Overview

The Pew Internet and American Life Project is part of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group which produces reports on the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping the U.S. and the world. In 2007 Pew, along with Threespot Media, began a redesign of its website, www.pewinternet.org. One of the key challenges was to present Pew’s reports online, which previously were only available as PDFs.

To manage the website and these reports, some of which are over 100 pages in length, Sitecore was chosen as the best CMS, and Velir was tapped to perform the implementation. The reports were broken into sections in Sitecore for easier consumption via web browser and to allow for inline display of infographics. In addition, Velir built a system which allows downloadable PDFs to be created dynamically from Sitecore, ensuring the content is always up to date. Other features on the site include customization of the Google Mini search, RSS feeds, related content, and online surveys.

The website was launched in March, 2009, and provides a richer, yet simpler user experience, while Pew staff members now build and manage the report writing process directly in Sitecore. The site’s reports are frequently referenced by other publications such as the Associated Press and the Washington Post.