detriment when it comes to adding new features in a timely manner. I know one major media company that doesn’t even support user comments on its articles, because its web publishing system is too ungainly to easily add it. (Its online editors are incredibly frustrated by this situation.)

Think about that! A major media company is hamstrung from doing stuff that any blogger can do using open-source platforms like Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla. Indeed, the blogging platforms (which is a misnomer, because these can be full-fledged content management systems; they’re not limited to producing blogs but are flexible enough to host a wide array of website types) are in some ways better than those corporate web publishing systems.

A huge community of programmers and developers are creating add-ons (plug-ins and widgets) that greatly extend the capabilities of platforms like Wordpress and Drupal — and often are cheap, if not free. Not even a deep-pocket media company could afford the programming staff to keep up with what the open-source community produces.

That an army of volunteer programmers are producing functionality that major news companies can’t keep up with is an interesting situation, to say the least.

There’s already a steady movement by newspapers to use Drupal. Wordpress is less powerful than Drupal, but it’s nevertheless great for many web projects that a news company might do.

Open source CMS should not be something that news companies avoid. Especially for smaller news operations, these platforms allow you to produce a full-featured website in a matter of hours. If you’re holding onto prejudice against using open-source publishing systems, get over it.

You may not be ready to dump your expensive web publishing system, and that’s expected. But please consider open-source platforms for specific projects where using what you’ve got will hold you back.

A common criticism of news websites — especially ones run by small and medium sized newspaper companies and TV news outlets — is that they don’t invest enough in programming or web development talent. Perhaps their sites don’t look as professional, or are not as full featured as they could be because not enough resources are devoted to online operations. They’ve not adapted adequately to the new media environment where having enough geeks around is a requirement for long-term survival.

This won’t be for everyone, but there are several related web services that can get some of your development and design tasks done for reasonable, often very low rates. Using them is a way to extend the web development and design staff you have by off-loading some of their work.

Design Outpost is a great site where you post a web design project and have graphic artists and designers bid on it. Candidates will even submit rough drafts of ideas of how they’d complete your job, and you get to choose the winner. I’ve used this site with success, and found that the designers bidding on projects are a mix of professionals looking for new clients and amateurs with web design talent looking for extra money. When my last company needed a new corporate logo, we put out a bid on Design Outpost and offered $150 for the job. Several candidates submitted draft logos, and we selected a winner — who, to our surprise, was a medical doctor in Turkey who loves to do design and uses the website to earn money for his other talent. Try hiring a local designer to produce a corporate logo for you for only $150!

This is the same concept as Design Outpost, but coders and developers bid on programming jobs. You post your job, then programmers bid on it. You see information about their background and experience and select a winner to do your project. I haven’t tried this myself, but know people who have and have been happy with the experience. But of course, there are risks. Step cautiously by limiting these outside programming projects to non-sensitive things.

Finally there’s Audio Outpost. This is the same model as the sites above, but represents an inexpensive bidded-job solution for when you need original music or voice-over audio. Because sound production has now moved into the home with professional-quality equipment being affordable, you can get good, even great work from professional but home-based producers and musicians at low prices.

Again, there may be projects that are too sensitive to put out on a public forum. But if that’s not the case, the Outpost sites are a good way to save some money.

This item is about saving money, not making it. … Look at the top of this page. See the graphic site logo or masthead with the flames? That cost $1.30 to produce. OK, maybe you get what you pay for, you’re thinking … but I kinda like it.

So the story is that I found the graphic with the flames on iStockPhoto.com, a wonderful and inexpensive web stock imagery resource. The site has a huge database of images — photos, illustrations, Flash graphics, video — with new imagery coming in every day. Prices for licensing are dirt cheap compared to traditional stock agencies. That’s because the work doesn’t come from high-priced pro photographers and artists, but rather any photographers or artists who want to add their work and make a few bucks.

The site sells images and graphics for different prices based on the size you want. For the graphic I wanted, the smallest size was available for only 1 credit (about $1.30), and that was big enough for my purpose. A bit of tweaking and font selection in Photoshop and voilá!, a $1.30 website logo.

If you haven’t already discovered iStockPhoto.com, check it out and save.