Global Publisher, 1M+ Subscribers.

Migrated to a connected stack of ArcXP, Embrin, and Braze. Full production within 8 weeks.

The challenge

The publisher's newsletter system had grown into a liability. The codebase was large, fragile, and expensive to maintain. But the real cost wasn't engineering hours. It was rigidity.

Editors couldn't launch a new newsletter type without a dev sprint. They couldn't change a layout without pulling someone off another project. The publishing process itself had become something the editorial team worked around rather than worked with.

The commercial team had no way to manage ad placements independently. Everything ran through the same pipeline, and changes anywhere risked breaking something elsewhere.

What the assessment revealed

We audited the existing system against actual usage patterns, not intended ones. Three findings shaped the migration plan.

Template variation was near zero. The codebase supported dozens of theoretical layout combinations. In practice, every newsletter type used essentially the same structure. The complexity existed to serve flexibility that was never used.

Send scheduling was uniform. The system included sophisticated scheduling logic. Nearly all newsletters shipped at the same time each day. The infrastructure was solving a problem the team didn't have.

Content was already in the CMS. Roughly 80% of newsletter content was curated from articles on the website. Editors were copying content from one system into another, manually, every edition.

Architecture

Three layers. Each one scoped to a single responsibility.

Content curation (ArcXP)

Editors work inside ArcXP Publications. One publication per newsletter type. Sections map to content blocks. The intro section carries configuration and editorial copy. When the edition is locked, the content is ready for production.

Production (Embrin)

Reads from ArcXP Publications and the ad platform. It then pre-renders the newsletter based on live data. Reusable building blocks combine into multiple formats without per-type custom code. Validates content, resolves images, and assembles the edition automatically once editors lock it.

Delivery (Braze)

Picks up pre-rendered data. and renders final HTML through Liquid templating. Handles audience segmentation, scheduled and triggered sends, tracking, and analytics. The publisher retains full control of subscriber data and engagement rules.

Ad operations (custom, built alongside)

A lightweight ad platform built on top of the Embrin platform. The commercial team manages placements, scheduling, and targeting independently. No editorial workflow dependency.

Results by team

Editorial

Production time per edition dropped from 30+ minutes to under 90 seconds. Editors curate in ArcXP, preview in Embrin, and send. No developer involvement. No template debugging. The team went from dreading the process to not thinking about it.

Engineering

Two developers moved off newsletter maintenance entirely. Zero ongoing code maintenance required. New newsletter types are configuration, not development. The team reclaimed capacity for product work.

Commercial

Ad placements managed independently through the custom Retool interface. No coordination required with editorial. Campaign scheduling and targeting handled without engineering support.

Operations

60 million emails per month through a stack that requires no active maintenance. Breaking news supported through the same workflow as scheduled sends. Every edition archived and available as a hosted web page.