Platform

An API-first newsroom CMS platform built for complex publishing needs.

Masthead CMS is developer-first in architecture—customizable schemas, GraphQL, webhooks, and custom portlets—available as Masthead Composable CMS (headless editorial backend paired with your site on Next.js, Astro, or similar stacks) or Masthead Cloud CMS (all-in-one package on Masthead’s Cloudflare edge network with Masthead CDN for optimally sized media). Either way, you get a single extensible operating layer for editorial production, ad ops, audience growth, revenue surfaces, analytics, and migration—without forcing every improvement through a plugin stack or an enterprise release queue.

Overview

Complex newsrooms need a CMS that adapts—not one that dictates.

A newsroom CMS has to do more than store articles. It has to be extensible enough for custom content models and integrations, help editors package stories, help ad ops teams protect yield, help leadership protect search visibility, and help audience teams distribute coverage quickly. Masthead CMS treats those needs as core product work—with API-first architecture—instead of optional add-ons.

Deployment options

Composable CMS or Cloud CMS—the same extensible newsroom core, two ways to deliver.

Choose how your reader experience is built and hosted. Both paths share the same API-first newsroom backend—customizable schema, editorial workflows, and extension points. Masthead Composable CMS keeps your team in control of the frontend; Masthead Cloud CMS delivers backend and public site together on Masthead’s edge infrastructure.

Headless · bring your own frontend

Masthead Composable CMS

Use Masthead as your editorial system and content API, then ship the public site on Next.js, Astro, SvelteKit, or any stack you standardize on. Editors get the same workflows, media model, and publishing tools; your engineers own routing, rendering, and how you host and cache pages—endlessly customizing the reader experience on top of Masthead’s extensible backend.

GraphQL API with flexible querying for your stack
Customizable schema, content modeling, and content types
Centralized image and asset management
Webhooks alongside API-first editorial delivery
Pair with frameworks such as Next.js or Astro
Your hosting, CDN, and release cadence for the reader site

All-in-one · Masthead-hosted on the edge

Masthead Cloud CMS

Run editorial and reader experiences as one Masthead deployment on the Cloudflare edge network: worldwide points of presence, low latency for readers, and capacity that absorbs major traffic spikes with automatic load balancing—without provisioning and tending to your own origin fleet. Customize through schema, portlets, and scoped modules while Masthead CDN handles media delivery end to end—images and assets served at the dimensions each layout needs, in modern formats where supported, with a tuned quality-to-size balance.

Backend and frontend both powered by Masthead
Edge delivery on Cloudflare for speed and resilience
Masthead CDN for media: right-sized assets, optimal formats, and quality tuned for size every time
Native privacy controls on reader sites so newsrooms can focus on coverage, not bolt-on compliance work
Built to scale through breaking news and viral traffic
Multi-channel delivery and personalization-aware modules when scoped

The problem

Generic content systems were not designed around the newsroom day.

Many publishers end up with a CMS that technically publishes pages but does not understand developing stories, author pages, local utility content, newsletter capture, canonical attribution, syndicated partner feeds, listen audio, or in-CMS analytics. The result is slower launches, more maintenance, and workflows that depend on institutional memory instead of clear systems.

How it works

Here's how each part works.

Editorial workflow

Story production with WordPress-familiar admin patterns and editorial safety nets.

Editors get a posts list, filters, and screens that feel familiar if your team is coming from WordPress—without inheriting plugin fragility. Local drafts, unpublish, and slug-alias redirects let newsrooms fix headlines, pull sensitive stories, and preserve search equity without waiting on custom code for every editorial fix. Headlines, summaries, hero media, captions, key points, SEO fields, canonical metadata, categories, tags, featured status, developing-story states, authors, and revision history stay in one workflow. Real-time collaboration keeps drafts coherent when concurrent editing is enabled.

