If you do not accept this application for your Content Management Rollout Manager, then please accept the advice it contains.

I say that because of my unique perspective on this job. I spent 16 years in the news business, including two Gannett newspapers, before embarking on my current eight-year career as an IT consultant — and as someone who focuses on what's on the screen, not the programing behind it, I see ads like yours all the time.

Quite simply, the skill set required for identifying the current Web site functionality, for reconciling gaps between ad managers and editors, for building templates for the newspaper staff, is not the same skill set as someone who is testing and implementing data feed filter development or writing queries for SQL servers.

Maybe it's the old editor in me, but the ad in the Virginian-Pilot ad mentions both a position and positions. I don't know if that's an error or a source of hope; if there are multiple positions, then by all means include an information architect, usability engineer, content editor in your planning.

This is more than an opportunity to improve the content management system. It's an opportunity to improve the content, period.

Here's an example of how technology drives things. Without knowing a thing about this particular CMS, I am sure it's one of the most scalable, cost-effective, industry-standard database-driven systems out there. I'm sure the system admin can load balance and automatically back up data, and there might even be predictive software that will warn the admin before the server crashes. I would hope the system even contains a local way of matching ads to content ala Google Ad Words.

But here's my question.. Can you tell me what user tracking capabiilities are in this system, ala WebTrends or Webstats? Can it give me visitor paths? More importantly, what system is in place to tweak the design in response to things you learn from that traffic analysis?

While I'm at it, if the newspaper comes up with a special section, if a staff photographer comes up with an outstanding photo essay, is the newspaper locked into one standard presentation template? That's the case with a lot of .asp or shopping cart systems, you know.

To summarize, I would suggest you ask your applicants if they are familiar with the Poynter Institute recent eye tracking study on newspaper sites, if they are familiar with Jakob Nielsen's story of the misleading $5,000 headline, if they are familiar with Fitts' Law and what it means in terms of where to place subcategory navigation.

Here's the best way I can bottom-line it. To a technologist, once these systems are designed, developed and deployed, the job is finished. To a Web editor, however, the job will have just begun.

Thanks for your time and consideration and good luck with your project.

G.L. Marshall, Virginia Beach, VA.