Forward to: Engineering Team

Technology & Platform
Workflows

Ten agent workflows for the engineering team — CMS stack monitoring, ad-tech vendor evaluation, platform migration detection, CDN performance benchmarking, third-party script auditing, technology debt intelligence, API ecosystem mapping, infrastructure cost optimization, martech stack analysis, and build-vs-buy intelligence — all powered by domain intelligence across 100M+ domains.

1CMS Stack Monitoring

AI agent monitors CMS technology choices across 500+ news publisher domains — detecting migrations, version upgrades, and emerging CMS platforms to keep AdvanceLocal's technology stack competitive and informed.

1
Benchmark CMS Adoption Across Publishers
/docs /api /products Web Filtering Categories OpenPageRank
CMS TECHNOLOGY BENCHMARK — REGIONAL NEWS PUBLISHERS ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ Publisher CMS Platform Version Headless? Last Migration nj.com Custom CMS v3.8 No 2019 bostonglobe.com Arc XP Latest Yes 2023 latimes.com Arc XP Latest Yes 2022 chicagotribune.com Arc XP Latest Yes 2023 seattletimes.com WordPress VIP 6.4 Yes 2024 patch.com Custom React v2.0 Yes 2024 startribune.com Drupal 10 10.2 Partial 2023 ADVANCELOCAL TECHNOLOGY GAP: Custom CMS (v3.8, 2019) is 3+ years behind peers on headless architecture 78% of top-50 publishers have migrated to headless CMS since 2022 Arc XP dominates regional news: 40% market share among top publishers RISK: Legacy CMS limits page speed, personalization, and multi-platform delivery
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Assess CMS Migration Priority
Company Signal
AdvanceLocal — CMS Modernization: Domain intelligence reveals 78% of top-50 news publishers have migrated to headless CMS architectures since 2022. AdvanceLocal's custom CMS v3.8 (last updated 2019) is the oldest platform among comparable regional publishers. Arc XP leads with 40% adoption, followed by WordPress VIP (22%) and custom headless builds (16%). Publishers that migrated to headless saw avg 34% improvement in Core Web Vitals and 18% increase in ad revenue from faster page loads. Estimated migration cost: $1.2-2.0M over 12 months.
TECH DEBT — Legacy CMS 3+ years behind peers, headless migration critical
Sector Signal
News CMS — Industry Migration Wave: /docs and /api page analysis across 500+ publishers shows accelerating headless CMS adoption. Arc XP (Washington Post) detected on 40% of top publishers. WordPress VIP growing at 15% QoQ. Key driver: Google Core Web Vitals ranking factor makes page speed a revenue issue — publishers on headless CMS score avg 92/100 vs 64/100 for legacy. Domain intelligence shows publishers post-migration gain 12-18% organic search traffic within 6 months.
CMS WAVE — 78% of top publishers now headless, page speed = ad revenue

2Ad-Tech Vendor Evaluation

AI agent evaluates ad-tech vendors by analyzing their domain presence, client adoption rates, documentation quality, and technology footprint across competitor publisher sites — providing data-driven vendor selection intelligence.

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Map Ad-Tech Vendor Ecosystem
/partners /products /docs IAB Categories OpenPageRank
AD-TECH VENDOR ADOPTION — NEWS PUBLISHERS ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ Vendor Category Publisher Adoption PageRank Trend prebid.org Header Bidding 92% of top 100 6.8 Stable googletag.com Ad Server 94% of top 100 8.2 Stable amazon-adsystem.com Demand Source 76% of top 100 7.4 Growing criteo.com Demand Source 58% of top 100 6.2 Declining 33across.com Identity 62% of top 100 5.8 Growing liveramp.com Identity 71% of top 100 6.4 Growing permutive.com DMP/CDP 34% of top 100 5.2 Growing fast ADVANCELOCAL AD-TECH GAPS: Missing: Permutive (audience platform) — adopted by 34% of top publishers Missing: 33Across (identity) — growing 15% QoQ in publisher adoption Criteo declining (58% → 52% QoQ) — evaluate replacement demand source
2
Score Vendors for AdvanceLocal
Company Signal
AdvanceLocal — Ad-Tech Stack Optimization: Domain intelligence across 100+ publisher /partners pages reveals three ad-tech gaps in AdvanceLocal's stack. Permutive (first-party data platform) is the fastest-growing vendor at 34% adoption and growing — publishers using Permutive report 22% higher CPMs from audience-enriched inventory. LiveRamp identity resolution at 71% adoption is table-stakes for cookieless advertising. Adding both vendors to AdvanceLocal's stack would cost approx $180K/year but yield estimated $420K in additional programmatic revenue.
AD-TECH GAPS — Permutive + LiveRamp = $420K incremental revenue at $180K cost

3Platform Migration Detection

AI agent detects when competitor publishers migrate technology platforms — CMS switches, ad server changes, CDN migrations, and analytics platform swaps — providing early intelligence on industry technology trends.

