Replatforming 42 television stations on WordPress and providing a curated experience for online news audiences, with an updated editorial interface that makes it easy for newsrooms to publish content to the web, mobile apps, and on-demand digital products.

Challenge

NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations looked to build a new web publishing platform, create a training program that would reach hundreds of journalists across multiple newsrooms, migrate ten years of content, and support the organization’s transition from their legacy content management system (CMS).

Solution

In the hypercompetitive news market, fast load times are critical for acquiring and retaining visitors. The redesign focused on delivering an engaging experience for audiences without sacrificing site speed. The results have been remarkable. NBCUniversal has recorded record-breaking metrics in site speed, SEO, and search-driven traffic.

The platform also includes new tools that allow teams to create landing pages with flexible layouts, giving them the ability to curate collections of content in an interesting and innovative way while keeping styling consistent. Automated business logic keeps these pages fresh.

Syndication was of central importance to this project. Newsrooms across the country need to syndicate breaking news to multiple outlets without delay. An integrated syndication system gives editors the tools they need to ensure accountability. Local editors can add localized content that’s only delivered to their audiences, keeping the story relevant to their needs. This combination of features gets national news to local audiences in a way that’s fast and considerate of their perspectives.

The CMS is also optimized for both English- and Spanish-speaking journalists, who can not only publish content in both languages, but also create and manage that content in an interface that uses their preferred language. Journalists at Telemundo were consulted on translations of key areas of the CMS to ensure that every interface works well for editorial teams and their audiences.

Key Stats

Quote

A year ago, we set out to create a new digital experience for our stations and audiences that is flexible, intuitive and fast. Our new CMS workflow is a one-of-a-kind ecosystem that will help more than 1,000 local journalists navigate this digital space with ease. Our new websites are beautiful and set a high bar for the way that local news is presented to both English- and Spanish-language users.

– Lora Dennis, Senior Vice President of Digital, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations

To learn how NBCUniversal modernized the experience for their readers and editors using WordPress, read the full case study.