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News Taxonomy

News Taxonomy

A News Listing Page can be configured to allow website visitors to filter Story Pages using Story Topics, Story Types and Departments. Audiences is not included as a filter because news publicly available on a website is available to anyone who wishes to read it. Offices and Centers and Backend Tags can be used to support quality search results but not as filters.

Story Topics

Story Topics generally describe a story. They should not be so specific that filtering a News Listing Page to the topic narrows the content down to just one story; topics should be higher-level bucket labels. Story Topic tag options will only appear in a website’s Story Topic filter if they’ve been applied to a published story. 

It is a best practice to limit the number of actively used story topics on a website to 10. This ensures that the drop-down Story Topic filters are usable on a mobile device. 

University Communications and Marketing worked with communications professionals across campus to develop a global taxonomy framework offering many options for story topics. Expand the accordion tab below to view the suggested Story Topics for units wishing to align to the university global taxonomy.

Units should choose up to 10 topic tags for use:

  • Alumni and Donors
  • Careers and Networking
  • Continuing Education
  • Current Students
  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Faculty and Staff
  • Future Students
  • Honors and Awards
  • Industry and Government
  • MSU/College
  • Outreach and Engagement
  • PreK-12
  • Public/General
  • Research and Grants
  • Student Organizations
  • Transfer Students

If a unit has questions about recommended Story Topics, please contact Katie Kelly to discuss. 

Instructions for Use 

To add a new Story Topic tag in Content Editor:

  1. Expand the MSU node, the website node and the Data folder. 
  2. Right click on Story Topics.
  3. Click Insert and Tag.
  4. Enter a name for the Story Topic item and click OK.
  5. Enter a value for the Story Topic.
  6. Click Save.
     

To edit an existing Story Topic in Content Editor:

  1. Expand the MSU node, the website node and the Data folder. 
  2. Expand Story Topics folder.
  3. Locate the specific tag to be edited and click to select.
  4. Update the label value, as needed.
  5. Click Save.
     

To deactivate a Story Topic in Content Editor:

  1. Expand the MSU node, the website node and the Data folder. 
  2. Expand Story Topics folder.
  3. Locate the specific tag to be edited and click to select.
  4. Check Inactive.
  5. Click Save.

In Content Editor:

  1. Navigate to and select the story page in the Content Tree.
  2. Scroll to the Unit Taxonomies section of the data template and find the Story Topics tag set. 
  3. Click on a tag in the left “All” column to select it.
  4. Click the > icon next to the tags list to move the selected tag to the right “Selected” column.
  5. Repeat as needed.
  6. To remove a tag, click the tag in the right “Selected” column and click the < icon to move it back to the left “All” column.

Story Types

Story Types describe the general format of a story. They should not be so specific that filtering a News Listing Page to the type narrows the content down to just one story; types should be higher-level bucket labels. Story Type tag options will only appear in a website’s Story Type filter if they’ve been applied to a published story. 

It is a best practice to limit the number of actively used story types on a website to 10. This ensures that the drop-down Story Type filters are usable on a mobile device. 

University Communications and Marketing worked with communications professionals across campus to develop a global taxonomy framework offering many options for story types. Expand the accordion tab below to view the suggested Story Types for units wishing to align to the university global taxonomy.

If one of the following labels adequately describes the unit’s story type, this label should be used in lieu of creating another label. This will lead to consistency across sites, which will support ease of use for readers. 

Units should choose up to 10 Story Type tags for use:

  • Announcement
  • Blogs
  • Collection
  • Featured Event
  • From the Chair
  • From the Dean
  • From the President
  • In Memoriam
  • Messages and Statements
  • Photo and Video
  • Podcasts
  • Press Release
  • Publications and Newsletters
  • Speeches and Op-eds
  • Story

If a unit has questions about recommended Story Types, please contact Katie Kelly to discuss. 

Instructions for Use 

To add a new Story Type tag in Content Editor:

  1. Expand the MSU node, the website node and the Data folder. 
  2. Right click on Story Types.
  3. Click Insert and Tag.
  4. Enter a name for the Story Type item and click OK.
  5. Enter a value for the Story Type.
  6. Click Save.

To edit an existing Story Type tag in Content Editor:

  1. Expand the MSU node, the website node and the Data folder. 
  2. Expand Story Types folder.
  3. Locate the specific tag to be edited and click to select.
  4. Update the label value, as needed.
  5. Click Save.

To deactivate a Story Type tag in Content Editor:

  1. Expand the MSU node, the website node and the Data folder. 
  2. Expand Story Types folder.
  3. Locate the specific tag to be edited and click to select.
  4. Check Inactive.
  5. Click Save.

In Content Editor:

  1. Navigate to and select the story page in the Content Tree.
  2. Scroll to the Unit Taxonomies section of the data template and find the Story Types tag set. 
  3. Click on a tag in the left “All” column to select it.
  4. Click the > icon next to the tags list to move the selected tag to the right “Selected” column.
  5. Repeat as needed.
  6. To remove a tag, click the tag in the right “Selected” column and click the < icon to move it back to the left “All” column.

Other Ways to Tag: Backend Tags and Unit Tags

Backend Tags and Department (i.e., Unit) Tags are used to further tag and categorize events, news and people within a website. These tags are referenced by Sitecore Search when delivering search results within the page. In the future, website managers may be able to manually use these tags to control a prefiltered view of news, events or people on a page. University Communications and Marketing is documenting use case requests to see if this functionality is needed.

For example, within a college website:

  • An outreach program landing page might feature events tagged to that program, while the college events list would show all events within the college website.
  • An academic department landing page might feature news tagged to that department, while the college news page would show news from all departments within the college.

Units interested in using these additional tags to create prefiltered News Listing pages should contact University Communications and Marketing.

Instructions for Use

Most units associated with an MAU have been created in the system under the Departments field. A unit tag may be nested under another unit tag. 

If a content author believes that a tag is missing and would like it added to the system, contact Katie Kelly to discuss the need. Katie will provide guidance on if the tag exists (and where), if it is an appropriate candidate for a new Departments tag, or if it can be added to the global taxonomy.


Tool Use Guide

 Page BuilderExplorerContent Editor
Create, edit and archive Story Topics--Optimal
Create, edit and archive Story Types--Optimal
Create, edit and archive Backend Tags--Optimal
Create and edit a Department Tag--Contact University Communications and Marketing

 

Documentation updated: May 5, 2025

XMC Component Guide