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Track Technology Changes
/docs /api /security Web Filtering Categories Domain Ages
PLATFORM MIGRATION ALERTS — Q1 2026 ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ NEW MIGRATION DETECTED: dallasnews.com From: WordPress → Arc XP Detected: /docs page structure changed, new API endpoints visible Timeline: Staging detected Dec 2025, live migration Jan 2026 Impact: Page speed improved 42%, new paywall features enabled MIGRATION IN PROGRESS: denverpost.com From: Custom CMS → WordPress VIP Detected: New /api endpoints, staging subdomain active Timeline: Expected completion Q2 2026 Impact: Headless frontend, improved mobile experience VENDOR CHANGE DETECTED: startribune.com Ad Server: DFP → Google Ad Manager 360 + Prebid Server Detected: New header bidding wrapper on /partners page Impact: Server-side bidding = faster page loads + more demand TREND: 4 regional publishers migrated platforms in Q1 2026 Arc XP: 2 new adoptions | WordPress VIP: 1 new | Custom: 0 new
2
Assess Migration Implications
Sector Signal
Regional News — Platform Migration Acceleration: Domain intelligence detected 4 platform migrations in Q1 2026 alone — up from 2 in Q1 2025. Arc XP continues to gain market share with 2 new adoptions. The migration trend is accelerating as publishers chase Core Web Vitals improvements for SEO ranking and ad revenue gains. Post-migration performance data: avg 38% faster page loads, 15% improvement in search traffic, 12% increase in ad viewability scores. Publishers NOT migrating are falling behind in measurable ways.
MIGRATION WAVE — 4 publishers migrated Q1 2026, pace accelerating 2x YoY

4CDN & Performance Benchmarking

AI agent benchmarks site performance and CDN infrastructure across competitor publishers — identifying page speed gaps, infrastructure choices, and Core Web Vitals optimization opportunities that directly impact SEO rankings and ad revenue.

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Benchmark Page Performance
/security /docs OpenPageRank Web Filtering Categories Domain Ages
CDN & PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ Publisher CDN LCP(s) CLS FID(ms) CWV Score nj.com Akamai 3.8 0.18 180 52/100 bostonglobe.com Fastly 1.6 0.04 45 92/100 latimes.com Fastly 1.8 0.06 52 88/100 chicagotribune.com Cloudflare 2.0 0.08 68 84/100 seattletimes.com Cloudflare 2.4 0.10 92 76/100 patch.com Cloudflare 1.4 0.02 38 96/100 NJ.com PERFORMANCE GAP: Core Web Vitals: 52/100 vs peer average 87/100 LCP 3.8s (target: <2.5s) — 52% over threshold CLS 0.18 (target: <0.10) — 80% over threshold Estimated SEO impact: -15% organic traffic vs optimized competitors Estimated ad revenue impact: -$340K/year from lower viewability
2
Generate Performance Improvement Plan

PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION ROADMAP

FOR: Engineering Team — Performance Sprint ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ PRIORITY FIXES (ranked by revenue impact): 1. CDN UPGRADE — Akamai → Fastly/Cloudflare Investment: $60K/year (net of Akamai savings) Impact: LCP improvement 3.8s → 2.0s, CWV 52 → 78 Revenue: +$220K/year from improved ad viewability Timeline: 6-8 weeks 2. LAYOUT SHIFT ELIMINATION Investment: $40K (engineering sprint) Impact: CLS 0.18 → 0.06, ad slot stability Revenue: +$120K/year from reduced ad shifting Timeline: 4 weeks 3. LAZY LOADING & IMAGE OPTIMIZATION Investment: $20K (next-gen image pipeline) Impact: LCP improvement 0.6s additional Revenue: +$80K/year from faster above-fold rendering Timeline: 3 weeks TOTAL INVESTMENT: $120K TOTAL ANNUAL REVENUE GAIN: $420K ROI: 3.5x in first year

5Third-Party Script Auditing

AI agent audits third-party scripts loaded across AdvanceLocal properties by comparing against competitor publisher implementations — identifying bloat, security risks, and performance-degrading scripts that should be removed or replaced.

