Multisite Subscription Platform

Launched in December 1999, Audience Media produce business publications, such as LIVE UK and Audience, for the UK and global contemporary live music industries. Serving a readership of more than 7,000 live music business professionals, Audience provides readers with a wealth of news, features and information, accompanied by a growing number of insightful contacts directories. Audience is also available in digital format for subscribers, with news posted regularly and the print publication’s content published several days earlier.

With the growth of the online readership, Audience Media had to tackle a persistent issue they had not been able to solve. They had two websites, LIVEUK and Audience. LIVEUK covering domestic UK Markets, whilst Audience looked at the global business. Both websites served different groups of users, with some users wishing to gain access to both due to overlapping interests. They wanted to offer membership to both sites where the user could log onto one site and have simple access to the other, without the need of another log-in process. A problem they couldn’t solve on their own, they commissioned the team at Filter Digital to work alongside them to help them implement this.

Objective

The main objective was to deploy the platforms and technology required to ensure the updates to both online magazines were launched as required. Whilst the project was centred around providing membership to both sites, the implementation of a content paywall, development of an online shop and online directories also featured within the scope of the project.

Approach & Technology

Filter’s approach was to implement a combination of WordPress Multisite and WooCommerce Memberships and Subscriptions. This, along with a fair amount of custom development, ensured that the sites stitched together in the way that Audience Media wanted the user experience to work.

The Build

As you would expect, each site offered a whole host of content created for their respective audiences. Each site contained multiple sections, using categories and tags, related news posts and the ability to feature articles. The use of video also became a key feature. Both sites also wanted to offer Event and Tour information and online directories that mirror their print publications. Needless to say, these had to be behind the content blocker, accessible only to authenticated subscribers.

Online Shop

An online shop was created to provide users with the ability to purchase all Audience Media’s publications, and subscription offers, with either just single site or multisite access. The checkout is powered through Stripe, taking advantage of the WooCommerce plugin and the Stripe API.

Data

Arguably the most challenging piece of work and the most important part of the build was the use of a multisite database that allows users to log in on one site and then view both sites on the same account – despite them being on different domains. This was a key driver for Audience Media as they wanted to move to this new set up, and we were pleased to be able to help them deliver this.

Performance and Results

Audience Media now have the foundation on which they can begin to expand their subscriber base and deliver their industry-leading content via a leading CMS and on a platform, which can grow with them.

Multi-site, e-commerce and subscription-based websites as part of their digital transformation.

“Creating a membership platform that spans multiple websites is challenging in WordPress, and Audience Media came to us after two failed attempts by other development teams. We were able to utilise our knowledge and experience of WordPress and WooCommerce to deliver what the client needed – providing them with a secure, comprehensive and extendable solution that allows their readers to access their content across different sites with the same login.”

Paul Halfpenny

Filter Digital, CTO

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Live UK Audience

Providing a multisite experience for magazine subscribers

Building a foundation to grow the subscriber base