Content management is the organizing, categorizing, and structuring of information resources (text, images, documents etc.) so that they can be stored, published, and edited with ease and flexibility. A content management system (CMS) is used to collect, manage, and publish content, storing the content either as components or whole documents, while maintaining dynamic links between components.

CMSs allow end-users (typically authors of some sort) to provide new content in the form of articsles. The articles are typically entered as plain text, perhaps with markup to indicate where other resources (such as pictures) should be placed. The system then uses rules to style the article, which separates the display from the content, which has a number of advantages when trying to get many articles to conform to a consistent "look and feel". The system then adds the articles to a larger collection for publishing.

The systems also often include some sort of concept of the workflow for the target users, which defines how the new content is to be routed around the system.
A good example of a CMS would be a system for managing a newspaper. In such a system the reporters type articles into the system, which stores them in a database. Along with the article the system stores attributes, including keywords, the date and time of filing, the reporter's name, etc. The system then uses these attributes to find out, given its workflow rules, who should proofread the article, approve it for publication, edit it, etc. Later the editors can choose which articles to include (or ignore) in an edition of the newspaper, which is then laid out and printed automatically.