Challenge
Penguin Random House was managing a highly fragmented digital estate of 45 websites, built over time by different teams and agencies. While most were WordPress-based, they varied significantly in versions, themes, plugins, hosting models, and governance. Two sites also operated on Adobe Experience Platform, adding extra complexity, licence costs, and operational overhead.
This fragmentation led to rising costs, risks, and inefficiency, inconsistent user experience, and limited visibility across analytics, performance, and compliance. The Adobe platforms, in particular, were over-engineered for the use case, providing limited additional value relative to their cost, while restricting agility and editorial autonomy.
Penguin needed to rationalise, modernise, and simplify its digital estate, cut unnecessary martech expenditure, and develop a scalable platform that combined strong governance with editorial freedom.
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Solution
Equator collaborated with Penguin to define a clear digital strategy and target architecture, consolidating the 45 sites into a few strategically aligned core properties.
We designed and delivered a WordPress multisite platform, hosted on WP Engine, using Gutenberg Blocks to standardise components, layouts, and patterns. This ensured consistency and control, while enabling rapid publishing and localisation of editorial content.
The two Adobe Experience Platform sites were decommissioned and migrated to the new WordPress platform, reducing unnecessary licence and operational costs while improving speed, usability, and maintainability.
Standalone author and children’s sites were integrated into the main Penguin Books platform, with remaining sites organised into themed brand hubs such as Crime and Food. Shared block libraries, design tokens, and a controlled plugin model significantly reduced technical debt and ongoing support costs
Outcome
The programme delivered a simplified, future-ready digital estate by replacing 45 disconnected sites and two large Adobe platforms with a single, scalable WordPress foundation.
Removing Adobe Experience Platform made the project cost-neutral within six months, with ongoing savings afterwards. Operational risk was reduced, governance improved, and whole-of-life platform costs lowered without affecting brand quality or editorial control.
Penguin now benefits from faster publishing, consistent performance, clearer brand journeys, and a platform that can scale, evolve, and be measured over time. More importantly, the organisation shifted from managing complexity to actively investing in growth, innovation, and audience engagement rather than maintaining unnecessary technology overhead