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First, I have not dealt with a client utilizing a subdomain from a paper, etc. Second, it sounds as if the only change you are making in Places is to the domain name, is that correct?  If your address, phone, etc are staying the same and you are only changing the domain name there are a couple of things you can do and we have done before as well. I do not see how a change in domain name would affect traffic coming from Google Places. Assuming there is no issue with the paper, you can do a 301 redirect of the current to the new domain. (make sure you 301 from like url to like url for every url that will be utilized on the new site. So, YourSite.Newspaper.com/T-shirts to YourSite.com/T-shirts. Now, if there is a problem with the paper and doing this and you are starting from scratch, you will have a domain that is at a DA of 1 and pages at PA of 1. You will edit your places to change the web address. This should not affect your Google Places listing. (We have done this for clients and they are still in same spot). Would love to know how you work it out.

My clients look to me for recommendations. Recently I was in a position where I needed to determine which CMS would be best to recommend for clients, as well as use for my own site. I reviewed about a dozen CMS systems including Dot Net Nuke and ultimately narrowed it down to three: Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress. I dropped Drupal after closer inspection and my recommendation for clients is either WP or Joomla. If a "full-featured" site is needed, I recommend Joomla. Actually, it is my default recommendation because it allows so much flexibility. The biggest drawback for Joomla when compared to WP is it is more complex, both for admins and developers. It will take a bit more time to develop and a bit more knowledge to administrate. If a client needs a basic site I would suggest WP. These are simply my experiences and research and I am only sharing in case it is helpful. I would also share I have used Windows-based software most of my life. I spent 7 years as a MS SQL DBA working for Verizon Wireless. All my experience is working with windows platforms, yet for web development there is a strong preference towards *nix based platforms. If I was being pitched with a Dot Net Nuke CMS, I would ask for a clear and compelling reason to accept the proposal. My guess is the developer's main experience is with that platform, and they are biased. When developing a new platform, I would recommend a plan which is based upon the inherent coding of the CMS. When necessary rely on the most established extensions or add-ons possible. Unless you are working for a large company which has their own developers on staff, you want to avoid custom coding whenever possible. CMS software is frequently updated. You will be faced with a constant choice of not updating your software, or paying to have the custom coding updating before each update. Additionally if a key developer leaves, you are often faced with the new developer not working well with the prior code and pitching a plan to recode the site. The entire point of a CMS is faster development, lower development costs and standardization. My main focus in receiving a pitch for any platform is to examine the development plan with these questions in mind.