The Blade's previous commenting platform created friction for readers and editorial staff. Excessive automated moderation required the web desk to manually review legitimate comments, diverting time from publishing and maintaining news content.
Replacing OpenWeb with Viafoura introduced more efficient automated moderation, an improved commenting experience, and integrated content discovery features. The strategy was to reduce operational friction while creating more opportunities for readers to discover, discuss, and engage with news content.
The Blade's existing commenting platform, OpenWeb, created operational inefficiencies and friction in the reader experience.
Automated moderation frequently flagged legitimate comments for manual review, delaying reader participation. Web desk employees spent considerable time reviewing and approving comments instead of publishing stories, maintaining website content, and supporting newsroom operations.
The challenge was to identify a platform that could reduce manual moderation, improve the commenting experience, and expand opportunities for reader engagement without adding complexity for editorial staff.
Any replacement also needed to integrate with The Blade's existing digital ecosystem, including the Libercus CMS, Piano authentication, advertising infrastructure, and responsive desktop and mobile experiences.
Key challenges
Reduce manual moderation workload and free editorial staff to focus on publishing.
Improve the commenting experience and encourage reader participation.
Maintain compatibility with existing Libercus CMS and Piano authentication workflows.
Integrate new engagement features without disrupting advertising or article layouts.
Balance implementation complexity, operational efficiency, and long-term product value.
After identifying the operational and reader experience limitations of OpenWeb, I independently evaluated alternative platforms and selected Viafoura for its automated moderation capabilities, content discovery features, and opportunities to expand reader participation.
I then worked with editorial, engineering, and vendor stakeholders to define implementation priorities, refine the user experience, and guide subsequent product enhancements while balancing audience needs, technical dependencies, and operational constraints.
I also prioritized measuring whether the platform change improved reader engagement. Following launch, I requested a comparison of OpenWeb and Viafoura analytics to evaluate content discovery and commenting activity, while recognizing differences in how the platforms measured engagement.
Following my decision to replace OpenWeb, I led the coordination of Viafoura's implementation across editorial, engineering, and vendor teams.
The project involved moderation configuration, authentication integration, CMS compatibility, UX refinement, quality assurance, and launch planning. Throughout development, I reviewed the reader experience, prioritized improvements, managed technical dependencies, and coordinated issue resolution.
Viafoura launched on The Blade's website on February 15, 2022. Following launch, I continued guiding product enhancements and resolving technical issues as we expanded the platform with Live Chat, Author Follow, and new-story notifications.
Key Execution Activities
Led implementation planning and coordinated technical dependencies across Viafoura, engineering, and editorial teams.
Reviewed desktop and mobile experiences, identified UX issues, and prioritized design improvements.
Coordinated integration requirements involving Piano authentication, the Libercus CMS, and advertising infrastructure.
Directed QA and user acceptance testing activities, investigated defects, and validated production fixes.
Managed the February 2022 launch and coordinated resolution of post-launch issues.
Prioritized additional engagement capabilities, including Live Chat, Author Follow, and notifications.
Evaluated release readiness, approved the June 2022 Author Follow deployment, and verified functionality in production.
Technical Problem-Solving: Live Chat Integration
As we expanded Viafoura's capabilities, The Blade wanted to introduce Live Chat to support real-time conversations between journalists and readers.
During testing, we discovered that the Libercus CMS was removing custom HTML elements from Viafoura's embed code, preventing Live Chat from rendering correctly.
I coordinated the investigation with engineering and our CMS vendor, requested a formal development ticket, and advocated for resolving the underlying CMS limitation rather than introducing a custom workaround that would add newsroom steps and long-term maintenance requirements.
The engineering team implemented a CMS fix, which I personally validated in production on March 11, 2022. Two days later, the newsroom conducted its first Live Chat during the NCAA tournament bracket announcements.
The feature was subsequently used during the Toledo Walleye playoffs on May 19, allowing sports reporter Mark Monroe to answer readers' questions in real time. This demonstrated the platform's potential for interactive coverage and direct audience engagement.
Expanding Engagement: Author Follow & Notifications
In June 2022, we expanded Viafoura with functionality that allowed readers to follow individual Blade reporters and receive notifications when those journalists published new stories.
I coordinated acceptance testing with editorial and engineering stakeholders, investigated notification behavior and usability concerns, and worked through issues identified during testing.
