Get in touch
VICE

A Global CMS to Power Everything

Backstory

Bringing Content Management to Scale

VICE is a worldwide media group that helps content readers navigate an uncertain world. As VICE successfully grew its brand and expanded globally, the company constructed various platforms to meet new demands.

But after so much growth, more than ten discrete systems made for a complicated workflow to publish content across various brands and experiences.

VICE partnered with Postlight to help unify its CMS and deliver wide-ranging content in a coordinated and effective way.

For a global brand that brings order to chaos, we were tasked to do the same with its content management.

Strategy

Transition With Zero Disruption

First we laid down the foundation: a powerful and versatile backend alongside a flexible content authoring experience.

With a foundation in place, we embarked on a strategic roadmap that gradually consumed each of VICE’s vertical brands, one after the other. We migrated content quietly and efficiently behind the scenes, creating zero disruption to readers and advertisers.

Strategic Rollout

Robust Research for Easy Buy-in

We set out to do something ambitious: deliver a single platform that serves the needs of a wide array of content teams. To do so, we gathered plenty of feedback from various stakeholders.

We put interactive design prototypes in front of users and watched how they reacted and explored them. We chatted with editors, leadership, engineers, and videographers to get buy-in across teams.

In parallel, an architecture built on modern frameworks came into focus. Our approach is to ship often, learn, iterate, and refine. Our gradual rollout united each vertical one by one, building momentum across teams and stakeholders along the way.

More Powerful Than Before

An Enterprise-grade CMS

Our custom-built content platform includes capabilities for layout management, language translation, and much more.

The CMS foundation provides a versatile yet simplified backend, plus a flexible workflow experience that could power content across multiple brand entities.

Outcome

The VICE Unified CMS

Our aim was to stand up a content management platform that could power everything. The VICE Unified CMS powers all digital content for the global brand today. Hundreds of writers, editors, and producers lean on the platform daily to deliver a truly universal, impactful, and wide-reaching content experience.

Other Work