Terms

The Code Company founder Ben May talks at an industrial event (c) thecode.co

The Code Company, a specialization agency that concentrates on publishing digitally It is one of the most preferred partner. They're WordPress experts , and they work with large-scale design, migrations and integrations, creating hundreds of tech stacks to support hundreds of publishers.

The company has just replatformed Substack huge The Dispatch, a publication to provide news and comment on policy, politics and culture worth $1.9 million with hundreds of thousands of readers. I had a conversation with Stacey Clark, in the partnerships and communications team on the business and its services:

"Our director Ben May has been using technology to address issues since grade 10" begins Stacey. "He developed his first site for a local company in the year 12 and earned the sum of $400." Ben noticed that there was a growing business opportunity as well as a possible career from all this, and so launched his first company at the age of 22.

The Code Company didn't deliberately get into publishing, however it did gain a few publishing clients initially. Stacey says: "We've carved out a niche in building technology to help digital publishers, and also switching from other platforms to WordPress, building membership functionality as well as ad technology. We were initially platform agnostic however, we realized that nearly all of them did not work! Now we work exclusively with WordPress There were also several'rescue operation that were a result of other platforms."

"The critically important engineering stuff, that goes into publishing websites, is what is our job," Stacey continues. They help publishers solve complex problems using WordPress and come up with methods to make use of technology to "increase the revenue of their business, achieve better efficiencies in the business and minimize tech-related business risk".

Stacey and I agree that  technology is becoming less technical', which is really important for publishing. "Sometimes you have writers, editors and marketing professionals who are using technology, and need to utilize it without ringing a developer at every 5 minutes.These are 'words people' who are not "technical people"."

The Code Company helps these people create or migrate to tech stacks that can make them self-sufficient "They need something that's going be able to perform the same tasks as previously, but in a more streamlined way. We frequently work with publishing companies who have sites that are in debt to technology. Most plugins don't offer all the functionality they require, and we've found it to be better to design an integrated system that's custom designed, so they get everything they want with none of the items they do not."

Customers

The Code Company works with content companies of all sorts, ranging from independent publishers to huge entertainment corporations. Recently , they completed the high-profile launch of Wondermind the mental health content hub that is backed by the likes of celebrity Selena Gomez and Newsette CEO Daniella Pierson. The launch was praised by Bhavik Trivedi who is the Chief Operation Officer of Wondermind, commented: "I've never had a flawless launch. Until now. The site went live, scaled up with the increase in traffic and our integrations performed flawlessly."

FuqQ9UfLAmNAKjVpzFCV The brand new Wondermind Content Hub (c) thecode.co

They also work with Nine, the biggest entertainment company in Australia. "We built their corporate site as well as publications drive.com.au, the country's leading auto portal and Future Women, a membership site for professional women." The Code Company also launched eBay's local ads website. "That was a big one because they never had regional leads prior to this and began to receive Australian leads because of the site," Stacey confirms. "We just launched a brand-new website called Science Alert, which is a leading science publication within the US. The website is run by Australia however, the majority users are in the US. We worked on that project for a year and a one-half year!" she remembers.

It seems that the firm's most successful area is working with publishers that are a little smaller who are seeking to grow. "We inquire, 'How can you prove that you can publish? What can we do to get your business and your tech stack to be in the best shape for you to scale your company?'" Stacey says. This is probably where most of the clients of The Code Company could be located. This includes non-traditional media organizations like news websites Crikey and Her Campus, the female-led college students' media organization within the US (that The Code Company has moved to Drupal to WordPress).

PT0CpapgDKohJvS2XTfd The HerCampus.com content hub across several platforms (c) thecode.co

"We help talented and creative creators who find themselves frustrated, or frustrated by their platform of choice as well as CMS (content management software)," Stacey adds. "They're reaching out to us for alternatives because they're finding their existing platform is limiting to the things they are able to do. It's not flexible enough and they take a massive portion of their revenue." Furthermore, it's getting more and essential for creators at any level to collect first-party information. "They're only able to access that data from platforms like Substack. We're developing custom creator stacks that allow them to own their own market," she explains.

Services and solutions

The clients of the Code Company could be the ones who built their site themselves, or might have asked someone else to create it. Whatever the case they're using numerous plugins. "As the site has grown, they're finding that things are starting to break and they can't fix things by themselves. The result is problems, and complaints from the readers, and they can't perform what they'd like to do. It's not always that are as easy as adding something to their menus," she confirms.

Mike McPhate at the California Sun confirms: "The biggest problem with my membership website of the past was that it was riddled with glitches and unclear prompts about how to navigate it. I'd get emails almost every day from frustrated readers. After developing the site with The Code Company and , I no longer get these emails from users, so that's just wonderful!"

The California Sun (c)thecode.co

It is well-known that the performance of a website is crucial for publishing companies "If they lose performance the publisher could lose millions of dollars" Stacey continues. "And they're constantly hacking away at the same plugin, and then re-installing the next. They're losing performance until the business isn't successful anymore. Then they'll come with us with this huge technology stack that is creaking, and they're aware of the risk of their website going slow due to the performance."

Publishers are looking to diversify their income sources, so many are looking at memberships and subscriptions. "We have to come up with an option that's effective and safe. The majority of our work is to research tools that are going to be life-changing for publishers," she says. The Code Company works specifically with subscription solutions to get around the what Stacey calls "leaky payment walls". Stacey explains: "We've worked with other membership solutions before and we've found it very easy to get around the paywall. If your model of business, as a publisher, is reliant on content that is paid for This creates a major issue."

New projects and events in the near future

"The market for creators has exploded," Stacey notes. "Creators are realizing that SaaS platforms come with limits, and they're looking to consider other avenues. Diversification doesn't go away for publishers. But it's also important to kind of keep looking for new ways to connect and get closer to audiences by providing more targeted and personalized content. Subscriptions do more than just generate income, they provide an opportunity to get closer to the audience and increase participation."

"There still exist print newspapers out there that aren't yet on digital and we are still getting interest from those who are realizing that, if they want to survive it will be necessary to shift in some way to digital and subscriptions could be one of those ways."

In the context of recent events "Ben is a well-known face at conferences," adds Stacey. Recently, Ben was a speaker at the Mumbrella Publisher Conference in Australia, and WordCamp US in San Diego. The talks covered the creator economy, focusing on the minimalist publisher' and ways publishers can accomplish more using little. It is also possible to learn from authors for larger publishing firms and, in many cases, using membership services.

Ben May is the founder. Ben May is a familiar face on the conference circuit (c) thecode.co

It seems the company founder is an expert in the field. "Ben's done this for the entirety of his life; there's no issue he's not able to answer," says Stacey. "The feedback I get from speaking to clients is that, if they encounter a problem, they might need to shell out another agency two weeks to investigate. The team at Code Company's technology will solve the issue in 20 minutes over the phone because they've seen each of these. That's gold for a business having that level of troubleshooting."

In conclusion, Stacey says: "Publishing or running a website doesn't need to be as complicated as people make it. We're all about simplicity." She and I are both of the opinion that it is easy to become distracted by the latest gadget or theme or plugins - "these flashing lights aren't going help the needle move at all," she smiles.

The Code Company revels in "smart simple" it appears. Stacey states: "We offer the chance to locate a technology partner who can help you get the business results you want with the most straightforward way that works, without using the latest buzzword."

Additional information

For more information on The Code Company, to see case studies on the previous integrations and migrations, and to look into working with them, check out their website thecode.co.