Superdesk

Superdesk is an open-source news creation, production, curation, distribution, and publishing platform. It is designed for professional journalism organizations to manage the full lifecycle of news content, from initial drafting and editorial curation to final distribution. The software is scalable to accommodate news organizations of various sizes, providing a centralized environment for managing journalistic output.

The system is deployed as a web application consisting of a separate server and client. The server provides the API to process all client requests, while the client handles the user interface. It can be installed manually on a server or deployed using Docker Compose for local and production environments. The setup process includes initializing data and creating administrative users to manage the newsroom environment.

Key features

• End-to-end news production and publishing workflow
• Content curation and distribution tools
• Separate API server and client architecture
• Support for professional journalism organizational structures
• Integration with MongoDB for data storage
• ElasticSearch integration for content indexing
• Redis support for caching and messaging
• Admin user management and access control

The architecture relies on a Python backend and a Node.js frontend. It integrates several data services, including MongoDB, ElasticSearch, and Redis, to handle the high volume of data typical of news production. The project is structured to allow for extensions, with specific sibling repositories available for planning, analytics, and publishing functions. This modular approach allows developers to edit the client or extensions independently. It is intended for journalists, editors, and newsroom administrators who require a dedicated, self-hosted environment for news creation and management.

Superdesk is licensed under the AGPL version 3.