Project Broadsheet for Education
A real publishing platform for student newspapers, journalism programs, and classroom projects — free, open-source, and built to teach.
Who this is for
A fully featured newsroom platform — editorial sections, corrections, source documents, RSS, search — without the recurring platform cost. Students own the code and the content outright.
Run a class publication alongside a reporting course. Students write, edit, and publish in the same workflow used at professional outlets: Git, Markdown, version-controlled content.
Use the built-in citation formatter, primary source documents collection, and structured argument maps for coursework, research summaries, and faculty publications.
Community news organizations, nonprofit investigative teams, and public-interest publishers. No platform taking a cut of your revenue. No subscription when funding is tight.
Freelancers, independent journalists, and essayists who want a professional publishing setup on their own domain — no algorithmic feed, no follower count, no platform landlord. Own the code and the archive outright.
Build a real byline before you graduate. Publish to your own domain, learn the tools professional newsrooms actually use — Git, Markdown, structured content — and leave with a portfolio that belongs to you, not a platform.
What students learn
Running a Project Broadsheet publication teaches skills that transfer directly to professional newsrooms and digital media careers:
- Version control — Every article is a Git commit. Students learn to track changes, revert mistakes, and collaborate without overwriting each other's work.
- Structured content — Front matter, editorial sections, tags, and series teach students to think about content as data — the same mental model used in professional CMS environments.
- Journalistic best practices — The corrections system, source documents collection, and response tracking are built into the platform. Using them correctly is part of the workflow, not an afterthought.
- Web publishing — Students deploy to a real domain with HTTPS, configure SEO metadata, submit to Google News, and manage RSS feeds — practical skills most journalism programs don't teach.
- Accessibility and privacy — The framework targets WCAG 2.2 AA and ships with cookieless analytics. Students learn these aren't optional features; they're built in.
Education support
Educational institutions and registered nonprofit organizations qualify for a 50% reduced hourly rate — $75/hour instead of $150 — for setup, training, and custom development. Mention your institution when you book.
Book a callWhat support looks like
Free (async)
- Documentation at /docs/
- GitHub Discussions for community questions
- Bug reports via GitHub Issues
Paid ($75/hour for education)
- Initial setup and deployment
- Staff and faculty training session (recorded on request)
- Custom section layouts or editorial workflows
- Ongoing technical support
Typical classroom setups
Student newspaper
Fork the repository into a student organization's GitHub account. Give each reporter a contributor role. Editors review and merge pull requests before articles go live. The full revision history is public and auditable — a transparency model worth teaching.
Reporting course
Each student forks the repository and runs their own publication for the semester. Assignments are submitted as Git commits. The instructor reviews pull requests as the editorial feedback mechanism. All work is version-controlled and portable at the end of the term.
Capstone project
A single shared publication built by a cohort over one or two semesters. Students take on real editorial roles — editor, section editor, reporter, photographer — and publish to a live domain. The publication outlasts the course if the institution wants to maintain it.
Get started
Terminal-based setup: clone, install, preview, deploy. Under 10 minutes for a developer.
Fork on GitHub, connect Cloudflare Pages, write in Decap CMS. No command line required.
Ten things to do before the publication is ready for readers.
Mention your institution for the reduced education rate. I'll handle the technical setup for your team.
Get in touch. I'm glad to discuss how it fits your curriculum, what the setup looks like for your institution, and what support is available. I read every message personally.