What we shared at WordCamp US 2024: Scalable solutions for the future of journalism with WordPress
Every year, WordCamp US brings together the brightest minds in the WordPress ecosystem, from developers and publishers to product thinkers and agency teams. This year, in Portland, Oregon, we had the privilege of joining that community not just as attendees, but as speakers. Our session, led by our CEO, Rahul Bansal, and Director of Client Delivery, Maitreyie Chavan.
In this blog, we will share our conversation and key learnings that newsrooms and publishing agencies can relate to, especially those navigating the challenges of managing complex content, expanding reach, and focusing on editorial control.
How WordPress supports immersive, scalable, and measurable journalism at the enterprise level
Here are real stories from the field of how WordPress does all this and more, including one project where our team helped a newsroom migrate an entire publishing platform in less than 30 days.
Why today’s newsrooms need advanced storytelling tools
Let’s be honest about what readers expect today. They don’t just want articles anymore; they want experiences. Interactive maps, scrolling narratives, before-and-after sliders, and embedded data visualizations. This isn’t about being fancy; it’s about staying competitive.
The challenge? Translating creative ideas into stories requires development resources.
- Want to add an interactive element? Call the dev team.
- Need a custom layout? Back to the developers.
- Spot a formatting issue right before publishing? That’s another ticket in the queue
This creates bottlenecks that slow down your editorial process and limit what your journalists can actually express.
How WordPress puts creative control back with editors
For publishers managing high-volume content teams, even small bottlenecks can compound fast. Often, the issue isn’t a lack of ideas; it’s a lack of development bandwidth. Editors come up with ambitious, interactive story concepts, but then end up waiting days (or weeks) for developer support to bring them to life. That slows everything down and often waters the idea down too.
This is where WordPress, and specifically Gutenberg, changes the game. Instead of relying on engineering teams for every layout or design update, editors can use a block-based interface to build rich, multimedia stories on their own.
In fact, for a publishing client, Grist, we took this even further. By extending Gutenberg with Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), we built a component-driven system enabling Grist’s editors to get access to a library of branded, pre-built blocks like comparison sliders, scrollytelling sections, interactive embeds, and more.
Not only did Grist’s publishing workflows get faster, editors also felt more empowered to experiment with multimedia formats because they didn’t have to wait on technical help.
If your editors are still dependent on developers to produce modern digital stories, there’s a better way. With the right implementation of WordPress (and Gutenberg), you can give your editorial team full creative control without sacrificing structure, speed, or scale.
Managing multiple sites without the headache
Another common challenge for enterprise publishers is managing multiple websites, as enterprise publishers rarely run just a single publication. Generally, you’re looking at a main newsroom, maybe a newsletter platform, contributor networks, and specialized verticals. Managing these separately becomes a nightmare of inconsistent workflows and repeated work.
The solution to this lies in WordPress Multisite.
With WordPress Multisite, you can run all your digital properties from one dashboard while keeping each distinct.
For one publisher, this meant going from 3 WordPress websites to a single WordPress Multisite network. We not only centralized management for the client by bringing all their properties to a single WordPress account, but also built systems where editors could switch between different sites without relearning tools or losing their workflow momentum.
Once your platform scales, the next challenge is reach, and that’s where syndication comes in.
What is content syndication (and why should publishers care)
If you’re a publisher looking to expand your reach and maximize content ROI, you’ve probably heard about content syndication. But here’s the real question: how do you do it in the first place?
Before we dive into how to get it right, let’s take a step back and look at what content syndication really means.
Content syndication is the practice of republishing your articles across multiple platforms and partner sites, and has become essential for modern publishers looking to expand their reach and maximize content ROI. It’s no longer enough to just publish on your own site and hope for the best. Publishers need to get their content in front of audiences wherever they are, and syndication is the key to making that happen at scale.
Why do most publishers struggle with syndication?
Here’s the reality: most publishers are still handling syndication the hard way. Manual copy-paste workflows, endless back-and-forth emails, and zero visibility into how syndicated content actually performs. Even worse, many publishers unknowingly expose themselves to copyright risks by sharing content with media they don’t have re-licensing rights for. It’s messy, time-consuming, and simply not sustainable for serious media operations.
How does content syndication work, and how can WordPress make it easier?
While other CMS platforms leave you scrambling with third-party solutions and workarounds, WordPress gives you the foundation to build sophisticated syndication workflows that actually scale with your business.
