PMC Scales Engineering Talent to Support Rapid Growth

Project Summary

The Client

Penske Media Corporation (PMC) is the driving force behind more than 20 of the world’s most iconic digital and print brands. The company reaches approximately 412 million monthly active viewers with its eclectic publications’ best-in-class coverage of entertainment, music, fashion, art, women’s lifestyle, and live events. Some of its most well-known brands include Rolling Stone, IndieWire, Billboard, Variety, Art in America, and Women’s Wear Daily (WWD).

The Challenge

As PMC acquired more media brands, they needed a flexible team of engineers who could adapt to changing staffing needs. The pressure to rapidly source, hire, and onboard senior-level engineers — only to downsize as demand and priorities shift a few months later — can create a volatile work environment that can lead to low morale, reduced productivity, and higher costs. 

The Services

To get ahead of those challenges, PMC partnered with X-Team to access a flexible, high-performing engineering team capable of scaling on demand. Since 2017, X-Team has provided PMC with top-tier engineering talent across its brand and tech stack, which includes WordPress VIP, Gutenberg, CI/CD, Git, Unit Tests, HTML, PHP, CSS, and JavaScript.

Results

Scaling Engineering Capabilities with Precision

X-Team’s longstanding partnership with PMC has enabled the company to scale its engineering capabilities seamlessly as new media brands are acquired. By providing senior-level engineers on demand, X-Team ensured PMC’s web properties remained robust, responsive, and engaging, even during periods of significant business growth.

Delivering Expertise That Drives Results

X-Teamers have played a key role across PMC’s portfolio, improving site functionality and internal efficiency through deep technical expertise.

“Years ago, when we first started engaging with X-Team, we were working on building a very complex subscription stack,” said Nicola (Nici) Catton, SVP of Product Delivery at PMC. “X-Teamers helped us build it and stayed on to help us maintain it after we did some large migrations. They’ve helped us with WordPress, built microsites, and done front-end work — and the quality of the people who have come in has been really, really high.”

Seamless Integration into PMC’s Culture

PMC has particularly appreciated X-Teamers’ ability to integrate seamlessly into their team, stay focused under pressure, and contribute effectively even when project requirements shift. “Every X-Teamer who comes to work with us embeds with our processes, and they’re great to work with even when projects get stressful,”  Catton said.

Being able to continuously source additional staff who fit PMC’s culture has further accelerated the company’s growth across its portfolio of publications.

Working with an organization I trust that’s going to help us achieve our goals and provide input on solutions that will work for us, versus just trying to get in the door, makes X-Team stand out. I’ve worked with many agencies over my career, and that’s not always been the feeling I’ve had. But our relationship with X-Team feels like a partnership.

Nicola (Nici) Catton

SVP of Product Delivery at PMC