From Arc to Labrador: - Fastest migration I have ever seen
“We didn’t believe you when you set the time limit,” the CTO says. “But it was enough. That’s great, we’re very happy.”
Francis Lundh has overseen more than a few CMS migrations, and none of them were easy.
Until now.
“Normally, if you say we’re going to migrate CMS, people start weeping, tearing their hair out,” says Lundh, Mentor Medier’s CTO. “It’s normally a horrific experience.”
So when the Norwegian media group decided to move from Arc XP to Labrador CMS, Lundh braced for the worst. Instead, the project wrapped in a matter of weeks, on time, with minimal disruption.
One million articles across five sites
Just like the Labrador team promised. Nearly 1 million articles across 5 sites were migrated on time. And like other Labrador customers, Lundh says his KPIs went up immediately.
“We didn’t believe you when you set the time limit,” Lundh says. “But it was enough. That’s great, we’re very happy.”
If you say we’re going to migrate CMS, people start weeping, tearing their hair out. It’s normally a horrific experience.
Francs Lundh, CTO at Mentor Medier
Migration isn’t the only thing Lundh likes about Labrador. He says, “I don't want to say anything bad about Arc because we had a great relationship with them as well, but it was easy to switch.”
When the media house went with Arc in 2020, they were the first Scandinavian customer for the US-based CMS, which also powers the Washington Post. The move garnered headlines, and was reported as a shift in online publishing.
But after 5 years, Lundh knew it was time to move to a different CMS. Lundh says Labrador was a “no brainer,” especially for its speed.
- We wanted faster sites
When it comes to user friendliness for the newsrooms, Labrador is easily better than others competitors in the market I think, and especially also front page tooling.
Francs Lundh, CTO at Mentor Medier
“We put so much code on top of articles and front pages that it really hurt loading speed,” Lundh says. “We see that the Labrador sites are much faster than the previous ones, and we know that this has real life consequences in terms of, well, basically everything.”
But Lundh points out this wasn’t just a software switch. Mentor Medier has made a strategic decision to put their journalists in charge of the articles and home pages, and Lundh says it’s only with Labrador that this was possible.
“When it comes to user friendliness for the newsrooms, Labrador is easily better than others competitors in the market I think, and especially also front page tooling,” Lundh says. “It's very easy. You have a what you see is what you get philosophy.”
That supported his bigger strategic initiative. By letting his journalists use a no-code approach, it freed up developer resources to focus on other work, like paywalls and apps that generate revenue. He says this would help any media house.
- Media houses should not build themselves
“I don’t see why any media house, big or small, should spend too much of their own resources actually creating front pages and articles,” Lundh says.
The end to end service now in Labrador is the best I think you can get, and it's possible for both large publishers and small publishers to use.
Francs Lundh, CTO at Mentor Medier
The shift comes at a critical time. Newsrooms are seeing fewer clicks from social and search results and are investing in better home pages and articles to improve audience retention and engagement. And Lundh says Labrador, which he’s been following for years, is ready to deliver this.
“The end to end service now in Labrador is the best I think you can get, and it's possible for both large publishers and small publishers to use,” Lundh says. “We provide apps and pay walls. Labrador provides everything else and you have more or less everything you need to run a profitable digital news site.”
Lundh says he would encourage other publications to switch now, too. For Lundh, the future is clear: journalism needs innovation, but not in CMS templates.
“There’s no turning back,” he says. “We’re very happy.”