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Audit Third-Party Script Load
/security /compliance /legal Web Filtering Categories IAB Categories
THIRD-PARTY SCRIPT AUDIT — NJ.com ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ SCRIPTS LOADED PER PAGE: nj.com: 47 third-party scripts (avg load: 4.2s) Peer average: 28 scripts (avg load: 2.1s) Difference: +68% more scripts, +100% slower load SCRIPT CATEGORIES: Category Count Load Impact Revenue Value Action Ad demand partners 18 1.4s $2.1M/yr Optimize Analytics/tracking 12 1.0s $40K/yr Reduce to 6 Social widgets 6 0.6s $15K/yr Lazy load Consent/privacy 3 0.3s Required Keep Identity/auth 4 0.4s $180K/yr Keep Unknown/legacy 4 0.5s $0/yr Remove IMMEDIATE REMOVALS (4 scripts, 0.5s savings): chartbeat.js — duplicate of existing analytics legacy-tracker.js — deprecated, no data consumer widget-v1.js — superseded by widget-v2 social-share-old.js — replaced by native share API
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Prioritize Script Optimization
Company Signal
NJ.com — Script Bloat: NJ.com loads 47 third-party scripts per page — 68% more than the peer average of 28. Four legacy scripts contribute zero revenue value and add 0.5s to page load. Reducing analytics scripts from 12 to 6 (consolidating duplicates) saves another 0.5s. Lazy-loading social widgets saves 0.6s. Total: 1.6s faster page loads without any revenue loss. At current traffic, 1.6s improvement equals approximately $180K annual revenue from improved ad viewability and SEO ranking.
SCRIPT BLOAT — 47 scripts (68% above peer avg), 4 zero-value scripts to remove

6Technology Debt Intelligence

AI agent quantifies technology debt by comparing AdvanceLocal's stack against industry benchmarks — analyzing framework versions, dependency freshness, and technology lifecycle stage to prioritize modernization efforts.

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Assess Technology Debt
/docs /api /careers Web Filtering Categories Domain Ages
TECHNOLOGY DEBT ASSESSMENT ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ ADVANCELOCAL STACK vs INDUSTRY STANDARD: Component AdvanceLocal Industry Standard Debt Level CMS Custom v3.8 (2019) Headless CMS (2024) CRITICAL Frontend jQuery + PHP React/Next.js HIGH Ad Server GAM (current) GAM 360 + Prebid S2S MEDIUM Analytics GA3 + Custom GA4 + CDP HIGH Search Solr (2018) Elasticsearch/Algolia HIGH Auth/Identity Custom SSO Auth0/Okta + UID 2.0 MEDIUM Email Platform Legacy ESP Sailthru/Braze MEDIUM Image Pipeline Basic CDN Next-gen (AVIF/WebP) LOW TECH DEBT SCORE: 72/100 (HIGH) 3 CRITICAL components (CMS, Frontend, Analytics) 3 MEDIUM components (Ad Server, Auth, Email) 1 LOW component (Image Pipeline) Estimated annual cost of tech debt: $1.4M (slower dev, higher maintenance)
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Prioritize Debt Reduction
Company Signal
AdvanceLocal — Tech Debt Quantified: Technology debt score of 72/100 (HIGH) with 3 critical components. /careers page analysis shows AdvanceLocal hiring for legacy skills (PHP, jQuery) while competitors hire for modern stacks (React, Node.js, Python). This limits talent pool by 60% and increases hiring costs by $15-25K per engineer. Modernization priority: (1) CMS migration to headless ($1.2-2.0M), (2) Frontend to React/Next.js ($400K), (3) GA3 to GA4+CDP ($200K). Total modernization cost: $1.8-2.6M. ROI: reduced maintenance cost $1.4M/year + revenue gains from performance.
TECH DEBT — 72/100 score, $1.4M annual carrying cost, modernization ROI within 2 years
Sector Signal
News Publishing — Modernization Wave: /careers page analysis across 100+ publishers shows a dramatic shift in hiring patterns. React/Next.js mentions in job postings increased 145% YoY. Python/ML engineer postings grew 89% YoY. jQuery/legacy PHP mentions declined 62%. Publishers modernizing their stacks are shipping features 3x faster (based on /blog changelog analysis) and reducing infrastructure costs 25-35% through cloud-native architectures. The talent market is moving — publishers on legacy stacks face growing recruitment challenges.
TALENT SHIFT — React/Next.js hiring +145% YoY, legacy skills declining 62%

7API Ecosystem Mapping

AI agent maps the API ecosystem across news publishing technology vendors — tracking new API launches, deprecations, and integration opportunities that could enhance AdvanceLocal's platform capabilities.

