1. Have a vision.Check. I had that one a year ago (a regional arts magazine with topics both about art and by artists)2. Funding.The amount of $ you have to spend will affect everything else3. Hosting? Find a place to host it.I used some extra webspace I have.4. A software list of features that you need (and a list of those you would like to have) in order to identify the best product for you.Here are my 2 basic lists: required are those items which are deal-breakers (or almost deal-breakers); wishlist are functionalities that I'd like to have but am willing to do without.REQUIRED:
- Ease of installation: I know a smattering of php, configure/write new templates, setup most opensource stuff, CHMOD, run scripts, etc. However, less time spent installing = more time for other things. ;-D
- Database driven
- Magazine/newspaper like feel:
- Categories/Sections
- Articles (with unique ids, so can be hotlinked)
- Articles in a web friendly format (not pdf, flash, etc.)
- Support for basic html in articles (links, images, etc.)
- Issues with numbering
- Upload images, media, video, mp3s which can be embedded in articles
- CSS or other templating
- Clear navigation throughout site
- RSS feeds by category/section
- Archives
- Flexibility: Ability to move articles as needed, edit, etc.
- At least a little bit of security. No grievous security holes.
- Spam control
- Support for external scripting (del.icio.us, flickr, etc.)
- Contributors can easily upload own submissions
- Review, Hold & Draft process (just check off)/Batch processing
- Pre-populate issues which publish on date without manual intervention
- Podcasting/videocasting
- Friendly urls
- Users can post comments/feedback for specific articles
- "Email this article" feature
- Magazine templates available (prepackaged)
- User support via an active forum, help, kb, etc.
- Hierarchical support (categories in sections)
- Statistics built in (at least: came from, page views, referrers)
- Scalability
- Tagging/tagclouds
- Regular backup feature
- Metadata