Gartner has published its 2010 Magic Quadrant report on Web Content Management (WCM), and it makes for interesting reading.   The clear message in 2010 is that content is no longer “king”, having been usurped by the user:

The user has displaced content as the most important focus when developing an online strategy.

In addition, WCM systems are increasingly being used to manage content across multiple channels (corporate web, microsites, mobile, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), because the user expects a seamless experience across any channel she uses to interact with the organisation.

… online strategies must […] consider a multichannel dissemination of content.

The comments on SharePoint 2010 are also interesting, in that although the latest version of SharePoint has some improvements in WCM features, it still falls short of several competitors in this respect:

SharePoint 2010 will frequently be seen as not possessing the “nimble” qualities of some competitors.

Also notable is the promotion of Sitecore to the Leaders quadrant, and the exit from the WCM market of former big players EMC and Vignette. This has opened up the marketplace for smaller vendors (who often have more attractive products) to make further headway.

The Gartner MQ report is a useful summary of strengths and weakness of the major WCM vendors and their products, although some criticise its simplistic approach, including Tony Byrne of Real Story:

The biggest potential trap for you with this MQ is Gartner’s continued over-weighting of “name” vendors. It is only a slight overstatement to say that the bigger the software vendor, the weaker their WCM tool. It’s been that way for more than a decade.

CMSWire also has a summary of the WCM report:

…the key thing to recognize is that today’s web content management systems are at the heart of your web engagement strategy. Just about everything you can do to engage with your audience is facilitated or aided by a solid content management and distribution core.

All in all, the WCM market continues to see significant innovation driven by a strong demand from marketing and eCommerce stakeholders for multi-channel user engagement.