Case Study: Penske Media Corp. achieves rapid portfolio growth and 25% higher reader engagement with Elastic Site Search

Penske Media Corp. (PMC) expands digital publishing portfolio with Elastic Site Search

Penske Media Corporation (PMC), the publisher behind brands like Variety, Rolling Stone and Deadline, needed a way to scale its portfolio through acquisitions while maintaining a high-quality search experience that keeps readers and advertisers engaged. Google Search Console proved unable to support rapid onboarding of new properties or deliver the relevance and analytics PMC required, threatening reader retention and ad revenue as the company grew.

PMC implemented Elastic Site Search after an A/B test showed markedly better results, enabling day-one search for acquired sites, faster deployment, unified desktop and mobile experiences, and real-time search analytics for product and ad teams. The switch supported rapid growth to 18 publications (≈300% increase), halved the number of searches needed, increased post-search time on page by 25%, improved page speeds, boosted reader loyalty and opened new premium advertising opportunities.

Penske Media Corp.

Derek Ramsay

Director of Product Management