The site now loads faster, “slightly exceeding current standards” as determined by Google’s Core Web Vitals report (which currently shows pages should load faster than 2.5 seconds), said CNN Digital’s head of product, Amanda Rottier. Rottier hopes it will improve reader engagement, which CNN measures by looking at time spent, how often readers are returning to the site and how much content is consumed.

The new CMS could help CNN’s business by allowing it to cut back on the money it’s spending with third-party tech vendors and by improving its user experience and engagement to attract more ad dollars. According to media buyers, advertisers look for a good user experience and high engagement rates when evaluating where they’re putting their budgets.

“We had legacy publishing systems and a lot of them. We really felt strongly that in order for us to grow our business, and grow and innovate on our user experience, we needed to effectively migrate all of our systems and our CMS to a new homegrown system that could allow us to do that more effectively,” Rottier said.

Cutting back on ‘tech debt’

CNN reduced the number of third-party tech vendors it was paying for from 50 to 10 by building those components into Stellar, amounting to an operating cost savings of about 60%, Rottier said. She did not say how much money CNN was paying those vendors.

“It’s really reducing that tech debt down a lot more,” she said.

“Advertisers are increasingly looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact, and [implement] sustainable practices. The design and development of a new CMS can help reduce energy usage, decrease file size and minimize bandwidth, ultimately creating a more sustainable and responsible digital ecosystem,” said Krystal Olivieri, global chief innovation officer at ad agency Group M, in an email.

Improving user experience to draw in advertisers

The new CMS, which took nearly a year to build, gives CNN’s editorial team more flexibility with the design and experiences across CNN’s website and app, Rottier said. For example, content can now be published on multiple platforms in one central place, for distribution onto Apple News, Facebook and CNN’s mobile app, Rottier said.

The CMS was built based on feedback from CNN’s editorial team, she added. In anonymous feedback sent to CNN’s product team and shared with Digiday by a spokesperson, editorial employees said Stellar reduces the amount of time spent programming and publishing content, “from double digit minutes to single digit minutes and seconds” — especially important when dealing with breaking news. Stellar allows them to drag and drop pieces of content for the …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron