Sjællandske Medier: Four news sites and 28 newspapers, developed and run with agents we orchestrate
Client
Sjællandske Medier
Duration
10 weeks
Industry
Media
Services
UX/UI Design
AI prototyping
Platform and API architecture
Web app
Operations with AI agents
Local news gets its own websites
Sjællandske Medier wanted to make local news easier to find. On sn.dk, stories from Faxe, Kalundborg and the rest of the region appeared together. Each local news site would now have its own newsroom and front page, making it easier for readers to follow events in their municipality.
Our task was to build the shared platform behind the new websites. It needed to support four news sites and 28 regional and weekly newspapers, allowing the newsrooms to publish to the different sites from the same system.
A prototype helped us agree on the direction
Using AI, we built a clickable prototype in a few days. At the first meeting, the newsrooms and management could already explore a proposal. Together, we used it to decide which content to prioritise and how readers would find their way around before completing the design.
Each week, we showed the latest work and made decisions with the client. We explored four design directions, from a substantially different look to options closer to what readers already knew. This helped us discuss what to change and what to keep. It took 10 weeks from the first prototype to launch.
What we built with Sjællandske Medier
- 10weeks from the first prototype to launch
- 4news sites, each with its own website
- 28regional and weekly newspapers
- 1publishing platform for every newsroom
"We had something concrete to discuss at the first meeting. The prototype made it easier to make decisions about the solution, and working closely with Sjællandske Medier helped us make decisions as we went and keep the work moving."
CEO and adviser, Abtion
How the platform was built
We orchestrated the agents. The agents did the work.
We set up a team of AI agents and directed it throughout the project. The agents wrote the code, and not one line was written by hand. Our developers owned the architecture, gave the agents their tasks, tested the results and said yes or no before anything went live. They also made sure the solution fits Sjællandske Medier's business, which is something a model cannot know on its own. We estimate that a similar project would previously have taken up to a year.
- Developer
Decides
What should be built, and how should it fit with the rest of the platform?
01 - Agent
Builds
Writes the code from the decision and the platform's rules.
02 - Developer
Tests
Tries the feature and finds what doesn't hold.
03 - Agent
Fixes
Fixes the errors and explains what changed.
04 - Developer
Approves
Nothing goes live without a person saying yes.
05
Then on to the next feature
- 0lines of code written by hand
- 164conversations with Claude carried the development of the platform
- 1 dayfrom deciding on a feature to it typically being live
- ½ dayto build a preview for marketing, from idea to in use
"I didn't write a single line of code in the project. My job was to set up the agents and direct them: decide how the platform should fit together, test what they made, and make sure it fits Sjællandske Medier's business. A model doesn't have that understanding on its own."
Software Engineer, Abtion
A shared design system
Each news site has its own look
Front pages, articles and topic pages use the same components. This makes the sites easier to maintain and allows design work to be shared across them.
A CMS of their own
Marketing makes its own changes and sees them on the real site.
Instead of buying a CMS, we built one for Sjællandske Medier, with the agents doing the work. Changes to texts and paywalls appear on the real site after five seconds, but only for the person making them, until they are published.
- Page builder
- Paywalls
- Campaigns
- Checkout
- Standard texts
- Statistics
- DKK 0in licences for an external CMS
- $7a month to host the admin
- $50a month to host the reader sites
How the platform works
Newsrooms publish from the same system
We built a publishing platform where the newsrooms can write and publish articles for the different titles. They use the same system whether the content is for a larger news site or a local weekly newspaper.
Readers find news from their area
The four news sites each have their own website and share code and components. The platform supports 28 regional and weekly newspapers in total. Readers select their municipality to find their local news site, with access to subscriptions, login and the digital edition.
Read on your phone without downloading an app
We also built a web app for readers on mobile. It opens in the browser, with navigation and controls similar to those of a mobile app. Readers can use it directly without downloading anything from the App Store or Google Play.
Operations with agents
When the alarm goes off, the agent is first on call.
The platform went live on 20 October 2026, and we have set up agents to run operations. When monitoring reports an error, an agent investigates before anyone is woken up. False alarms are called off. Real errors trigger a phone call to the developer on call, with the cause and a fix ready. It has already spared the people on call a handful of calls at night.
- 221alarms investigated by the agent in the first week after launch
- 100%uptime in the first week
- 21pull requests in the first week
- 30 to 60minutes from error to fix, typically
- MonitoringBetterStack reports a spike
- AgentInvestigates logs, servers and database
Is it a real error, or just noise?
- False alarmCalled off in Slack
Nobody gets a call.
Real error, or unsure after 15 minCalls the developer on callAn automatic phone call, not an email.
- Ready when the developer picks upThe agent has prepared
- The cause of the error
- Rollback to the right point in time
- A pull request with a fix
- A task in Asana
- DeveloperReviews and approves
The agent proposes. A person decides.
# incidents
An example thread, not real incidents.
Another agent reads the system's logs and puts new errors on the team's board in Asana before anyone has noticed them.
With a simulated crash and data loss, the agent pointed to the right rollback and the point in time to restore the database from.
- The agent never publishesFixes arrive as pull requests for a person.
- Doubt becomes a callIf the agent is unsure after 15 minutes, it calls.
- Everything is in SlackThe whole team can see what the agent investigated, and why.
- Errors become tasksNothing gets lost in a log. It lands in Asana.
"We ventured into unknown territory when we had to launch a completely new publishing platform and new sites, where articles are connected across the daily newspapers. We have felt safe throughout the process, and the efficiency at night has been astonishing."
Sjællandske Medier
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Mads Hofman
CEO & Advisor
Abtion \
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