WordPress-familiar admin UX
Local drafts and unpublish
Slug-alias redirects
Story templates and revision history
Real-time collaboration on drafts

Extensibility

Custom portlets, GraphQL, webhooks, and schema that match your newsroom.

Complex newsrooms add custom portlets for desk-specific dashboards without forking core CMS code. Editorial catalogs use customizable content types and configurable schema. For Masthead Composable CMS, GraphQL exposes flexible querying for Next.js, Astro, or other frontends; webhooks carry publish, update, and media events. Implementation covers migration, redirects, analytics continuity, training, and multi-site rollouts.

Custom portlets
GraphQL API (Composable path)
Customizable schema and content types
Webhooks for automation
Multi-language locales when in scope

Masthead Copilot

Copilot Review, multi-format formatting, and editorial vetting—always with editor approval.

Masthead Copilot includes a Copilot Review panel so editors see suggested key points, headline alternatives, and an AI overview of the story before anything goes live. Copilot can draft ledes and paragraphs, tighten spelling and grammar, reformat coverage into briefs, bullets, newsletters, social copy, and SEO fields, and run automated legal or style-guide checks while your team keeps final say. Editorial workflows can surface related coverage and packaging ideas where policy allows. Organization admins decide which backends are authorized—ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini—with passthrough API pricing. Reporters pick a model or Auto routing for cost-aware tasks.

Copilot Review panel
Headline alternatives
AI overview summaries
Multi-format formatting for briefs, newsletters, social, and SEO
Automated legal and style-guide vetting
Admin policy for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini

Masthead DAM

Digital asset management built for newsroom archives, not generic file folders.

Masthead DAM helps photo desks and digital editors manage large libraries: duplicate detection, usage tracking so you know where an image still appears, trash recovery, and portrait-to-landscape crop helpers for social and homepage slots. Captions, credits, alt text, focal points, and AI-generated transcripts for audio and video stay attached as assets move into stories and syndicated feeds.

Duplicate detection
Usage tracking
Trash recovery
Portrait-to-landscape crops
AI transcripts for audio and video

Listen

Article audio and AI narration for mobile and accessibility-first readers.

Listen turns published stories into realistic on-page audio so commuters, multitaskers, and accessibility-minded readers can hear local coverage without leaving your site. Narration can be generated and reviewed inside the editorial workflow so audio quality and attribution match your newsroom standards, then made public or limited to paying subscribers, newsletter subscribers, members, or other audience segments.

Realistic text-to-speech narration
Subscriber and newsletter access rules
Mobile-friendly playback
Editorial review before publish

Syndication hub

Feed import, partner attribution, and republishing in one catalogue.

The syndication hub supports feed import workflows, partner source metadata, canonical fields, and republishing controls so wire content, partner exchanges, and shared-group coverage land with correct attribution instead of duplicate SEO risk.

Feed import workflows
Partner attribution fields
Canonical and source metadata
Republishing controls

Ad ops

Native integration with Google Ad Manager, Prebid, and the stacks ad teams already run.

Commercial publishers and hybrid-revenue newsrooms need more than a theme with ad placeholders. Masthead CMS reader templates are built for Google Ad Manager (GPT) slot architecture—leaderboards, MPUs, in-article units, sticky footers, and section-specific placements—with lazy loading and refresh policies tuned for Core Web Vitals. Header bidding through Prebid.js or Prebid Server can map to GAM key-values and yield groups so Open Bidding, Ad Exchange, and direct-sold line items compete in a unified auction. Consent Management Platform hooks and privacy-signal wiring can be scoped for programmatic compliance. Direct-sold sponsorship modules and native GAM templates sit alongside programmatic demand so ad ops and editorial share one launch plan.

Google Ad Manager (GPT) slots
Prebid.js and Prebid Server
Open Bidding and yield groups
Lazy-load and CWV-safe placement
Direct-sold and native sponsorship

Newsroom analytics

Analytics and SEO portlets inside the CMS—not a separate tab hunt.

