One Platform to Rule Them All: Migrating 11 Media Sites to Centralized WordPress
Featuring:
This project was about moving 11 high-traffic websites from an old CMS called Arbotron to WordPress on the WPVIP platform. These websites belong to a global media and publishing group, reaching over 245 million unique visitors and 500 million page views each month—so this was a big, high-impact project that needed careful planning and execution.
Our main goal was to build a modern and scalable platform using WordPress. We used WordPress Multisite to centrally manage all the websites, while still keeping each site’s unique look and feel. We migrated over 50,000 posts and their media files using custom WP-CLI scripts, making sure everything transferred correctly and worked smoothly in WordPress.
To simplify content creation and publishing, we built a custom plugin that allowed the team to manage all content from one central site. This made the editorial process faster and more efficient. For design, we created site-specific themes and shared Gutenberg blocks across all sites to keep things consistent and flexible.
We focused heavily on performance. We used advanced caching methods, WordPress VIP’s CDN, and Fastly’s reverse proxy to make the sites load quickly. For ads, we developed a plugin to manage ad codes easily and improve ad revenue.
The entire project was completed in just 12 weeks with zero downtime. We also improved and rebuilt key features from the old system so we could move away from outdated tools. In the end, we delivered a fast, reliable, and future-ready platform that’s built to grow with their global audience.