Modernization of a News Publishing Website
We helped a multi-publication news organization modernize its digital publishing platform by building a new Umbraco-based website, implementing a subscriber paywall, migrating years of editorial content and media, and integrating AI into the editorial workflow through a custom MCP Server. The result was a faster, more flexible publishing platform that preserved the client's content history while giving editors modern tools to work more efficiently.
The request sounded simple enough. Build a new website.
But as conversations continued, it became clear that the project was much bigger than redesigning pages. The client also wanted to introduce a paywall so subscribers could access premium stories. They needed years of existing website content moved safely into the new platform. And they wanted their editorial team to start working with AI in a practical way instead of treating it like a separate experiment.
Everything had to come together without making life harder for the people publishing content every day. We chose Umbraco as the content management system because it offered the flexibility the project needed. News publishing rarely follows a fixed routine. Some days are predictable. Others change minute by minute.
Editors need a CMS that keeps up without getting in the way. The new website was built with that thinking from the beginning. The idea was not to create something flashy for launch day. It needed to stay practical long after the project was complete.
The paywall was another important piece. Readers today are familiar with subscription-based content, but that does not mean the experience should feel frustrating. The challenge was to make premium articles available only to subscribed users while keeping the rest of the website easy to navigate.
Finding that balance mattered. A paywall should support quality journalism, not interrupt it. Then came the migration.
Years of published articles, photographs, PDFs, and other digital assets had been collected on the existing website. Moving all of that into a completely new system required careful planning because content is more than just files sitting in folders. It represents years of reporting, editorial work, and archived information that readers still depend on.
The migration allowed the client to move to the new platform while keeping that history intact. Behind everything readers see, there is always the infrastructure doing the quiet work.
The website was hosted on Azure App Service, giving the platform a dependable cloud environment that could support day-to-day publishing without unnecessary complexity. Media assets such as images, documents, PDFs, and videos were stored using Azure Storage Account, making content easier to organise and manage from one place.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the project happened behind the scenes. The client wanted their editors to work alongside AI rather than switching between different tools throughout the day. To make that possible, we built a custom MCP Server that works with Claude Desktop and Claude Code.
Instead of changing how editors already worked, the integration fit naturally into their existing workflow. AI became something they could use while creating and managing content, helping them work more efficiently without replacing the editorial decisions that still require human judgement.
Looking back, the project was never only about launching a new website. It became a chance to rethink how publishing, technology, and editorial workflows could work together. Sometimes digital transformation sounds like a very big phrase. In reality, it often comes down to something much simpler. Giving people better tools so they can spend less time fighting technology and more time doing the work that actually matters.