Editors and publishers can review performance without leaving Masthead: connect external analytics providers such as Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Parse.ly, and Chartbeat, plus SEO and Core Web Vitals portlets scoped to your rollout. Measurement continuity stays part of migration and launch validation.

GA and Adobe Analytics hooks
Parse.ly and Chartbeat portlets
SEO and performance dashboards
Launch validation checklists

Distribution

Shortlinks, tracked social posts, sponsorships, and hybrid revenue in one system.

Shortlinks and tracked social distribution tie Facebook, X, Instagram, and other channels back to story metadata. Direct-sold sponsorship modules, programmatic ad slots, newsletter gates, subscription paths, donation prompts where your model needs them, and campaign pages are treated as publisher workflows—not afterthoughts. Personalization, A/B testing, and multi-channel delivery can share one canonical catalogue when scoped.

Shortlinks and UTM-aware social tracking
Direct-sold and programmatic revenue
Subscriptions, donations, and membership
AI social scheduling
Content personalization and experiments

Reader retention

White-label games including Wordio—on your domain, not in iframes.

Masthead CMS includes native puzzle and trivia products with your branding: Sudoku, Wordio, localized word search, localized trivia, and additional formats. They support habitual return visits alongside news without third-party widget farms that slow pages or leak audience data.

Sudoku
Wordio
Localized word search
Localized trivia
On-site integration

Community & life events

Obituaries management with syndication where your operation needs it.

Obituaries are part of many newsrooms’ daily work and partner relationships. Masthead CMS supports obituaries inside the same editorial system as the rest of the newsroom catalogue, including workflows for editorial review alongside syndication tooling for partner feeds and redistribution.

In-CMS management
Editorial workflows
Syndication tools
Partner distribution

Workflow

From assignment to audience growth.

The platform is designed around the chain of work that happens before and after a story goes live.

Create and package

Reporters and editors prepare the story, media, key points, SEO fields, tags, author information, transcripts, audio narration, and multi-format versions in one publishing workflow.

Publish and route

Editors control featured placement, developing labels, sponsorship labels, ad slot context, newsletter gates, redirects, related stories, obituaries placements, localized games, and other local utility modules around the coverage.

Monetize and measure

Ad ops teams validate GAM and Prebid behavior while audience teams use shortlinks, tracked social distribution, in-CMS analytics portlets, and campaign reporting without rebuilding workflows in separate tools.

For newsroom leadership

A clearer path away from legacy maintenance with API-first extensibility and newsroom-specific capability.

For technology leaders

GraphQL for composable sites, webhooks, customizable schemas, custom portlets, Masthead DAM, and clearer paths for analytics validation and migration—without enterprise platform drag.

For editors

A focused publishing workflow that keeps daily production, story packaging, AI formatting, transcripts, narration, and search details together.

For ad ops and revenue teams

Google Ad Manager and Prebid-ready architecture, direct-sold sponsorship workflows, and hybrid monetization paths planned alongside editorial launch—not patched in after templates ship.

For growth teams

Newsletter, revenue, Wordio and puzzle products, obituaries, in-CMS analytics, shortlinks, social distribution, personalization, experiments, and multi-channel delivery planned into the platform.

Decision points

Questions to settle before you commit.

Is this just another website rebuild?

No. The public site is only one surface. The larger value is the extensible CMS, migration plan, workflow model, analytics continuity, and growth tooling behind it.

Will teams need to learn a developer-first system?

Developer-first means the platform is API-first and extensible. Editors still get familiar WordPress-style workflows; your team configures schema, integrations, and delivery without fighting the core product.

Keep reading.

Migration planning See how archives, redirects, and search equity are handled. Newsroom analytics Review in-CMS analytics portlets and ad ops reporting. Multi-site publishing Explore how news groups can standardize operations with local brand flexibility. AI social scheduling See how distribution ties back to story metadata and analytics.