As you can tell, this isn’t possible right out of the box with WordPress. But it’s possible through custom coding. For our client interested in content syndication, we built a custom syndication feature that solved all these issues:
- One click gives republishers access to a version of the article stripped of any media that the publisher doesn’t have re-licensing rights for.
- The output is SEO-friendly and copyright-free media in HTML or plain text, ready for any CMS.
- Every version includes clear source attribution and a tracking pixel.
The tracking piece was key. Syndicated stories include a lightweight Google Tag Manager pixel, which lets the publisher see where and how the content is being used (region, views, engagement).
This particular client went from risky copy-paste workflows to a professional syndication process that protects their content while dramatically expanding their audience reach. More importantly, they now have deep insights into story performance across platforms, with data that directly informs their editorial decisions and helps them create more journalism that actually matters to their audience.
The end goal isn’t just wider distribution but delivering measurable impact.
Can WordPress provide enterprise-level analytics for syndication?
Beyond the actual content syndication, analytics play a critical role in implementing such editorial strategies. For this particular client, we implemented Google Tag Manager and Parse.ly, which together offer both broad traffic trends and deep insights into story performance. From heatmaps to referrer paths, all of that data flows into Google Analytics. This data now becomes a feedback loop, guiding content decisions and helping publishers to maximize the reach and relevance of their reporting. So now, syndication isn’t a black box. It’s a measurable, strategic channel.
It’s a reminder that journalism isn’t just about publishing; it’s about delivering impact and also measuring it.
WordPress for the modern publisher
Whether you’re managing a newsroom, leading a nonprofit publication, or scaling a multisite editorial network, WordPress can be more than just your CMS. With the right implementation, it can become your branded editorial dashboard, syndication engine, and analytics layer, all in one.
At rtCamp, we’re proud to be building these solutions alongside some of the most impactful publishers out there. And we’re always looking for new ways to extend what’s possible.
Our takeaways from the WordCamp stage
Speaking at WordCamp US wasn’t just about showcasing what we’ve built; it was a moment to reaffirm what makes WordPress so compelling for enterprise teams: its inherent flexibility, the openness at its core, and the vibrant community that comes together to solve real-world challenges.
Leaving Portland, we were inspired by the conversations around open-source publishing, accessibility, and performance. These discussions underscored how WordPress, when thoughtfully architected, can go well beyond conventional web development, something we routinely push for our clients.
Let’s keep the conversation going
If you are a publisher and struggling with day-to-day challenges? Let’s talk.
We’re always open to sharing ideas, solving complex editorial workflows, or co-creating new solutions on top of WordPress.
Missed the session? You can watch the full talk here.
Read the full transcript
Show transcript
Maitreyie:
Good morning, uh, everyone. Am I audible?
Audience:
Yes.
Maitreyie:
Okay, thank you. Well, uh, thank you, Rael, for, um, introducing us. I’m going to give a little bit of an intro about myself. So, I’m Maitreyie, and I’m working at rtCamp as the Director of Client Delivery. I have been a project manager at rtCamp a few years back and now, uh, playing the new role. Um, and I’m going to be presenting this talk here with my colleague Rahul.
Rahul:
Yeah, I’m Rahul, Rahul Bansal. I’m founder and CEO of rtCamp. I’ve been doing this for, uh, the last 15 years and using WordPress for the last 17 years.
Maitreyie:
Okay, so let’s get started with, uh, talking about the impact of journalism. It is a theme that closely aligns with our collective mission to democratize publishing. Journalism has often been referred to as the fourth estate. It is because of the essential role it plays in molding society, holding the power accountable, and providing information to the citizens so that they can make informed decisions.
Rahul:
Throughout history, courageous and purpose-driven journalism has spoken the uncomfortable truth of time and brought social and cultural change. Be it the role of journalism in the civil rights movement, Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s work back in India in the country’s freedom struggle, or more recently Panama Papers — like the paper leak exposed how rich and wealthy were avoiding taxes and increasing social inequalities.
But, uh, every time such courageous journalism came forward, it brought some social change. There are many examples of such change. One such change we are fighting is climate change. And, uh, this is an image — any guesses what this image shows?
Audience:
New York flood.
Rahul:
Yeah, so this is an image from New York flood. Not generated by AI, this is a real image. and this is how New York looked almost a year ago. And we have climate change as a current crisis ongoing.
Maitreyie:
And yeah, this brings us to Grist, a publisher that we are going to be showcasing today to demonstrate how they are using WordPress to power their compelling journalism.
Grist is an award-winning nonprofit media organization that has been dedicated towards highlighting climate solutions and environmental injustice since 1999. They’re currently focused on data, social change, and solutions to bring a sustainable future within our reach.
