In one embodiment, a web content management system is coupled to remote resources via a framework that has one or more corresponding adapters which enable editing of content by invoking editors which are native to the respective remote resources. The system retrieves a content item from a remote resource and stores a copy of the content item in a local repository, while the original content item remains in the repository of the remote resource. A content item can be selected in in a local authoring tool, causing the system to examine the content item's metadata to identify the source repository and invoke the native editor of the corresponding remote resource, enabling editing of the content item using the native editor. The copy of the content item in the local repository can then be synchronized to the edited version of the content item in the remote resource.