Case Study: TIME achieves higher engagement and nearly tripled homepage revenue with Code and Theory

TIME nearly triples homepage revenue with Code and Theory

TIME, a 102-year-old media brand, faced the challenge of a digital experience that no longer delivered on its legacy of authority. An outdated CMS, slow performance, and fragmented design were frustrating readers and advertisers while allowing competitors to outpace them. The company needed a modern, flexible platform that could support personalization, experimentation, and AI. Code and Theory was enlisted to lead a full-stack digital transformation.

Code and Theory rebuilt TIME.com with a headless, modular architecture and implemented an editorially guided AI system to connect current reporting with the vast archives. Key solutions included AI-powered features like Surrounding Stories and a generative audio podcast, premium ad formats like Collections, and streamlined newsroom workflows. The results were significant: homepage revenue nearly tripled despite a traffic drop, users who engaged with the AI features spent twice as much time on site and were 139% more likely to return, and overall engagement saw a 51% year-over-year increase.

TIME