Across the publishing industry, there’s a growing trend: companies are taking a hard look at their tech stacks. Rising costs, audience expectations, and the push for efficiency are forcing publishers to ask tough questions about the tools they use every day.
But evaluating your tech stack isn’t just about swapping out software. It’s about making sure every piece of technology works hard to support your growth and isn’t a distraction from your mission.
In this blog, we examine the key questions publishers should consider when evaluating whether a piece of software is a good fit for their organisation, including the crucial decision of whether to build or buy.
Build vs. buy: The questions that matter
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1. Will it help you grow, or distract from your core business?
If the technology sits at the heart of your business logic, you probably want to keep it in-house. But if it doesn’t directly define your brand or product, investing months of development time may only pull you away from what you do best: creating and distributing content.
2. Do you have the expertise in-house
Look ahead, not just to launch, but to long-term support. Building tech isn’t just about writing the first line of code. It’s about maintaining, updating, and scaling it. If your team doesn’t have the expertise (or the capacity) to manage it long term, the cost of building can quickly outweigh the benefits.
3. What are the true costs of building vs. buying?
With SaaS budgets shrinking, every license and team hour counts. On paper, building might seem cheaper. However, when considering salaries, infrastructure, maintenance, and opportunity costs, buying can often be the smarter financial decision. A lean, specialised solution might be more resource-efficient.
4. Where does quality come from?
A lean in-house team may get something functional live, but will it reach the level of polish and performance that your audience demands? External partners who specialise in specific solutions often deliver higher-quality tools - and faster.
5. If buying, how flexible is the solution?
Tech that's easy to integrate and easy to swap out reduces your risk. Ask:
- How quickly can we get it live?
- How dependent will we be on external support?
- If we want to exit, can we?
Publisher should look for solutions that are plug-and-play, low-friction, and don't lock them into costly contracts.
6. Is it a tool too far?
It's also important to think about technical debt. Too many tools can drag down page performance and fragment analytics, impacting reader engagement and editorial velocity.
Why Tickaroo belongs in your tech stack
At Tickaroo, we've designed our live blogging solution with exactly these concerns in mind. Here's why we're worth your consideration:
- Deep CMS integration: Our live blogs connect seamlessly with your existing workflow. Fewer clicks for your journalists means more time for content creation.
- Maximise your content investment: Any tools you use to create content - video, audio, images, data - can be embedded into our live blogs, extending their impact and giving you more value from the content you already produce.
- We're not a cost centre, we're a revenue driver:
- SEO optimisation that boosts traffic.
- Interactive features that keep audiences on your site longer
- Automated contextual premium content blocks to upsell subscriptions.
With Tickaroo Live Blog, you're not just adding another tool to your stack; you're adding a growth engine.
When evaluating your tech stack, the smartest move isn't always building from scratch. The right partner can save you money, free your team to focus on content, and directly boost revenue. Tickaroo Live Blog was build with publisher in mind, so you can keep your focus where it belongs: creating stories that matter.
