One of the Netherlands’ most influential news brands, NRC, needed powerful, adaptable solutions to meet the complex demands of modern-day digital publishing. Over less than 12 months, we transformed its workflows for greater speed, efficiency, and long-term success.
Founded on a rich publishing history that spans almost two centuries, NRC is the result of a merger between two major Dutch newspapers in 1970, and has since built a solid reputation for high-quality journalism and in-depth reporting. An industry trail-blazer, NRC was also the first Dutch daily newspaper to launch an online version of its publication back in 1995, pioneering digital media just two years after the public launch of the World Wide Web.
As the organisation continues to evolve, more recently it’s joined ranks with a growing number of enterprise brands – including The Times and Amnesty International – by adopting WordPress as its content management system (CMS). While the open source platform offers the security, flexibility and scalability the newsroom needs, NRC’s editorial teams have faced challenges around streamlining workflows, prompting the publisher to turn to Big Bite.
Synchronised systems
Embedded with a history of digital innovation, NRC needed a user-first solution that simplified processes between two indispensable platforms. Kordiam (formerly DeskNet), the popular planning software tool used by journalists and editors around the globe, was key to NRC’s ideation and planning process for all digital content and as a result, needed to seamlessly integrate with the newsroom’s CMS.
We worked closely with the brand’s digital team to understand current processes and implemented a solution that ensured both Kordiam and WordPress worked in tandem, helping the newsroom bring stories to fruition without cumbersome processes or breaks in their workflow.
The plugin, developed by our engineering team, enabled a seamless transfer of content and allowed users to effortlessly plan and coordinate stories without switching between systems. In addition to simplifying the transfer of content from Kordiam to WordPress with just one click, the solution also enabled real-time, two-way synchronisation across both platforms, providing live updates of a story’s status so journalists, editors and support staff had full visibility of progress, irrespective of the platform they were using.
Introducing MediaPress
To further support and solidify NRC’s digital transformation, we helped the brand adopt MediaPress – our powerful WordPress plugin developed to streamline editorial workflows for enterprise publishers. With our deep understanding of the unique needs of large-scale newsrooms, we created a scalable, flexible solution that integrated seamlessly into existing WordPress systems, all while boosting speed and efficiency.
MediaPress brings together a suite of tools that simplify every stage of the editorial process – from from content creation and review to final publication. With features such as an adaptable publication checklist, a comprehensive media manager, and advanced revision tracking, MediaPress empowers teams to work faster, maintain high editorial standards, and reduce manual effort. Via the plugin, editors can also create bespoke metadata fields, schedule deferred updates to live articles, and use its smart linking tool to enhance SEO and reader engagement.
In addition to offering a rich feature set, MediaPress has been built following the 80:20 principle – our favoured approach for app development – which involves designing features that work out of the box for 80% of users while also allowing for 20% customisation. As a result, NRC was able to hit the ground running with MediaPress while still having the flexibility to adapt the toolkit to its specific needs.
Following the successful implementation of MediaPress within the publication’s WordPress CMS, we tailored a number of areas to meet its unique criteria. This involved the configuration of the plugin’s publication checklist feature to exactly match the news title’s editorial standards, and the introduction of new extension points to accommodate NRC’s bespoke styling and metadata requirements. As well as carrying out a major update to ensure that MediaPress’s advanced revisions feature is compatible with custom blocks, we also connected NRC’s custom API to our entity linking feature with just a few lines of code. This provides journalists with suggested links to existing NRC articles when highlighting text in the block editor, saving time and resources.
Customisable comments
As part of the transformation, the team at NRC were also keen to improve the reviewing process for articles and enable users to easily share feedback within a post on the WordPress platform. This resulted in a standalone comments plugin that allowed editors to add annotations to specific blocks or pieces of content within a drafted article, simplifying the reviewing process and saving editors valuable time.
A bespoke solution was also built that allowed specific words or sentences to be ‘soft-deleted’ by editors, removing content from the frontend of the website while maintaining its visibility within the CMS along with any associated comments. This addition not only enhanced user experience but significantly improved communication, collaboration and transparency across teams.
Faster publishing, long-term value
By integrating MediaPress into its workflow, NRC now benefits from a powerful suite of editorial tools at a fraction of the cost of a fully bespoke development. The plugin streamlines content creation, editing, and publishing, enabling teams to work more efficiently while maintaining NRC’s high editorial standards.
On top of immediate workflow improvements, MediaPress provides long-term value, and as an actively developed plugin, it continues to evolve. As well as introducing new features tailored to enterprise newsrooms, its automated testing against the latest WordPress releases means that NRC can confidently keep on top of platform updates without disruption.
As an early MediaPress adopter, NRC also plays a role in shaping its future, with the option to request new features, provide feedback, and even contribute to the project to expand and enhance the toolset. This means that as the plugin develops, the newsroom can continue to refine its workflows, introduce new efficiencies, and stay ahead of industry changes, all without the overhead of maintaining a custom-built solution.
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Speak with our team about MediaPress’ fast and flexible publishing tools