We wrote last month about what looked like the end of the road for Ellington, a content management system designed for news organizations and built on Django. Its owner, the parent company of the Lawrence Journal-World, decided the free CMS world had advanced to the point where a more expensive alternative would struggle in the market.

Well, someone has faith: ePublishing (“a cloud-based SaaS provider of integrated Content Management, eCommerce and CRM solutions”) is buying both Ellington’s tech and clients. From the language in the press release (below), it looks like hosted cloud solutions (as opposed to Ellington living on clients’ servers) might be a stronger area of emphasis.

ePublishing’s listed clients seem to be largely from the trade-pub business. Worth noting, then, that ePublishing is also getting the Ellington Marketplace product, which builds company directories.

CHICAGO, July 11, 2012 – ePublishing, Inc. (www.ePublishing.com), a cloud-based SaaS provider of integrated Content Management, eCommerce and CRM solutions announced an agreement to acquire the clients and technology of Ellington CMS and Ellington Marketplace from The World Company’s (www.ljworld.com) Mediaphormedia software division.

“With this announcement, our first priority will be uninterrupted service for all Ellington CMS and Ellington Marketplace customers,” said Thomas Chaffee, CEO of ePublishing. “We look forward to continuing development, implementation and ongoing support as we personally welcome each Ellington customer to the ePublishing family.”

“Online and mobile technologies are accelerating in sophistication and play an increasingly key role for media companies, who as a group have the absolute highest requirements,” said Bill Fowle, Director of The World Company. “Ellington has been a leader for over a decade and transitioning our clients to the best possible service, technology, infrastructure and expertise was paramount. We found that in ePublishing.”

Increasingly, media companies are realizing that Cloud Software as a Service business solutions are the best path to deliver more to advertisers and grow their enterprise value while achieving the necessary speed to recognize, adopt and capitalize on emerging revenue opportunities.

ePublishing drives profit for publishers with tools and services that empower a wide range of business models, leveraging new and broadly diversified income streams — creating deep reader engagement with contextual Content, Community and Commerce.

“Content consumption is changing rapidly and so must the technology that creates, drives and monetizes the online and mobile presence of today’s media companies,” said Chaffee. “We look forward to offering the marketplace a choice of two industry-leading technology platforms backed by our dedication to media industry best practices and obsessive 24 x 7 service and support.”

“The top priority of both The World Company and ePublishing is to continue supporting our customers and making the transition for clients and staff both transparent and simple,” said Fowle.

For more information, please visit www.ePublishing.com or call Lou Bahin, ePublishing CMO at 312.768.6868

About ePublishing

Since 1997, ePublishing has provided software, custom development, design and 24 x 7 customer service to publishers and media companies. ePublishing offers a fully customizable Enterprise Publishing System that integrates content management, community, e-commerce, workflow, audience management, video, advertising, e-mail, directories, CRM and SEO.

About Mediaphormedia’s Ellington CMS & Ellington Marketplace

Begun in 2000 as a business venture of World Co.’s Lawrence Journal-World, Ellington’s feature-rich web CMS and local business search service Marketplace serves over 300 websites in North America and has helped clients amass a multitude of top industry awards.