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Configuring authors

Use the Authors page to manually create and manage your organization’s author profiles.

The author's profile data appears in the byline field inside your organization’s stories and on the author's biography page on your website.

Each author profile must include the following mandatory fields: the author's username, byline, first name, last name, and slug.

Note

By default, Arc XP creates author URLs using the following format: /people/%byline | slugify()%/. If you'd like to override this format, you can create a new URL format for "type": "author" and provide any format you'd like.

Additionally, we recommend taking into consideration the possibility of author name changes as you configure authors. See Accounting for author name changes.

Scenario: Creating and deleting an author profile

An editor of a news organization wants to add a new staff author to the system so they can add their name to stories.

Another editor needs to update a profile because the author is no longer contributing to stories. They can delete the author's profile through the Authors app. Yet, all the content they authored remains available for reference.

Procedures

Creating authors

To create an author profile:

  1. Navigate to the Authors app.

  2. Click New Author. The New Author page opens.

  3. Complete the following fields in each section:

    • Profile 

      • Username - enter the author's username, for example, jane-jacobs . The username appears as the slug to identify each author. This field cannot be edited after creation.

      • Byline - enter the author's name that appears inside the stories. Ensure to enter the name exactly as the author wants to be known.

      • First Name - enter the author's official first name, for example, Joan Jane.

      • Last Name - enter the author's official last name, for example, Jacobs III.

      • Middle name or initial - enter the author's official middle name or initial, for example, J.

      • Location - enter the author's geographic location, such as Washington, D.C..

      • Image - upload the author's image using the Update Image button.

    • Bio 

      • Author role - enter a short description of the author's role, for example, "White House correspondent covering the Trump presidency and foreign policy."

      • Short bio - enter the author’s professional details. Constrain the details to 350 characters.

      • Full bio - enter the author's additional professional details.

    • Professional Information 

      • Status - select the author's status in the organization. They can be Active or Inactive.

      • Education - enter the author's educational details, for example, "Hawaii Pacific University, BA in History."

        If you need to include additional education fields, click Add Field.

      • Honors & Awards - Enter the author's received honors and awards, such as "Member of the 'Pegasus Project' team that won a George Polk Award, 2021."

        If you need to include additional education fields, click Add Field.

      • Podcast - enter the author's podcast details:

        • Podcast Name - enter the registered name in diverse podcast platforms.

        • Podcast URL - enter the URL of the registered podcast.

        • Download URL - enter the URL where the registered podcast can be downloaded.

        Add Another Podcast - click to open another podcast field if you need to include other podcasts linked to that author.

    • Social Accounts & Contact Info 

      • Email - enter the author's email address, for example, jacobs.jane@theherald.com

      • Slug - enter the author's slug. The slug helps create human-readable URLs for your organization's author bio pages. They consist of lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only, for example, jane-jacobs.

      • Make URL - click to create the author's Bio Page URL based on the URL format for Authors configured by your organization in the DRAFT service.

      • Twitter handle - enter the author's Twitter (rebranded "X") username at the end of their unique Twitter URL, for example, /janejacobsDC.

      • Facebook URL - enter the author's Facebook URL, for example, 

        Note

        Click the other social media buttons to add the author's LinkedIn, RSS feed, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, Medium, Reddit, Pinterest, SoundCloud, Snapchat, and WhatsApp details.

    • Misc 

      • Enabled - select to mark an author as enabled for your organization.

      • Disable - select to mark an author as disabled for your organization.

  4. Click Save.

    Your new author profile becomes available on the Author List page.

You can add custom fields to the Author Service. Contact Arc XP Customer Support to configure the custom fields.

Deleting an author

You cannot undo deleting an author.

Note

In Composer, articles from deleted authors appear as empty author entries, but the reference data is in tact and continues to render to your front-end users until you delete the reference.

If you must delete an author:

  1. Navigate to the Authors app.

  2. Select the author’s profile from the list. The author’s profile page opens.

  3. Click Delete Author at the bottom of the page. A confirmation message opens.

  4. Click Delete Author to confirm your deletion.

After you delete an author, their profile becomes unavailable on the Authors List. However, all the previous references to the author stay unchanged.

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