After reviewing stakeholder feedback and validating the functionality, I approved the June 24, 2022, production release. I then coordinated post-launch verification using newly published Blade stories to confirm notifications were functioning as expected.
This enhancement extended the platform beyond article-level commenting by creating opportunities for ongoing relationships between readers and the journalists they follow.
The Viafoura implementation addressed The Blade's original moderation challenges while expanding opportunities for readers to discover content, participate in conversations, and engage with journalists.
Post-launch performance data demonstrated improvements in moderation efficiency and growing reader participation. Automated moderation reduced the need for manual review, while commenting and content discovery features supported increased audience engagement.
Performance continued to strengthen after launch, with vendor-reported metrics documenting substantial growth in comment readership and time spent engaging with comments through 2022 and into 2023.
Sustained Reader Engagement
The Viafoura platform continued generating measurable engagement results beyond its February 2022 launch.
By Q2 2023, automated moderation approved 94.28% of comments, with only 4.33% of submissions deferred for human moderation. This addressed the operational burden that originally prompted the platform evaluation.
Comment readership reached 148,086 in Q2 2023, compared with 34,535 in Q3 2022. Vendor-reported data also showed that comment readers spent 14.63 times longer on pages than anonymous users during Q2 2023.
Reader participation extended beyond individual comments. Replies represented 53.01% of comments, compared with 44.37% in the preceding quarter, suggesting increased conversation among participants.
Together, these results demonstrated sustained use of the platform's engagement features while reducing the need for manual moderation.
Early Post-Launch Performance
In April 2022, I initiated a comparison of reader engagement metrics between OpenWeb and Viafoura to evaluate the impact of the platform transition.
The analysis compared January 2022, the final full month using OpenWeb, with March 2022, the first full month using Viafoura.
6,040 to 13,454 reported pageviews: Pageviews attributed to engagement features were approximately 123% higher under Viafoura, although differences in tracking and the expanded number of calls to action prevent a direct like-for-like comparison.
Commenting activity: OpenWeb recorded 2,770 comments and replies in January, while Viafoura reported 1,936 new comments in March. Different reporting definitions limited the ability to draw conclusions about changes in participation.
Moderation efficiency: Internal feedback identified improved moderation capabilities as the platform's primary benefit, alongside new opportunities for newsroom Live Chat events.
This early evaluation helped distinguish operational improvements from audience engagement outcomes and highlighted the importance of consistent measurement when evaluating a platform migration.
As Director of Digital at Block Communications, I served as the product lead for The Blade's transition from OpenWeb to Viafoura.
After identifying significant moderation challenges, I independently researched alternative platforms, selected Viafoura, and coordinated implementation across editorial, engineering, and vendor teams.
My involvement continued beyond launch through UX refinement, technical issue resolution, feature prioritization, acceptance testing, release approval, and evaluation of reader engagement performance.
Core Responsibilities
Scope of Ownership
Identified the moderation problem and initiated the platform evaluation.
Independently researched alternatives and selected Viafoura.
Established implementation priorities and coordinated cross-functional delivery.
Guided UX improvements and managed CMS, authentication, and advertising dependencies.
Coordinated the February 15, 2022, production launch.
Advocated for a maintainable CMS solution to support Live Chat integration.
Personally validated the Live Chat production fix on March 11, 2022.
Initiated a pre- and post-migration analytics comparison to evaluate reader engagement and content discovery performance.
Approved the June 24, 2022, Author Follow release and coordinated post-launch verification.
Reviewed vendor-reported moderation and audience engagement results.
Key Product Leadership Contribution
I transformed an operational moderation challenge into a broader reader engagement initiative. By identifying and selecting a replacement platform, guiding implementation, and leading ongoing product improvements, I helped reduce manual moderation demands while expanding opportunities for readers to discover content, participate in conversations, and engage directly with journalists.
This project demonstrates my ability to identify customer and operational problems, evaluate product alternatives, and lead cross-functional delivery of consumer-facing digital experiences.
It highlights my approach to balancing audience engagement, technical feasibility, editorial workflows, and business constraints while using performance data to evaluate outcomes.
The initiative also reflects my commitment to product ownership beyond the initial launch, including technical problem-solving, ongoing optimization, and prioritization of enhancements that create meaningful value for users and the organization.
Project Context: The Blade subsequently discontinued Viafoura and its commenting functionality due to budget constraints. This case study documents the platform's implementation and performance during its active period.