Christianity Today
As a trusted source of Christian news, analysis, and theology, Christianity Today serves millions of readers worldwide, providing a comprehensive platform that covers topics ranging from global missions to cultural trends. The organization’s digital presence plays a pivotal role in shaping its influence, and as their readership continues to grow, so does the need for a modern, scalable, and user-friendly website.
Christianity Today: A Modern Digital Media Transformation
To enhance their online experience and ensure the website was equipped for future growth, Christianity Today turned to WebDevStudios for a complete digital transformation. This partnership aimed at migrating their legacy CMS to a modern WordPress multisite platform hosted on WordPress VIP, providing a faster, more flexible, and intuitive platform to manage their robust content and subscriptions.
Industry: Digital Media, Publishing, Religious & Nonprofit Organizations
Services Provided: WordPress VIP migration, WordPress multisite integration, custom Gutenberg block development, advanced search functionality, Piano paywall integration, data migration, Google Ad Manager integration, accessibility and performance optimization.
Custom WordPress Multisite Integration
Christianity Today needed a robust, scalable solution to unify its digital properties under a single content management system. Since we had already assisted them in the migration of their Church Law & Tax website to WordPress VIP, we extended this infrastructure to include their flagship publication. By leveraging WordPress Multisite, we enabled seamless management of multiple brands under one platform, allowing editors and administrators to switch between different sites with ease while maintaining unique settings and content structures for each publication. This integration also provided the flexibility to add new verticals or micro-sites in the future without the need for extensive development work.
Beyond its structural benefits, the multisite integration improved operational efficiency. Christianity Today’s editorial team can now manage content centrally, reducing redundancy and ensuring consistency across their network. Additionally, user roles and permissions were fine-tuned to ensure each department had the appropriate access, preventing accidental edits or modifications to unrelated sites. This streamlined workflow has significantly enhanced collaboration, enabling their editorial team to focus on content creation rather than technical roadblocks.
“It was a great launch,
and we sure enjoy working with you guys!”
~ Clay Anderson, VP of Technology – Christianity Today
Flexible Block-Based Content System
Christianity Today’s previous CMS relied on rigid content templates, making it difficult for editors to create engaging, multimedia-rich content without developer intervention. To solve this, we built a fully custom Gutenberg block system, allowing their team to compose articles, features, and multimedia posts using a drag-and-drop interface. Editors can now mix and match pre-designed content blocks—such as pull quotes, image galleries, embedded videos, and podcast players—without touching code. This not only speeds up publishing but also ensures design consistency across the site.
The flexibility of this system also empowers Christianity Today to rapidly iterate on content layouts for special features, breaking news, and long-form investigative pieces. Instead of waiting for a developer to modify templates, their editorial team can now experiment with different layouts on the fly. This change has dramatically improved content workflow efficiency, reducing publishing bottlenecks while increasing the visual appeal of their articles, making them more engaging for readers. Additionally, we used MultilingualPress to create a custom language switcher for multi-language support.
Advanced Search & Filtering with Custom Taxonomies
With hundreds of thousands of articles, podcasts, and multimedia resources, Christianity Today needed a powerful search experience to help users easily find relevant content. We implemented a highly optimized faceted search system that allows visitors to refine their search results based on custom taxonomies, including topics, authors, date ranges, media type, and categories. This means readers can now quickly locate articles on specific theological topics, explore content by their favorite contributors, or filter results to display only podcasts or long-form analysis pieces.
In addition to improving usability, this search functionality enhances content discoverability and engagement. By leveraging server-side indexing and caching, the system delivers lightning-fast results without slowing down the site. Additionally, we integrated predictive search capabilities, allowing users to see relevant results as they type, further reducing friction in the browsing experience. These enhancements make it easier for readers to dive deeper into Christianity Today’s extensive archives, increasing time-on-site and overall user satisfaction.
Seamless Piano Membership & Subscription Integration
Christianity Today operates on a hybrid monetization model, offering both free and premium content to its readership. To support this, we integrated Piano, a leading subscription and paywall management system, enabling precise control over access to premium content. This setup allows Christianity Today to define paywall rules—such as metered access, premium-only articles, and gated multimedia content—while seamlessly handling user authentication, billing, and renewals. Subscribers can now enjoy a frictionless login experience, while non-subscribers are encouraged to upgrade through personalized prompts.
Beyond just paywall management, Piano’s analytics tools provide valuable insights into user behavior, helping Christianity Today optimize its subscription offerings. By analyzing reader engagement patterns, the editorial team can identify which types of content drive the most conversions, allowing them to refine their editorial strategy. This integration not only increases subscription revenue but also strengthens reader loyalty by delivering a more tailored, premium experience.
Google Ad Manager Integration for Revenue Optimization
Advertising plays a key role in Christianity Today’s business model, requiring a robust ad management system that balances revenue generation with user experience. We integrated Google Ad Manager, allowing the editorial team to dynamically place ads based on contextual targeting, reader behavior, and programmatic bidding. This system enables Christianity Today to maximize ad revenue without disrupting the reading experience, ensuring that ads are both relevant and non-intrusive in the digital media interface.
Beyond basic ad placement, Google Ad Manager’s analytics and reporting provide real-time insights into ad performance. This allows the Christianity Today team to optimize placements, test new formats, and adjust strategies based on user engagement metrics. By combining this with other revenue streams like subscriptions and donations, we helped Christianity Today establish a sustainable monetization ecosystem that supports it as a leader in digital media.
High-Performance Data Migration & 301 Redirect Strategy for Digital Media
Migrating Christianity Today’s 20+ years of content from their legacy CMS to WordPress was a complex challenge. Our team executed a multi-phase data migration strategy, mapping hundreds of thousands of articles and media files into a structured WordPress format. Given the vast amount of content, we developed custom scripts to automate much of the process while maintaining data integrity. Additionally, our team conducted extensive quality assurance checks to ensure that articles were formatted correctly, images were preserved, and metadata was transferred accurately.
One of the most critical aspects of this migration was preserving SEO equity. Christianity Today had an extensive backlink profile, and any disruption to URL structures could have resulted in significant traffic losses. To prevent this, we implemented a comprehensive 301 redirect strategy, mapping old URLs to their new counterparts while maintaining SEO rankings. This meticulous approach ensured a seamless transition for users and search engines, preventing broken links and maintaining organic search performance.
“The whole team was just amazing
we couldn’t have done it without them”
~ Matt Metcalf, Full Stack Developer – Christianity Today