Monthly Technology Platform Updates
Welcome to the new and improved monthly technology platform updates email. Instead of focusing solely on Wayfinder, we’ll be expanding our scope to include technology updates for both Gear Patrol and DPReview.
Wayfinder Dev Site Progress
The new Wayfinder development site is more than halfway complete. Based on moving ahead of schedule, teams will begin receiving initial access to the new site to gain familiarity with the backend and help spot check migrated content in November. Once the dev site is fully complete and we receive confirmation that the Hearst team has assigned the proper resourcing for launch day, we can confirm a final launch date. Our tentative launch date (internal knowledge) is January 24, 2024. To follow along with our launch progress, check out this Asana project. In the meantime, the key buckets of dates are as follows:
October 2023: Development and engineering
November 2023: Finalize development/engineering, internal QA (vetting migrated content for any issues), admin training, feature and vendor list distributed
December 2023: More internal QA, final bug fixes, code freeze, template building
January 2024: Training, more template building, launch!
February 2024 and Beyond: Post-Launch QA, optimization, ship new features
DPR Engineering Team Wordpress Onboarding
The DPReview Engineering team is diving into WordPress. After successful onboarding sessions with both 10UP and WordPress VIP, the team is ready to begin work on several tickets related to the new Gear Patrol Wayfinder site, including the Parsely implementation, Osano CMP installation, Quantcast and comScore tagging, and more. This is just the start of our teams working together toward a shared roadmap and technological backbone.
DPR Newsletter Re-Launch
We are in the final hours of technical work on DPReview’s API integrations and RSS feed to allow them to resume sending their weekly newsletter. DPReview will use our tools, FeedOtter and Mailchimp, to send the newsletter. The newsletter will resume sending this week, launching on either Thursday or Friday. For any questions about the newsletter, reach out to the DPReview team.
DPReview Monetization Updates: Connatix and Outbrain
As part of the project to ramp up DPReview’s monetization, the DPR Engineering team has worked with Hashtag Labs and our video vendor, Connatix, to launch a range of monetized placements across the site. Over the next few weeks, we’ll work to optimize the video placements for improved CX. DPReview is also working to implement a content recommendations vendor, Outbrain, chosen from a range of competitors for its strong revenue, quality, and performance capabilities.
Next Up
DPReview Google News investigation
DPReview Narrativ audio narration feature launch
Gear Patrol BigQuery migration
Key Links