Grupo Vierci by the numbers
The Grupo Vierci challenge
A large Paraguayan conglomerate with interests in distribution, retail, real estate as well as media, Grupo AJ Vierci includes a portfolio of brands that span broadcast, radio, print and digital media.
In 2022 its flagship publication, the Asunción-based Última Hora daily newspaper, set out to revamp its digital presence to meet the changing online preferences of its readers. Hosted on a CMS platform that was struggling to meet the needs of Última Hora's fast-paced digital news teams, this digital transformation was also timed to mark the 50th-anniversary celebrations for one of Paraguay's leading sources of news.
The Brightspot solution for Grupo Vierci
Starting with the website for Última Hora and three other sites spanning sports, entertainment and popular culture, Grupo AJ Vierci turned to Brightspot to facilitate the migration from its existing CMS. With an archive of content comprising over 1.5 million articles dating back to 2006, Grupo AJ Vierci needed a trusted partner to ensure a seamless migration. Additionally, it required a flexible framework capable of accommodating the necessary data and content modeling for the platform transition. Brightspot, boasting nearly two decades of experience in media publishing and migrations, emerged as the ideal solution.
Moreover, Brightspot's selection of pre-built content types and integrations provided all the essential components for Grupo AJ Vierci's digital teams to commence publishing immediately upon onboarding to the new CMS. Much like other global publishers leveraging Brightspot CMS for up-to-the-minute news coverage, this encompassed the capability to establish customized workflows tailored to Última Hora's digital newsroom processes, as well as notifications, collaborative editing tools and robust roles and permissions for various CMS contributors.
The availability of sophisticated out-of-the-box publishing features with Brightspot also extended to diverse content types necessary for operating a contemporary digital publication. Boasting over 100 pre-built content types, including articles, blog posts, videos, podcast audio and other multimedia formats, Grupo AJ Vierci's digital publishers could hit the ground running without the need for extensive rebuilding or remodeling during their digital overhaul.
Furthermore, essential integrations such as Google's suite of business, analytics and advertising tools were seamlessly integrated with Brightspot. With these integrations easily managed during the initial launch phases, the collaboration between Brightspot and the Grupo AJ Vierci migration teams focused on vital custom integrations to support news agency feeds from Agence France-Presse and the print-to-digital integration with Última Hora's print CMS platform.
The outcome for Grupo Vierci
In the summer of 2023 and in tandem with Última Hora's 50th-anniversary celebrations, four sites formed the vanguard of Grupo AJ Vierci's move to Brightspot: , (UltimaHora's dedicated sports site), (entertainment news) and the .
Taking advantage of the speed-to-market offered with Brightspot's publishing tools, Grupo Vierci's is also now poised to benefit from the platform's native multisite capabilities. Whether that's bringing a new site on board from within Grupo Vierci's media portfolio or sharing and managing users, roles, access or resources between sites, Grupo Vierci has a platform that can scale and extend as it grows.
In , Última Hora's news director, Arnaldo Alegre, noted the investment in its new platform represents "a commitment to innovation and first-rate technology... and done with a view to content more adapted to current needs and to continue generating the best news—developed and delivered in the fastest way."