The Hollywood Reporter lives and breathes by breaking entertainment news first. With over 14.1 million unique visitors each month, it would be a challenge for any website to respond at such a breakneck pace.
Box Office Bustle
As the organization’s Lead Web Engineer, in the first week, I began by establishing a working blueprint of the website, bringing a challenging integration with Fandango’s online ticketing service to an on-schedule release in the process. When the dust settled, users were able to purchase tickets over twice as fast. But given the site’s aging codebase, it was clear there was still a long way to go.
Fashionable Solutions
Equipped with an understanding of the platform, a strategy of incremental enhancement was adopted. Further performance improvements were prioritized according to their ability to generate immediate value, which provided an avenue for seeking out higher-value enhancements to be made gradually. The resulting flywheel effect would serve as the foundation for new features, which may not have been otherwise feasible, including the successful digital launch of the Pret-a-Reporter style brand.
Red Carpet Results
Now capable of responding to an incredible amount of demand, the rise of The Hollywood Reporter’s website could only be described as meteoric, surging in popularity to become one of Alexa’s top 1,500 websites in the world in only six months. Since then, it has earned numerous awards and accolades, including the distinction of being a Webby Honoree for Best Entertainment Website in 2014.