MediaDC by the numbers
The MediaDC challenge
MediaDC is the publisher of The Washington Examiner. Located in the nation’s capital, its team of world-class journalists works to inform and enlighten both readers, policymakers and politicians at state and national levels.
In 2017, MediaDC decided it was time to redesign both the front- and back-end experiences for its two flagship publications: The Washington Examiner and The Weekly Standard (closed down in 2019). The organization was working across multiple CMS platforms to accomplish the editorial functions for both publications. The legacy CMS platforms they were using were customized so extensively that had become costly and inefficient to maintain and had left stakeholders heavily reliant on IT.
Instead of working across multiple legacy systems just to publish a single article, MediaDC decided it was time to seek a modern CMS solution with a single authoring experience. MediaDC needed a scalable, extensible platform, with an open development framework that enabled them to consolidate all of its publishing operations within one system. The ideal CMS would also empower its digital teams to set up customized workflows, unique to both publications.
The Brightspot solution for MediaDC
After conducting an extensive audit of the sites in parallel, MediaDC redesigned and relaunched both digital properties on Brightspot in less than 90 days. Brightspot empowers MediaDC to:
- Maintain all digital properties from one system gaining more control over website experiences and corporate branding.
- Manage two large editorial teams within one CMS with tailored roles and workflows that allow teams to establish guidelines and permissions that can be as specific or broad as needed.
- Improve the editorial experience and delight editors with a robust set of publishing tools and an easy-to-use interface that make it possible to deliver content faster and more efficiently.
- Take total ownership of the platform, with a flexible, open development framework that their in-house development team could learn and continue to develop on independently.
- View more realistic ad impression metrics via seamless third-party integrations with Chartbeat and comScore.
- Build out customized DFP ads working with prior business rules to sustain partnerships.
Brightspot makes it possible for us to serve our audience with the information they crave faster and more easily than ever before.
The outcome for MediaDC
Armed with their next-gen CMS, the writers and editors at The Washington Examiner have the freedom to deliver up-to-date information, political analysis, and polished prose more quickly and easily than ever before.
Key site features include:
- Natively multisite
- Customized DFP ads
- Flexible workflows
- Omnichannel publishing
- Digital asset management with Getty Images integration
MediaDC in brief
