Case study
Transforming il manifesto's Digital Landscape with ReachOut
ReachOut's headless CMS, PostgreSQL database, and unified schema provided a solution, enabling il manifesto to streamline operations, enhance user engagement, and gather comprehensive analytics for informed decision-making within a privacy-focused environment.
In 2012, il manifesto, a prominent left-wing Italian newspaper, sought solutions to organizational challenges and the declining revenue of print media. The development of iPad apps emerged as a potential remedy, leveraging the App Store and promising a new revenue model through digital subscriptions.
Over the next 11 years, our development team took on various projects, including creating iOS and Android apps for the main newspaper and Le Monde Diplomatique digital editions. We built a custom user and subscription management system, a CMS based on WordPress, and a flexible paywall. However, by 2021, it became apparent that evolving ideas and product features necessitated data integration and informed decision-making with behavior data that was challenging to access.
The Challenge
The WordPress front-end remained in PHP, tied to the WordPress back-end, hindering efficient data collection and integration. A comprehensive plan was devised in collaboration with il manifesto, leading to the creation of ReachOut, an integrated marketing and content automation platform.
Consolidation Efforts
ReachOut boasts a headless CMS, exposing collections to RestAPI and GraphQL and supported by a scalable PostgreSQL database. Its adaptable data schema enables seamless integration of existing data sources while offering granular access permissions and multiple API access points for diverse web applications, landing pages, and email campaigns.
il manifesto aimed to consolidate four extensive content collections, each with a different schema and over 700,000 pieces of content. The objective was to unify all content into a single data schema based on schema.org's NewsArticle object and other best practices. Additionally, user data from the subscription management system was merged to facilitate real-time reports and Metabase queries.
The image asset library, housing over 1.2 million files with custom metadata, posed another challenge. ReachOut was configured to accommodate these assets, with the development of custom batch importers ensuring a seamless transition of data from the existing structure to the new schema.
Analytics Transformation
Il manifesto had ceased using Google Analytics due to privacy concerns, adopting Matomo. However, the accumulation of 90 million+ MySQL rows made querying for business intelligence challenging. Our team developed a custom MySQL data importer for Clickhouse, exposing historical analytics data to Metabase. The ReachOut analytics, implemented in late 2023, now seamlessly collects data within the CMS environment, enabling users to query analytics data alongside user, subscription, and content information.
ReachOut has revitalized il manifesto's digital landscape, offering a unified platform for content management, user engagement, and data analytics. The successful integration of diverse data sources into a cohesive system has not only streamlined operations but has also empowered il manifesto to make informed decisions based on comprehensive analytics within a secure and privacy-centric environment. The ReachOut platform stands as a testament to the power of technology in reshaping the future of traditional media in the digital age.