1
Map Vendor API Landscape
/api /docs /products Web Filtering Categories OpenPageRank
API ECOSYSTEM — NEWS PUBLISHING VENDORS ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ NEW API LAUNCHES (Last 90 days): openai.com /api — NEW: Realtime API for live content summarization Relevance: Auto-generate article summaries, live event coverage Adoption: 12% of publishers testing in production Cost: ~$0.003/article, ~$2,400/month at NJ.com volume arc.net /docs — NEW: Content recommendation API v3 Relevance: ML-powered content recommendations for subscribers Adoption: Available to Arc XP customers, SDK-compatible Cost: Included in Arc XP license sailthru.com /api — NEW: Predictive send-time optimization Relevance: Newsletter open rate optimization Adoption: 28% of news publishers Cost: $800/month add-on API DEPRECATIONS: google.com /docs — GA3 API sunset March 2026 CRITICAL: AdvanceLocal still on GA3 — migration required twitter.com /api — Free tier removed, Basic $100/mo Impact: Social sharing analytics degraded
2
Prioritize API Integrations
Company Signal
AdvanceLocal — API Opportunity Map: Domain intelligence identified 3 high-value API integrations and 1 critical deprecation. Priority 1: GA3 → GA4 migration before March 2026 sunset (estimated 6-week sprint). Priority 2: OpenAI Realtime API for automated article summarization — saves 120 editor-hours/month at $2,400/month cost (8x ROI on labor savings). Priority 3: Sailthru predictive send-time API — publishers using it report 18% higher newsletter open rates, translating to $45K annual ad revenue from newsletter inventory.
API PRIORITIES — GA3 sunset critical, 3 high-ROI integrations identified

8Infrastructure Cost Optimization

AI agent analyzes infrastructure spending patterns across the publisher technology landscape — benchmarking cloud costs, CDN expenses, and vendor contracts against peer publishers to identify savings opportunities.

1
Benchmark Infrastructure Costs
/pricing /products /partners OpenPageRank IAB Categories
INFRASTRUCTURE COST BENCHMARK ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ ADVANCELOCAL vs INDUSTRY BENCHMARKS (per 1M pageviews): Cost Category AdvanceLocal Peer Median Best-in-Class Gap Cloud Hosting $420 $280 $180 +50% CDN/Delivery $180 $140 $90 +29% Ad-Tech Vendor Fees $320 $340 $260 -6% Analytics/Data $160 $100 $60 +60% Email/Newsletter $80 $60 $40 +33% Auth/Identity $40 $35 $20 +14% TOTAL per 1M PV: AdvanceLocal: $1,200 Peer Median: $955 Best-in-Class: $650 AdvanceLocal is 26% above peer median, 85% above best-in-class At 180M monthly pageviews: $44K/month overspend vs peers
2
Identify Cost Reduction Opportunities

INFRASTRUCTURE COST OPTIMIZATION PLAN

FOR: Engineering Team — Infrastructure Review ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ COST REDUCTION OPPORTUNITIES (by savings): 1. CLOUD RIGHT-SIZING ($168K/year savings) Current: Over-provisioned bare metal + VMs Action: Migrate to containerized workloads (Kubernetes) Benchmark: Peers on K8s spend 40% less on equivalent compute Timeline: Q2-Q3 2026 2. ANALYTICS CONSOLIDATION ($108K/year savings) Current: GA3 + Adobe + custom analytics = $160/1M PV Action: Consolidate to GA4 + lightweight event tracking Benchmark: Best-in-class analytics at $60/1M PV Timeline: Q1 2026 (aligned with GA3 sunset) 3. CDN CONTRACT RENEGOTIATION ($72K/year savings) Current: Akamai contract at premium rates Action: Competitive bid with Cloudflare/Fastly Benchmark: Cloudflare Enterprise at 50% of current CDN cost Timeline: Contract renewal Q3 2026 TOTAL ANNUAL SAVINGS: $348K IMPLEMENTATION COST: $120K (one-time) NET ROI: 2.9x in first year

9Martech Stack Analysis

AI agent analyzes marketing technology stacks across competitor publishers — tracking email platform adoption, CRM implementations, personalization tools, and automation workflows to benchmark AdvanceLocal's marketing capabilities.

