{"id":6740,"date":"2026-07-24T09:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/?post_type=wcb_speaker&#038;p=6740"},"modified":"2026-07-24T09:06:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:06:41","slug":"allison-mchenry","status":"publish","type":"wcb_speaker","link":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/speaker\/allison-mchenry\/","title":{"rendered":"Allison McHenry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Engineering executive and CTO with 20+ years building consumer subscription platforms, scaling product engineering organizations, and driving revenue growth across web, iOS, and Android. I lead technology teams that turn content into recurring revenue, building platforms that are scalable, cost-efficient, and tightly aligned to business outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As CTO at Daily Kos, I lead all technology strategy, P&amp;L, and vendor relationships for a national progressive media platform. Within 18 months, I significantly grew subscription revenue by building the company&#8217;s first gift subscription capability and leading its first price increase in 15 years. I reduced infrastructure costs through a competitive RFP and migration to WordPress VIP, and I&#8217;m currently leading a full sitewide platform migration to WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previously at The New York Times, I scaled engineering from 40 to 85 and launched five 0-to-1 digital products across the company&#8217;s highest-margin portfolio, Cooking, Games, Audio, and Kids. I drove the shift from a news-first orientation to a portfolio-driven media company, led M&amp;A technical due diligence, and built the prototyping pipeline behind NYT Games&#8217; expansion from a single Crossword to a full word games portfolio including Spelling Bee. At Meta, I led Facebook App Identity serving 3B+ users, including the initiative to allow multiple profiles, a fundamental change to the platform&#8217;s real-name policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Across every role, my focus is consistent: connect technology investments to business performance. Whether it&#8217;s building subscription platforms that convert, leading complex platform migrations, or scaling engineering organizations through rapid growth, I deliver outcomes that leadership can measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"205\" src=\"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/07\/red-map-flowers-colorful.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5020\" style=\"width:auto;height:50px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/07\/red-map-flowers-colorful.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/07\/red-map-flowers-colorful-766x157.jpg 766w, https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/07\/red-map-flowers-colorful-300x62.jpg 300w, https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/07\/red-map-flowers-colorful-500x103.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-query is-layout-flow wp-block-query-is-layout-flow\"><ul class=\"wp-block-post-template is-layout-flow wp-block-post-template-is-layout-flow\"><li class=\"wp-block-post post-4890 wcb_session type-wcb_session status-publish hentry wcb_track-track-3-technical wcb_session_category-showcase\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-post-title has-large-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/session\/when-the-platform-belongs-to-its-users-migrating-daily-kos-at-scale\/\" target=\"_self\" >When the Platform Belongs to Its Users: Migrating Daily Kos at Scale<\/a><\/h2>\n\n<div class=\"taxonomy-wcb_track wp-block-post-terms has-medium-font-size\"><span class=\"wp-block-post-terms__prefix\">Track: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/track\/track-3-technical\/\" rel=\"tag\">Technical WordPress<\/a><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-excerpt\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt\">Daily Kos isn\u2019t just a media publisher, it\u2019s a 20-year-old community where readers write, organize, and show up every single day. When it was time to migrate 1.5 million posts, 2.7 million users, and 88 million comments off a custom-built CMS, the technical challenge was only half the problem. The real risk was losing the&hellip; <\/p><\/div>\n<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Engineering executive and CTO with 20+ years building consumer subscription platforms, scaling product engineering organizations, and driving revenue growth across web, iOS, and Android. I lead technology teams that turn content into recurring revenue, building platforms that are scalable, cost-efficient, and tightly aligned to business outcomes. As CTO at Daily Kos, I lead all technology [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11601481,"featured_media":6770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_wcpt_user_name":"","footnotes":""},"speaker_group":[],"class_list":["post-6740","wcb_speaker","type-wcb_speaker","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgSBpQ-1KI","avatar_urls":{"24":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=24&d=blank&r=g","48":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=48&d=blank&r=g","96":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=blank&r=g","128":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=128&d=blank&r=g","256":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=256&d=blank&r=g","512":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=512&d=blank&r=g"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/6740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wcb_speaker"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11601481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6740"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/6740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6810,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/6740\/revisions\/6810"}],"sessions":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/4890?_embed=1&context=view"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wcb_speaker_group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker_group?post=6740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}