Grist urges their audience to innovate and adapt to a future that is quickly becoming a reality, and they are committed to supporting the people, the ideas, and the stories that are going to make this possible.
rtCamp and Grist have been working together for the past 5 years. Let’s dive into how Grist is telling their stories by using WordPress truly.
At Grist, WordPress is offering the editorial teams a low-code interface to craft their stories using Gutenberg and the ACF plugin. It is not about eliminating code entirely but providing enough flexibility to empower content creators without overwhelming them.
What sets WordPress apart is the stability and the extensiveness of the site editor. It is more than just a user interface, it is designed to support unique workflows for each editorial team.
It also natively supports things like embeds and inline JavaScript, which is particularly useful for Grist for their visualizations that you will see shortly.
In addition to all of this, ACF is helping extend WordPress functionalities. From a writer’s perspective, it is keeping things easy and intuitive. And for the developers, it is providing a cost-effective way to provide custom features that meet some specific needs without the heavy lift of complex coding.
And the result is a flexible and scalable solution that gives the editorial teams the tools they need to create content-rich and immersive stories without being held back by any technical limitations.
As you’re seeing, there is some wonderful use of some 3D interactive images, then there are some before and after comparisons being used. There’s also some visualization with interaction based on the user’s choices. We have some scrolly units being used and some wonderful parallax effects, and many more.
The best part about this is that this experience for the editors as well as Grist’s audience is being achieved and made available across all the sub-sites within Grist’s network.
Rahul:
So let’s see how WordPress is powering the entire Grist network.
They have about 100 contributors across the network collaborating on all these immersive pieces you just saw. Those were all powered by WordPress.
They have about 60,000 content pieces on their flagship site and many sites in their network, starting with the main Grist site, then they have G50, which is like a fixer database.
A fixer is anybody, like a scientist, artist, entrepreneur, a farmer, who is bringing climate change solutions or fighting against climate change. So they maintain this database on G50, where you can go search and interact with those people.
Then there is another site dedicated to a book called The World We Need. This book has stories of American unsung heroes who are fighting climate change battles on their own.
Then there is the Rural News Wire, which focuses on smaller rural communities fighting against climate change.
There is the Uproot database, while G50 is the fixer database; this one is a journalist database. If you are a newsroom and need journalists to help you with climate change coverage or journalism, you can go to the Uproot database and find journalists there.
They have one specific site called PS Mag, Pacific Standard Magazine, and this magazine has a unique story.
This was the most recent addition to WordPress. Grist has been around for many years, and over time, they have been moving to WordPress.
In this last piece that moved to WordPress, they were given 30 days’ notice by their previous CMS vendor to either upgrade to an exorbitantly expensive plan or shut down their site.
So we had 30 days from hearing about the project for the first time to taking it live.
And this is where our WordPress ecosystem came to the rescue. There was no way we could go through design, develop the theme, do all the integrations, and make everything ready in 30 days — data migration, making links intact, everything — especially since the previous CMS vendor was not helping at all. They just gave us an XML term and said you’re on your own. Pay us more or your site will be down after 30 days.
But because of WordPress ecosystem, we could run two parallel teams. One used an existing WordPress theme which closely looked like their site and started modifications. The other team worked in parallel on data migration.
Less than 30 days from never having heard about this project, we went live, and then we could easily say goodbye to the previous vendor.
This is the power of WordPress and how they are growing with WordPress together.
WordPress is the center of their entire network — be it those immersive journalism pieces which you saw in the video, be it a book for which they need a support site, or the databases of fixers and journalists — all maintained using WordPress.
As you see, WordPress is not just helping them manage articles, it is more to them. It is helping them maintain databases, books, and a lot more things.
And then across all these sites, we have built some integrations that solve their use cases. Some of those integrations we will see in the subsequent slides. When we moved that Pacific Standard Magazine in 30 days, another thing happened — training.
Rahul:
People who were using the previous CMS needed to adapt to the new CMS, but WordPress user interface, the WP admin, is consistent across all their sites already.
So some of the PS Mag staff already knew how to use WordPress because they were also collaborating on other sites. Because of this consistent WordPress everywhere, they had zero training cost. Their staff could get up and running immediately on WordPress.
And then to bring the cost down, we built a lot of reusable components — Gutenberg blocks — that we use across each site.
That was another reason we could pull this off in less than 30 days.