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Map Competitor Martech Stacks
/partners /products /docs IAB Categories Web Filtering Categories
MARTECH STACK COMPARISON — REGIONAL PUBLISHERS ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ Tool Category nj.com bostonglobe nytimes patch Email Platform Legacy ESP Sailthru Custom Mailchimp CRM None Salesforce Custom HubSpot Personalization Basic rules Dynamic Yield Custom ML Optimizely Push Notifications None Airship Custom OneSignal A/B Testing None Optimizely Custom Optimizely CDP None Segment Custom None Automation Basic drip Full journey Full journey Partial ADVANCELOCAL MARTECH GAPS: No CRM — competitors use CRM for advertiser + subscriber management No personalization engine — 80% of peer publishers use one No push notifications — missing re-engagement channel No A/B testing — can't optimize conversion without experimentation No CDP — fragmented subscriber data across systems
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Build Martech Roadmap
Company Signal
AdvanceLocal — Martech Deficit: Domain intelligence reveals AdvanceLocal has 5 critical martech gaps vs competitors. Priority 1: CDP implementation (Segment, $48K/year) — unifies subscriber data for personalization. Priority 2: Personalization engine (Dynamic Yield, $60K/year) — publishers using personalization report 22% higher engagement and 15% lower churn. Priority 3: Push notifications (OneSignal, $12K/year) — lowest cost, highest impact for re-engagement. Total martech investment: $120K/year for 3 tools that would close the most impactful gaps.
MARTECH GAPS — 5 missing capabilities vs competitors, $120K/year to close top 3

10Build-vs-Buy Intelligence

AI agent provides data-driven build-vs-buy analysis by monitoring vendor adoption trends, pricing changes, and technology maturity across the publisher ecosystem — helping the engineering team make informed platform investment decisions.

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Evaluate Build vs Buy for Key Components
/pricing /products /docs /careers OpenPageRank Web Filtering Categories
BUILD vs BUY ANALYSIS — KEY PLATFORM DECISIONS ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ Component Build Cost Buy Cost/yr Vendor Options Peer Choice Rec CMS $2.0M+maint $300K/yr Arc XP, WP VIP 78% buy BUY Personalization $800K+ML $60K/yr Dynamic Yield, Optimiz 80% buy BUY Search $200K $36K/yr Algolia, Elasticsearch 55% buy BUY Paywall $400K $120K/yr Piano, Zuora 60% buy EVAL Newsletter $600K $48K/yr Sailthru, Braze 85% buy BUY Analytics $1.2M+infra $24K/yr GA4, Amplitude 92% buy BUY Ad-Tech Wrapper $300K $0 (Prebid) Prebid (OSS) 92% OSS OSS Identity/Auth $250K $48K/yr Auth0, Okta 50/50 EVAL SUMMARY: BUY: 5 components (clear vendor advantage, 78-92% peer adoption) EVALUATE: 2 components (paywall, identity — mixed peer signals) OPEN SOURCE: 1 component (Prebid header bidding — industry standard)
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Present Platform Investment Plan

PLATFORM MODERNIZATION — BUILD vs BUY ROADMAP

FOR: Engineering Team + CTO — Platform Strategy FY2026 ══════════════════════════════════════════════════ RECOMMENDED PLATFORM INVESTMENTS: PHASE 1 — QUICK WINS (Q1-Q2 2026): $168K/year Analytics: GA3 → GA4 ($24K/year, 6-week migration) Search: Custom Solr → Algolia ($36K/year, 4-week migration) Newsletter: Legacy ESP → Sailthru ($48K/year, 8-week migration) Personalization: None → Dynamic Yield ($60K/year, 6-week setup) Impact: Immediate improvement in reader experience + retention PHASE 2 — CORE PLATFORM (Q2-Q4 2026): $300K/year CMS: Custom v3.8 → Arc XP ($300K/year, 6-month migration) Impact: 34% faster pages, headless architecture, modern tooling Note: Eliminates $400K/year CMS maintenance cost (net: -$100K/year) PHASE 3 — EVALUATE (Q3-Q4 2026): Paywall: Evaluate Piano vs custom build (RFP in Q3) Identity: Evaluate Auth0 vs custom enhancement (POC in Q3) TOTAL ANNUAL VENDOR COST: $468K ANNUAL SAVINGS (maintenance elimination): $640K NET ANNUAL SAVINGS: $172K + revenue gains from modernization ENGINEERING HOURS FREED: ~4,200 hrs/year (reinvested in product)
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