Transforming a Unique Wine Journalism Platform – WordPress Redesign and Development

About The New Wine Review

The New Wine Review, established in 2023, is a subscription-based digital publication dedicated to wine enthusiasts. Created by a team of expert critics, writers, and editors, the platform offers curated content, reviews, and insights for both casual drinkers and connoisseurs. Focused on building a niche community, the platform integrates modern digital trends and technologies to deliver a fresh perspective on wine journalism. As a startup, the organization operates with a small, dynamic team, reflecting its early stage in the industry.

Goal

• Ensure smooth data and media synchronization from Airtable to WordPress while maintaining data integrity throughout the transfer process.
• Customize the Leaky Paywall plugin to meet specific subscription management needs, including extensive functionality adjustments for effective content hiding and access control.
• Configure and manage access controls with the Leaky Paywall plugin to restrict content and search page access based on user subscription plans.
• Develop robust search and filter functionalities for wine, whiskey, and articles, ensuring precision and performance with extensive data attributes.
• Optimize ad management customization to ensure consistent display and functionality across various user devices.

Solution

• Developed a bespoke Airtable plugin to handle large-scale data syncing efficiently, offering both automatic and manual control options for seamless integration.
• Improved the Leaky Paywall plugin with custom controls for managing user subscription plans, including template modifications and hooks. Customized signup forms, account pages, and other elements to align with project specifications.
• Created fast and efficient search, autocomplete, and filter functionalities with custom-optimized queries to handle large data sets effectively.
• Designed custom Gutenberg blocks for ad management using the Advanced Ads plugin, tailored to meet specific project needs.
• Developed additional Gutenberg blocks to address unique project requirements, enhancing content management and flexibility.

Results

• The new Gutenberg Block Editor simplified content and ad management, providing a more intuitive and efficient user experience.
• Reduced the effort required to sync wine and whiskey data from Airtable to WordPress, making data management more seamless.
• Implemented fast and effective search, autocomplete, and filter functionalities for wine, whiskey, and article data. Performance statistics show significant speed improvements, even with 100,000+ dummy entries in the staging website.
• Website page loading speeding improved by 30%.
• Simplified management of user subscription levels through the WordPress backend, making it easier to control and monitor subscription access.