From Stories to Action: WWF-US and the Power of the Wagtail Platform

I'll briefly set the scene: where we started, what we asked of the new platform, and what we learned from the migration itself, I'll also show how our content creators are using Wagtail day to day to build stories that connect readers to meaningful action, whether that's giving, advocating, or signing up to stay involved. I'll use real examples from our editorial work. Lastly, I'll walk through our use of Wagtail multisite to bring supplemental sites onto one platform. That includes how we decide which sites belong there and which should be retired. It also covers governance and some of the less glamorous infrastructure decisions, such as serving media and system email from a neutral platform-level domain so that sites that shouldn't carry WWF branding don't have to.

Attendees will leave with practical ideas for shaping Wagtail's editing experience around storytelling rather than page assembly. They'll also get approaches for tying content to measurable action, and a framework for evaluating and consolidating site sprawl with multisite. Finally, I'll share lessons on the governance and infrastructure questions that come up when one platform starts serving many sites and audiences.

About Diane Querey

Diane Querey, VP of Digital Platforms at World Wildlife Fund’s US office, has spent 25 years turning curiosity about new media into mission-driven impact at scale. She began her career in 1997 as a newspaper editor who taught herself HTML — a curiosity that became a career building the digital platforms and partnerships behind WWF's global conservation work.

Diane leads the teams behind worldwildlife.org and the organization's broader digital presence, overseeing web strategy, content, and social media teams. Her career highlights include Apps for Earth (2016), an Apple-led partnership with 24 developers that raised $8M for WWF in 10 days; serving as US lead for Our Planet (2019), WWF's Emmy-winning Netflix collaboration that reached 33M+ households; and leading the 2025 migration of worldwildlife.org to a modern CMS platform, delivered on schedule through a mid-project vendor transition.

Before moving into executive leadership, she built CMS infrastructure across 40+ Gannett newspaper sites and directed award-winning mobile products. Her honors include an Apple Design Award, Cannes Lions, a Webby nomination, Addy Awards, and One Show Awards.

Diane lives in Washington D.C.