The print edition still pays the bills, but the website had become the paper's public face — and it was working against the newsroom. Articles buried three clicks deep, a mobile experience held together by workarounds, and an archive that predated the modern web.
A rebrand was explicitly off the table. Readers trusted the nameplate; the job was to clear away everything that made the site feel older than the paper itself. We rebuilt the identity around the typography the Press was already known for, then let the website follow from it.
We framed success in terms the editors cared about:
- First article on screen in under two seconds on a mid-range phone
- A homepage a non-designer can rebuild on a Friday afternoon
- A subscription path with no dead ends between article and checkout
- An archive that is searchable, linkable and still online in ten years
