MC
Multi-Tenant News CMS
Media Product Case Study
Media • 2025
● Media SaaS • Multi-Tenant CMS • Commercialised

Shipping a Multi-Tenant News Portal CMS for Bangladeshi Media Publishers

Built and launched a multi-tenant news portal/CMS product using Next.js, TypeScript, Laravel, MongoDB, and MySQL, then successfully commercialised it with paying clients such as Daily Niropekkho—validating product–market fit in the digital publishing space.

Role Senior/Lead Engineer & Product Builder
Org DoptorITMart, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Industry Digital Media & Publishing

The goal was to move regional newsrooms away from fragile, one-off WordPress installs and into a SaaS platform optimised for newsroom workflows, multi-tenant hosting, and modern reader experiences across web and mobile. My focus: design and implement the product from the ground up and prove that media organisations would pay for it.

Problem → Solution → Impact

Problem

  • Regional publishers stuck on fragile, one-off WordPress stacks.
  • Slow pages and plugin breakage during traffic spikes.
  • No shared platform to onboard multiple brands efficiently.

Solution

  • Multi-tenant SaaS with tenant-aware routing, themes, and config.
  • Next.js SSR for fast, SEO-friendly reader experiences.
  • Editorial-friendly tooling plus onboarding flows for paying clients.

Impact

  • Faster sites under breaking-news load.
  • Reduced setup friction when adding new publications.
  • Commercial validation: multiple tenants live and paying.
Page speed & stability
Before: slow, plugin-sensitive After: SSR + tuned assets
Tenant onboarding
Before: bespoke projects After: repeatable SaaS rollout
Editorial workflow
Before: tooling gaps & rework After: streamlined publishing
Design for multi-tenancy

Tenant-aware API, auth, and theming to host multiple brands safely on one platform.

Optimize reader & editor UX

Next.js SSR, rich story tools, and performance tuning for newsroom spikes.

Launch & onboard

Commercial rollout with paying media clients; repeatable onboarding playbook.

Impact spotlight
  • Editors publish faster with fewer platform surprises.
  • Brands keep their identity while sharing infrastructure.
  • Business sees a SaaS product, not one-off implementations.
Overview

Introduction

DoptorITMart set out to build a news-friendly CMS that could serve multiple editorial teams from a shared platform while preserving the identity and control of each media brand. The product needed to support fast-moving newsrooms, modern reader experiences, and reliable performance even under breaking-news traffic spikes.

As the primary engineer driving the product build, I was responsible for both architecture and implementation across the Next.js/TypeScript front end and the Laravel-powered API and admin backend, backed by MongoDB and MySQL. I also partnered with business stakeholders to onboard early customers and turn the platform into a revenue-generating product.

Background

Context

Many regional publishers in Bangladesh run on aging stacks or heavily customised WordPress sites. Common pain points include:

  • Slow sites under peak traffic or when archives grow large.
  • Fragile plugins that break after updates.
  • Duplicated work across properties with no shared infrastructure.
  • Limited support for modern content formats and multi-channel publishing.

DoptorITMart wanted to offer a multi-tenant SaaS that solved these problems while remaining affordable and easy to adopt for small and mid-sized newsrooms.

Challenge

Problem

The core challenge was to design and ship a multi-tenant CMS that:

  • Gives each newsroom its own branded site and editorial workspace.
  • Scales as more tenants and articles are added.
  • Supports fast page loads and SEO-friendly rendering.
  • Is simple enough for non-technical editorial staff to use daily.
  • Can be sold, deployed, and supported as a SaaS product, not a one-off project.

We needed to prove both technical feasibility and commercial viability within a tight, startup-style timeline.

Operating Environment

Constraints & Requirements

  • Multi-tenant by design: shared infrastructure with isolated data and configuration per publication.
  • High performance: fast initial load, good Core Web Vitals, and stable behaviour during traffic spikes (e.g. breaking news).
  • Editorial usability: intuitive story editor, image handling, and scheduling tools for non-technical staff.
  • Time-to-market: ship a deployable product and sign paying clients within roughly a year.
Execution

Implementation Highlights

1) Multi-tenant architecture

  • Designed a Laravel-based API with tenant-aware routing, authentication, and configuration to serve multiple publications from the same codebase.
  • Used MySQL for relational data (tenants, users, roles, billing) and MongoDB for flexible article content and metadata, making it easy to evolve the content model.
  • Implemented per-tenant themes and configuration so each brand could control its front page layout, logo, typography, and colour palette.

2) Reader experience with Next.js & TypeScript

  • Built the public-facing sites in Next.js with server-side rendering and static generation where appropriate for fast, SEO-friendly pages.
  • Implemented reusable components for article lists, story pages, category hubs, and breaking-news banners that could be styled differently per tenant.
  • Applied TypeScript to reduce runtime errors and keep the front-end codebase maintainable as features grew.

3) Newsroom workflows

  • Created an editorial dashboard for drafting, editing, scheduling, and publishing stories with role-based permissions (reporter, editor, admin).
  • Added support for rich content (images, tags, categories, featured placements, breaking labels).
  • Implemented simple analytics views so editors could see which stories were trending and adjust the homepage accordingly.

4) Commercialisation & onboarding

  • Partnered with business stakeholders to onboard early customers, including Daily Niropekkho, handling data migration and customisation.
  • Created scripts and tooling to provision new tenants quickly: base configuration, default sections, and initial user accounts.
  • Worked closely with editorial staff to refine UX details (headline fields, categorisation flows, image cropping) based on real newsroom behaviour.
The emphasis was on building a “newsroom-native” CMS: fast sites for readers, intuitive tools for journalists, and a multi-tenant core that the business could sell repeatedly.
Outcomes

Impact & Outcomes

The product evolved from internal prototype to a live SaaS used by multiple newsrooms. Key outcomes:

  • Commercialisation: Converted the platform into a paid product with real media clients, validating product–market fit in a niche but important segment.
  • Operational efficiency: New tenants could be provisioned much faster than building a custom site from scratch, reducing onboarding time and cost.
  • Better reader experience: Modern, responsive sites with improved performance and structure compared to legacy properties.
  • Product foundation: A codebase and architecture that the company can continue to extend with new modules (paywalls, newsletters, more analytics).
Reflection

Key Learnings

  • Editorial users judge tools on speed and simplicity; UX details around drafting and publishing matter as much as pure technical performance.
  • Multi-tenant architecture is a powerful way to serve many small publishers, but it demands careful thinking about isolation, configuration, and theming.
  • Tight feedback loops with early customers are essential to reach product–market fit, especially in a domain with strong existing habits like news publishing.
  • A solid technical foundation (TypeScript, clear API boundaries, consistent patterns) makes it easier to keep shipping features as new business opportunities appear.