With the media sector and WordPress in mind, a great case study example of this is the Metro Newspaper.
This WordPress case study describes the various ‘hacks’ they employed to grow the site to millions of visitors, achieved through the use of WordPress software off the shelf, which is then augmented with additional modules and ongoing software development and maintenance.
The Head of Development for the site Dave Jensen discusses his philosophy towards this methodology, as well as a number of insightful articles about these improved software practices more rapidly advance the digital products that the web site delivers.