Case study

    Digital transformation in media: Building News UK’s tech hub in Sofia

    News UK and Nortal established a Sofia-based development unit to scale their digital publishing platform and support key newsroom products.

    Service

    Modern Software Development

    Industry

    Telecommunication and Media

    News UK is the media group behind some of the most powerful media brands in the English-speaking world, such as The Times, The Sun, and The Sunday Times. The technology division develops cutting-edge solutions that enable the delivery of rich, interactive, and consistent content to millions of readers across multiple platforms.

    Transforming a legacy print stack for the digital era

    Today’s readers access information in various ways. Digital is emerging as a dominant force, distributing rich and interactive content across multiple platforms. Having this in mind, the technology division of News UK undertook a major programme to transform the tech stack that has evolved from the print editions to a new scalable and efficient platform.

    This platform was set to support the work of the media’s digital editors, corresponding to the requirements of its readers and their evolving models of content consumption. The rapid expansion of this programme required an extensive and efficient increase of News UK’s development capacity. A strategic decision to build a development unit in Bulgaria was made, and Nortal was chosen as a trusted partner to ensure the smooth establishment and swift growth of the division in the country.

    Jeremy Burns, Head of Software Engineering, News UK

    “The whole Nortal team has been a dream to work with because they want us to have the best experience and outcome. We rely a lot on good communications and keeping each other honest, which has resulted in the start of a fantastic base for us in Sofia.”

    Embedding News UK culture in a new Sofia hub

     

    The operation kicked off in late 2018. The focus and commitment from Jeremy Burns – Head of Software Engineering in News UK and support by Paul Wilson – Technology Platforms Director, were key for the quick stabilization, nurturing of News UK culture, and resulted in achieving high-performance levels.

    The team was set to look after key parts of the digital edition of The Times and other media products owned by News UK. For the purposes of this partnership, Nortal designated a team of HR and performance experts and a tech recruitment team to fulfil the requirements.

    By the numbers

    ~100

    engineers in Bulgaria

    7+

    years of successful partnership

    Fully integrated team driving major releases

    To date, the News UK team in Sofia has grown to around 100 professionals, including Software Engineers (JavaScript & Java), DevOps and Platform Engineers, ML and Data Engineers, Automation QAs, IT SOX Compliance Testers, PMs, and PMO specialists.

    They are distributed across the global tech structure of News UK and are very well integrated into it. The engineers in Sofia are trusted with the development of key digital products of News UK and have already completed several successful releases.

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