Rahul:
And there was no more vendor to negotiate with. They had rtCamp as an agency partner on standby, they had WordPress VIP as a hosting partner on standby. It was a very smooth experience, much smoother than the negotiation they were going through with the previous vendor.
Maitreyie:
One of the things we did for Grist was content syndication.
But what is content syndication? Well, it is a wonderful way for publishers and newsrooms to extend their reach and boost their visibility by distributing their content across various platforms.
Maitreyie:
Along with increasing the ad impressions, it helps create brand authority for the newsrooms and publishers.
The more their content reaches the audience, the more it helps them set up as a leading voice in their industry.
Maitreyie:
Grist presented us with a challenge where there was no straightforward way for them to have their content republished on other websites without manual copy-paste efforts.
And if some people wanted to syndicate their content, they were running into the copy right issues because grist uses externally source licensed media lets say even they managed to do this they never knew what is the impact of the content syndicated there was no major who it was reaching, what kind of interaction people were having that part went dark for grist.
Maitreyie:
So provided grist with a simple solution that made it easy for their republishers to share grist’s story without worry of the copyright. If they click on this syndication button, they get a version of a story that is completely stripped from the copyright media. To make things much easier, they were able to choose SEO friendly HTML or plain text format, which makes it earlier for the republishers to share their story without worrying about the destination CMS is.
There is still a puzzle is missing ? How grist is supposed to track their syndicated content was ?
Rahul:
For this tracking, we build another solution we placed Google Tag Manager pixel that you saw in previous slide we gave disclaimer about that as well. When you copy and paste this HTML it will have a tracking pixel that is minimum tracking like a how many views we are getting from the specific regions. GTM pixels collects all that data on third party sites and send it to the Google Analytics site, which looks like this. So grist would know which stories are being republished or which one is getting more traffic and what reasons so ? It helps them to draw analytics.
Analytics is important for data driven publishing – we have seen it earlier, but this data amplifies the impact. Data can be converting, ranking pages for some publishers it may be different like bounce rate, sign up for paid plan whatever. But without data you would never know like wise we can find traffic patterns from the heatmap this data acts like a feedback loop . Apart from GTM we are also using Pars.ly which is not free. But it was very helpful for this project. We can create a dashboard with grist, considering the requirement . It is very easy to use, so it’s easy to use
Maitreyie:
From what we have seen today, it helps confirm that WordPress is a comprehensive content ecosystem that capable of handling the complex strategies that delivering the measurable results for grist is has done this.
Takeaways
1. Comprehensive strategies
2. Enabling data driven decisions
3. Providing holistic approach
It has also enabled Grist to make some data-driven decisions that are currently that are currently guiding all their editorial strategies and in, and it is and WordPress is providing a holistic approach, that helps us think about well that helps us get rid of the assumption that WordPress is just a blogging platform. So thank you so much for coming to our session here today. Um, we hope this helped, give an idea about what else you can do with WordPress and how much you can extend it further.
I know we managed to do it a little bit quicker, but that means maybe we have more time for some Q&A. Uh, we are open for some question and answers.
Someone: [Applause] Hi, thank you very much for the excellent presentation. I have a question about canonical links. I don’t even know if I’m pronouncing that correctly. Um, I have my own blog, and I’m trying to get more people to share, but I know that canonical links are super important in getting the correct, so it doesn’t look like people are copying without permission. How do you guys manage that on Grist?
Rahul: So we, uh, in the HTML that we published, we put a link like this article is published originally by Grist that they can remove at the source. But then we cannot prevent people from copying and pasting manually. We try to get a back link to the original article.
Someone: So, how do you do the backlinks?
Rahul: Uh, the HTML that we generate, we have a link in that.
Someone: Yeah, any other questions? Wait.
Someone: Hi, I’m just curious about your content syndication and if you created that on your own or is that a plug-in that you’ve used?
Rahul: We created it on our own. Like, uh, so, uh, it’s like we implement it as a plugin. It’s a feature that basically when somebody clicks that button, it takes them to a page. Uh, we pass a Story ID to that page and on there we show two markups. One is an HTML version, one is a plain text version. And by the way, during HTML processing, we remove all the copyrighted media. So if the original page has a, uh, how do I put it, like Grist itself uses a lot of licensed media and for some media, uh, they have the right to use it but not, uh, don’t have the right to relicense it. So while Grist can show those images on their site, uh, they must be removed if anybody republishes Grist content. So we, in that custom workflow, automatically remove those IMG tags from that HTML.
Any other questions? Okay, thank you so much, everyone. Thank you. Have a good day ahead. Bye-bye.
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