Do the SharePoint Modern UI, and Communication Sites provide real content management?

A major difference between the SharePoint Modern and Classic UI, is that the Modern UI editor and web parts are built much like popular website building tools (Weebly, Wordpress, Wix etc).  That makes them easy to use.   Unfortunately, the designers did not seem to realize that building an Internet page is very different than an Intranet. The main difference is the audience.  Internets are generally pages built for the masses - anonymous users generally viewing information only.  Whereas, an intranet audience is not anonymous.  It is made of authenticated users who have different information needs based on role, function and level.  The content in an intranet needs to allow targeting, and provide governance (security), over what is shown and who can change it based on the user.

Unfortunately that is not how much of the content management works in the SharePoint Modern and Communication Sites.  It is the reason it is generating many articles of concern, here is a few:

• 28 REASONS WHY MODERN SHAREPOINT ONLINE SITE PERMISSIONS ARE A HOT MESS!
• HOW COMMUNICATIONS SITES IMPACT GOVERNANCE
• SharePoint Communication Sites: An improvement but no panacea

Below you will find a summary of the core differences in how content is handled in an Internet vs. an Intranet. â€‹

Internet - Page building
Audience - anonymous users
Content - general information that is organized but not targeted
Content Source - the pages themselves
Governance - Simple, most of it read only

Intranet - Content Management System
Audience(s) - authenticated users by role, function, level
Content - Information, documents, data that is targeted to audience
Content Source - Lists, Libraries with meta data for filtering, targeting
Governance - Permissions based Content

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I want to emphasize though, we are not saying Communications Sites themselves are bad, just beware of how their out-of-the-box content management works.  Continue on to learn more.

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