About: Ask Media Group

Ask Media Group, a performance marketing company based in Oakland, California, specializes in leveraging advanced technology and data science to effectively monetize large-scale audiences. As part of IAC’s portfolio, Ask Media Group manages a diverse range of search and content sites, prominently featuring Ask.com. Globally, their network attracts 245 million unique visitors monthly, generating over 500 million unique page views. With an estimated annual revenue of $17.4 million, Ask Media Group has a team of over 100 people. Originally founded as Ask Jeeves in 1996 and rebranded as Ask.com in 2005, the company has maintained a steadfast commitment to enhancing personal knowledge by providing insightful answers.

The Challenge: The “Arbotron” Bottleneck

Despite generating over 500 million page views monthly, Ask Media Group’s editorial and engineering teams were slowed down by “Arbotron,” an outdated, proprietary CMS.

The team faced three major hurdles:

• Rigid Workflows: Implementing ads and managing content across multiple disconnected sites was manual and inefficient.
• Technical Debt: The legacy system lacked modern features, forcing heavy reliance on developers for simple changes.
• The “Impossible” Timeline: The business required a complete migration of 50,000+ content pieces across 11 properties in under one quarter.

The Goal: A centralized, unified WordPress Multisite network that could handle enterprise-level traffic while empowering editors with modern tools.

The Solution: Enterprise-Grade Migration

Multidots deployed a specialized team of engineers to reverse-engineer the legacy business logic and rebuild it within the WordPress ecosystem.

Key Technical Architectures:

• Automated Migration at Scale: Utilized custom WP-CLI scripts to migrate over 50,000 posts safely, ensuring data integrity for millions of historical URLs.
• Unified Ad Management: Built a bespoke plugin to centralize advertising logic, allowing the team to push ad updates across all 11 sites instantly.
• Gutenberg-First Editing: Developed custom Gutenberg blocks, transforming the editorial experience from a rigid form-based entry to a visual, drag-and-drop workflow.

When Multidots proposed migrating 11 sites in 12 weeks, I was very skeptical and unsure if it was even possible. But they did it! Working with the entire team has been a pleasure.

Vinodh Krishnamoorthy

VP of Software Engineering

The Results: Speed, Scale, and Stability

The project didn’t just meet the deadline; it significantly upgraded the performance of the entire network.

1. Performance & Experience

• 65% Faster Page Load Speed
• Modern Design elements boosted user engagement
• Advanced Analytics via custom Search API integration

2. Operational Efficiency

• Zero Downtime during the switchover of 11 high-traffic websites.
• Unified Dashboard: Editors now control all 11 sites from a single “Mission Control,” reducing administrative overhead.
• Future-Proofed: The move to open-source WordPress eliminates vendor lock-in and opens access to a massive library of plugins and tools.