FAQ

Common questions about platform.

Who is Masthead CMS built for?

Masthead CMS is built for newsrooms and publishing groups with complex workflows—commercial, nonprofit, and hybrid-revenue operations, multi-site groups, and organizations that need API-first extensibility, deeper editorial tooling, native ad ops integration, revenue tools, analytics support, and a practical migration path.

Does Masthead CMS replace our current website and CMS?

With Masthead Cloud CMS, yes: Masthead powers both the editorial system and the public reader experience, with migration planning for stories, media, authors, tags, redirects, and search equity. With Masthead Composable CMS, Masthead replaces the editorial CMS and APIs while your team keeps building (or migrates to) a custom frontend framework such as Next.js or Astro.

Is Masthead CMS only for developers?

No. Developer-first describes the architecture—customizable schemas, GraphQL, webhooks—not the buyer. Newsrooms get editorial depth; engineering teams get a platform they can extend without forking core CMS code.

Does Masthead CMS include a GraphQL API, webhooks, and customizable schemas?

Masthead Composable CMS includes a GraphQL API with flexible querying for frontends you operate, plus webhooks for publish and media events to tie into automation stacks. Both paths support customizable content types and schema configuration so editorial fields, templates, and taxonomies match your newsroom model rather than a fixed blog shape.

Can Masthead CMS support multiple languages, personalization, or experiments?

Yes, when scoped into your implementation: multi-language locales and translated fields, audience or content personalization modules, and A/B testing on reader surfaces can be planned alongside SEO, analytics, and delivery—so experiments and localized editions share the same canonical catalogue.

Can Masthead CMS support revenue workflows?

Yes. Revenue surfaces can include Google Ad Manager and Prebid header bidding, direct-sold sponsorship modules, native ad templates, subscription paths, donation prompts where your model needs them, newsletter capture, campaign pages, and analytics-ready monetization reporting.

Does Masthead CMS integrate with Google Ad Manager and Prebid?

Yes. Masthead CMS reader templates support GAM (GPT) slot architecture and Prebid.js or Prebid Server header bidding mapped to GAM key-values and yield groups. Lazy loading, placement policies, and CMP hooks can be scoped during implementation so programmatic demand does not fight Core Web Vitals.

Does Masthead CMS include puzzles, games, or trivia for readers?

Yes. Masthead CMS offers white-label games natively integrated into your site, including Sudoku, Wordio, localized word search, localized trivia, and additional formats so engagement stays on your domain.

Can editors review stories with Masthead Copilot before publish?

Yes. Copilot Review surfaces suggested key points, headline alternatives, AI overviews, multi-format formatting, and legal or style-guide checks in the editorial workflow. Editors approve, edit, or reject suggestions before anything goes live.

Does Masthead CMS include AI narration or transcripts?

Yes. Masthead CMS can generate realistic article narration for Listen audio, apply access rules for subscriber or newsletter-only listening, and create AI-generated transcripts for uploaded audio and video assets.

Does Masthead CMS include digital asset management?

Masthead DAM includes duplicate detection, usage tracking, trash recovery, portrait-to-landscape crop helpers, and transcript metadata so photo and media desks can manage large archives inside the CMS.

Can Masthead CMS import partner feeds and manage attribution?

Yes. The syndication hub supports feed import workflows, canonical fields, partner source metadata, and republishing controls alongside your original reporting.

How does Masthead CMS handle obituaries?

Masthead CMS supports obituaries management in the editorial system with tooling for workflows and syndication so teams can coordinate publishing and partner redistribution from one place.

Can Masthead CMS support multiple brands?

Yes. Multi-site publishing can be scoped for groups operating multiple newsrooms or planning to expand into additional markets.

Contact sales

See how the platform would map to your newsroom.

Bring your current CMS, archive concerns, revenue goals, analytics needs, and launch timeline. We will help identify the right implementation path.

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