ePublishing, a provider of cloud-based CMS, ecommerce and CRM services has agreed to buy Ellington CMS, a platform initially developed by The World Company for its Lawrence Journal-World newspaper website based in Lawrence, Kansas.

The World Company had licensed the Ellington CMS and the Ellington Marketplace, a listings and ad platform which ePublishing also gets in the deal, through its Mediaphormedia software division. The service counts about 300 clients using the CMS and Marketplace products.

The World Company has decided to phase itself out of the CMS business and says the deal is expected to close on July 16. In the short term, it gives ePublishing access to a significant customer base of smaller publishers. "They have a good name and a great client base. We've always been positioned at the higher end of the market and as a complete end-to-end service, which has put ePublishing out of reach for smaller publishers," says Thomas Chaffee, CEO of ePublishing.

It also gives ePublishing a product that it can offer to publishers that, says Chaffee, has an open source feel but the structure of a closed system.