SharePoint Online creating an organisation news site

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A SharePoint admin can now make a SharePoint Online site an organisation news site. This gives news post created in the SharePoint site a visual marker and makes them appear on the SharePoint start page (SharePoint App) for users across the business. 

At the time of writing, this is achieved via a simple PowerShell script. Below is an example of the script I have been using.

PowerShell Script

# Sets the specified site as an Organisational News site. Update the URLs below.
$adminSiteUrl = "https://XXXXX-admin.sharepoint.com"
$newsSiteUrl = "https://XXXXX.sharepoint.com/sites/SITENAME"
# Connection to tenant
Connect-SPOService $adminSiteUrl -Credential $cred
# Set specified site as organisational news site
Set-SPOOrgNewsSite -OrgNewsSiteUrl $newsSiteUrl
# Confirms process completed and specified site has been set as organisational news site
Write-Host "Organisational News site has been set" -ForegroundColor Green

What do you need to get started?

  • Ensure you have installed the relevant PowerShell modules are required to run the script
  • SharePoint Admin rights to successfully run the commands 
  • Review the Microsoft Docs guidance: Create an organization news site
  • Create or select an existing site that will become your organisation news site.

What you need to know about Organisation news sites

  • SharePoint home sites are automatically configured as a organisation news site.
  • Unlike home sites you can have multiple organisation news sites.
  • Once a site is designated an organisation news site by running the PowerShell script news posts are given an extra visual treatment in the form of a coloured block with the site name (see below example).

  • News posted in these sites are pushed to users SharePoint start page (SharePoint App)

Conclusions

Making a site a organisation news site, is relatively straight forward and is done in less than a minute with the PowerShell script. Once completed this brings the benefits of highlighting news from these sites with the coloured block with the site name and brings the news to staffs SharePoint start page. 

The highlighting of the news with the coloured block above the title does draw your eye in when scrolling through news. However you do want to ensure the name of your news site is descriptive. One thing I found is that if you rename a site after running the PowerShell any news published before the rename seem to retain the previous site name. So consider your site name carefully.

The benefit of having news pushed to users SharePoint start page is a great one, but there may need to be an element of education for adoption. I've seen many organisations were staff just aren't aware of the SharePoint start page and so don't utilise it. 

Overall I really like this new ability to make a SharePoint site an organisation news site. It's simple enough to do and if done right can become an effective tool for communication to staff.

Location: United Kingdom

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