News

Use for news articles, press releases, or speeches.

Why use this content type?

News items on Mass.gov can take the following forms:

Speech
News (article)
Press Release
Press Statement
Blog Post
Guest Post

Once you’ve published your News item, it will appear on your Organization Page(s) as long as you have a News section on the page and you didn’t select “none” in your Org page’s automatic news item section.

Watch a training video on adding News items to Org pages

Overview

Title

Think of the title as a headline. Include keywords that will help your content stand out in searches.

Announcement type

Required. Picking an announcement type changes the “eyebrow” in the page’s upper left corner. Whatever you select will appear there:

Published date

Required. Select date and time of release.

Short Description

Optional. The short description appears beneath the title. Think of it like a subtitle— a sentence that summarizes the essence of the article. It will appear, along with the beginning of your News item, in social media previews:

Listing description

Optional. This is a short summary of your content that will be used in previews, listings, and on social sites.

Parent page

The required Parent page field appears on all public-facing content types and it powers the breadcrumb-based navigation system.

The Mass.gov team prepopulated the field based on an analysis of which child pages belong to which parent pages. Each child page can be assigned only 1 parent, or higher level page.

These connections, displayed in the form of breadcrumbs (i.e., links) above the page title, will help Mass.gov visitors find their way to relevant information regardless of where they start on the site.

Organization(s)

You’ll find the Organization(s) field at the bottom of the first tab in every Mass.gov content type, and in documents. This field tells Mass.gov ’s search which pages belong to which organization. ‌ This field also powers the "Offered by" relationship indicator that displays at the top of all Mass.gov pages. Making sure your Organization field is filled out correctly will help users who land on your content find their way to your Organization Page.

Intended audience

This field isn’t being used yet, so there’s no need to fill it in.

Labels

This is optional, however it is very helpful. Add one or more labels to be used to used for grouping and finding related content and documents within the CMS.

Start typing in the Label(s) field to choose an existing label from a dropdown menu that will appear or add a new label by entering it directly.

Collections

Optional. Most content will not be in a Collection. Only add content to a collection if the collection creator has approved it. In that case, select any collections, topics, and subtopics for this content.

If you later need to remove a page from a Collection, go back into the page and uncheck the box and select Save.

Learn more about collections.

Signees

You’ll need to list at least one state organization, though you can list as many state or external organizations as you’d like. The related organization field is an autofill field, which means you’ll start typing the name of the organization you’re looking for and select it from the list.

The signee organization’s name will appear in the gray box above the main text.

Signee information also will appear at the bottom of the page. Users will see the organization’s name, plus a short description and logo if you choose.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you get permission to list others’ organizations as signees. When you list a state organization, you’re also telling Mass.gov to add your News item to that organization’s Org Page. (It won’t appear if that Organization’s automatic news item section is set to “none”).

News on your Organization page

Here’s how News appears on an Organization page, assuming your Org page has a News section (if it does not, you can add 1 under the Content tab in the CMS by selecting "Add Organization News").

The top items are featured, meaning an author chose them. Those on the bottom are automatic, meaning they appear automatically according to their date and the organization being a signee:

Note: The order in which non-featured News items appear on Organization pages is based on the information in the publish date field, not on when you select "Publish" on a News item.

Main Content

Featured image

Optional. Add an image to accompany this item. 256 MB limit.

Location

Whatever you type in the location field will be formatted as a dateline: displayed in all caps followed by an em dash. So, Boston would display as BOSTON —

Filling in the location field is optional on all but Press Releases.

Video

To add videos that are hosted on YouTube or Vimeo:

Select “Add Video.”
Choose either “Add new media item” or “Add existing media item”

Content and Overview fields

You'll be presented with different rich text fields under the Main Content tab depending upon which News item type you select.

If you are creating a Speech, Press Release, Guess Post or Blog Post, you'll see a rich text field called content. You're limited to this one field, though you can add a featured image and a video.

For News articles and Press Statements, you can fill out an optional overview field, which is a rich-text editor.

If you require more space for your content, you can create 1 or more sections by selecting “Add section with heading.” Each section on a News item includes a required title, an optional text field, key actions links that result in blue boxes, and "Additional Resources," which can include links and downloads.

Since the content area is optional, you could begin your News item with downloads. You would skip the overview, create a section with a title and downloads, and then create a new section with your additional content. You can reorder your sections by using the crosshairs on the left to drag and drop them into a different order.

Media Contact(s)

If you’re creating a Press Release or Statement, you’ll also need to add a media contact for members of the press to access. The media contact will be a Person that you’ve already created. The media contact will display on the right, and in an accordion at the bottom of your News.

Optional. You can add links to up to 3 pages on or off Mass.gov