Few companies publish as much as Microsoft. Brian led the WordPress strategy and engineering behind a whole family of its editorial properties, from the official corporate blog to regional Windows and Bing sites. By late 2014 several of Microsoft's key sites had moved to WordPress, a shift the WordPress community press covered as a sign of how far Microsoft's relationship with open source had come.
The challenge
Microsoft's blog teams were spread across separate systems. The company wanted them on one open platform where writers could publish from anywhere, readers could follow only the topics they cared about, and administrators could decide exactly who edits which site.
The approach: a family of multisite networks
Corporate Blogs
The official Microsoft blog runs as a WordPress Multisite network that also hosts Microsoft Firehose, Microsoft Next and Microsoft On The Issues. Editors add articles and photos quickly from any location.
Windows Blogs
A multisite network covering Windows and Internet Explorer topics, with foreign language blogs that each carry region specific, curated content.
Bing Blogs
A network that lets the Bing team launch regional sites and tune content to each audience.
Features shared across the networks
- Topic filtering with custom RSS. Readers pick one or many topics, then subscribe to a feed built from that exact selection.
- Unified back office. Editors reach every site from one dashboard, and administrators assign different roles to each writer on each site.
- Single sign on. A custom plugin lets staff log in with their Microsoft Live credentials.
Screenshots
The outcome
The work showed that WordPress Multisite can carry enterprise scale publishing for one of the largest technology companies in the world. Related write ups cover the Microsoft News Center, the Office Blogs and Skype in Media. For a planning guide, see when WordPress Multisite makes sense.
Stack
WordPress Multisite, custom single sign on plugin, filter driven RSS, localized regional sites.
