Insights
What we have learned building and running large platforms, written by the people who did the work. Filter by the sector you are in.
Choosing a CMS for a publisher: start with the newsroom, not the feature list
Every publishing CMS demo looks good. The right choice comes from how your desks actually work, what your archive holds and where your content needs to go.
Write once, publish everywhere: structured content for publishers
Newsletters, apps and syndication all want the same stories in different shapes. A structured content model is what makes that possible without copying and pasting.
Print and digital in one workflow: what a magazine publisher's CMS has to do
When the magazine and the website run on separate systems, every story is handled twice. Bringing them together is a workflow decision before it is a software one.
Rebuilding a membership platform? Decide these five things before you talk to suppliers
Suppliers can only price what you can describe. Five decisions made early turn a vague brief into proposals you can actually compare.
How to write a charity website brief that suppliers can price properly
A good brief describes problems, priorities and constraints, not a wish list. Here is what to include, and what to leave to the suppliers.
Meta's new business terms would let it crawl publisher sites for AI. They now start on 20 November
Meta has pushed back terms that would treat any business account as permission to crawl the publisher's website. The NMA has asked the CMA to step in before they take effect.
The subscription regulations are now before Parliament. Here is what membership teams should do this quarter
The government laid the draft subscription regulations and published its guidance on 19 October. There is no grace period, and January is ten weeks away.
Shopify script tags stop loading on 1 March 2027. Find yours before they go quiet
Since 1 October, apps can no longer create or update storefront script tags. From 1 March, existing ones stop loading, and anything still relying on them will stop without an error.
The CMA has started fining retailers for fake flash sales and pre-ticked extras
Wayfair and Appliances Direct have been fined more than £6 million between them for countdown timers that meant nothing and paid add-ons ticked by default. Black Friday is a month away.
Thinking about crypto donations? The Fundraising Regulator wants the decision made first
New guidance from the Fundraising Regulator says no crypto gift should be accepted, directly or through a platform, until trustees have decided whether it fits and the risks are assessed.
Drupal 10 support ends in December. Plan your move to Drupal 11 now
Drupal 12 is scheduled for the week of 7 December, and Drupal 10 reaches end of life on 9 December. If you are still on 10, the clock is now short.
Charity accounting thresholds change on 30 September. Can your systems report the new way?
The Charity Commission has updated its accounts guidance for SORP 2026 and new income thresholds. The finance rules have changed. Your data may not have.
New subscription rules brought forward to January 2027: what membership bodies need to change
The DMCC Act subscription regime now goes live in January 2027, earlier than expected. Auto-renewing memberships will need reminders, cooling-off periods and online cancellation.
Buy Now Pay Later is now regulated. Here is what it changes at your checkout
Since 15 July, third-party BNPL lenders have been regulated by the FCA. Lenders carry most of the burden, but the checkout journey is still the retailer's to get right.
PPA Next Gen Awards 2026: winners named ahead of the 8 October celebration
The PPA has named this year's Next Gen winners, with the celebration on 8 October in Shoreditch. The roles on the list say a lot about how publishing teams are changing.
Gift Aid at the point of giving: getting the declaration right
Where the declaration is captured decides how much of the claim survives an audit. Usually it is captured in the wrong place.
What a CRM migration really costs you in staff time
The licence is the small number. Data cleansing, parallel running and retraining are where the year goes.
Why your donation form is the slowest page on the site
Third-party scripts, an iframe and a redirect. Each one costs you supporters who meant to give.
Replatforming without losing fifteen years of SEO
Redirect maps are the boring part of a rebuild and the one that decides whether trade holds up in month two.
Trade pricing, and why it breaks most off-the-shelf carts
Account-specific prices, minimum quantities and credit terms are normal in B2B and unusual in the platforms sold to it.
Stock accuracy is a process problem before it is a software one
No integration fixes a warehouse that books goods out at the end of the day. Decide where the truth lives first.
One member record: what it actually takes to get there
Four systems, four versions of the same person. Consolidation is mostly a series of decisions about who owns which field.
Renewals are a design problem, not a reminder problem
If lapsing is easier than renewing, more email will not save you. Look at the twelve months before the renewal date.
Running events and membership on one platform
Member pricing, waiting lists and CPD records stop being integrations and start being fields. What that changes.
Migrating twenty years of archive without losing the taxonomy
The tags are the asset. Mapping an old vocabulary onto a new one is editorial work, not a script.
Editorial tools people will use at 4pm on deadline
Every extra required field is a workaround waiting to happen. Design the CMS for the worst hour of the day.
Paywalls, metering and the reader you already have
Most metering models are tuned for acquisition. Tuning one for retention looks quite different.
Got a version of this problem?
Most of these pieces started as a client question. Thirty minutes on the phone is usually quicker than reading.