Phoenix - Your AI AssistantWebsite redesign and redevelopment brief – I Love Manchester
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Description
This is not just a website refresh. We are looking to create a modern, scalable media and community platform that combines editorial, events, listings, memberships and ecommerce into one seamless experience.
The creative direction sits somewhere between Creative Tourist, Visit London, GetYourGuide, Time Out, Monocle, New York Times, The Times and The Guardian. We want the cultural feel and discoverability of a modern city guide, combined with the credibility, structure and editorial experience of a major news publisher.
I Love Manchester is one of the UK’s leading city-based media and community brands, reaching millions of people every month through news, culture, events, campaigns and partnerships across Greater Manchester.
The new website needs to better reflect the scale and ambition of the brand while improving performance, flexibility, user experience, memberships and monetisation.
We want to:
Modernise the design and front-end experience
Improve speed, stability and scalability
Reduce dependency on proprietary theme ecosystems
Create a flexible editorial platform
Introduce premium/subscriber/member-only content
Better integrate events, directories and ecommerce
Improve SEO and internal linking
Build a future-proof platform that can evolve with the business
Create an architecture capable of scaling into other city-based editions in future
The platform should be designed with scalability in mind, allowing the structure, functionality and content architecture to be adapted or duplicated for additional city-focused brands in future, similar to how Time Out or Secret Media operate across multiple locations.
The colourway, fonts and general visual identity are already in place. We are not looking for a full rebrand.
The project is about redesigning, rebuilding and improving the website experience while keeping the core I Love Manchester look and feel.
The new site should feel more premium, flexible and editorially mature, while still recognisably I Love Manchester.
The platform must continue using:
WordPress as the CMS
WooCommerce for ecommerce
Yoast SEO for SEO management
Elementor is preferred for front-end flexibility and custom layouts. We are open to recommendations around supporting plugins, hosting setup, membership tools, event systems and directory functionality, but the core platform must remain WordPress-based and compatible with our existing editorial workflow.
Key functionality required
Editorial/news platform:
Modern digital magazine experience, flexible homepage layouts, featured stories, editorial curation, category/tag optimisation, author profiles, related stories, internal linking, advanced search, SEO-first structure, fast article templates and newsletter integration.
Memberships/subscriber content:
Free and paid membership options, subscriber-only or member-only articles, registration/login system, newsletter integration, membership management and potential tiered access in future.
What’s On/event listings:
Event submission system, featured/premium event options, date filtering, recurring events, location-based browsing, ticket/external booking links and seasonal guides.
Directory/listings:
Business listings and profiles, categories and filters, premium listing options, claimable listings if possible, location-based structure and strong SEO architecture.
Shop/ecommerce:
WooCommerce integration for merchandise, campaign products, charity fundraising products, flexible payment/shipping setup and featured products.
The current website environment has experienced significant security and stability issues, so this rebuild must prioritise strong WordPress security, proper hardening, optimised database performance, reduced plugin bloat, scalable architecture, reliable backups, CDN/Cloudflare compatibility and ongoing maintainability.
We are looking for a premium editorial look and feel, strong typography, clear visual hierarchy, mobile-first UX, fast-loading pages, flexible layouts, high engagement design, clear separation between news, culture, events and commercial content, and an intuitive backend for editors and journalists.
The experience should feel polished, authoritative and highly discoverable, while still retaining warmth, personality and community focus.
We are looking for a developer or agency with strong WordPress and Elementor expertise, experience with media/publisher websites, memberships and ecommerce, and a good understanding of performance and security at server/application level.
Experience building scalable or multi-location publishing platforms would be useful.
Clear communication and ongoing support are essential.
Please include relevant portfolio examples, your recommended approach, estimated timeline, ongoing support options, ballpark budget expectations, and who would be our main point of contact.
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Hi Chris,
A few important questions before finalising architecture recommendations:
1. Approximately how many articles/posts currently exist on the platform?
2. Are memberships/paywalls already active or being introduced from scratch?
3. Will events and directories eventually become major revenue channels?
4. Are there plans for native app integration/API access later?
5. What hosting stack is currently being used, and are you open to infrastructure migration?
I’d be happy to discuss platform strategy, scalable architecture, and long-term support options further.
Best Regards. -
Hi , here are some questions so I can understand the scope better
* How do you see the balance evolving between editorial journalism, community content, commercial listings, memberships, and ecommerce over the next few years?
* Are future city editions expected to share users/memberships/content centrally, or should each city eventually operate semi-independently with its own editorial identity and monetisation?
* What are the biggest pain points with the current platform today : performance, editorial workflow, plugin instability, SEO structure, scalability, monetisation, or all of the above?
* How much existing SEO equity/content structure needs to be preserved during migration, especially around high-ranking articles, event pages, and evergreen content?
* Are you envisioning memberships mainly as premium content access, or more as a broader community ecosystem with perks, events, discounts, partner benefits, etc.?
* Should events, directories, and editorial content become deeply interconnected discovery layers (articles --> events --> venues --> memberships), or remain more separated operationally?
* Do editors/journalists currently struggle more with content creation speed, layout flexibility, media management, or backend usability?
* Are there existing ad systems, sponsorship placements, affiliate systems, newsletter stacks, or analytics tools that must remain tightly integrated into the new platform?
* How important is advanced search/discovery across articles, businesses, events, authors, and locations as the platform scales?
* Would you prefer a highly modular architecture now that supports gradual expansion over time, or a more aggressively feature-rich launch from the start?
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A few quick questions:
* Do you already have preferred membership/event plugins in mind, or are you open to recommendations based on scalability?
* Are there any existing integrations, APIs, or advertising systems that must remain part of the workflow? -
One thing I’d genuinely like to understand before proposing architecture is how you envision the relationship between editorial content, events, directories, and memberships evolving over the next 2-3 years.
Are you planning for these sections to operate as deeply interconnected discovery ecosystems (similar to Time Out/Secret Media where articles feed events, events feed listings, listings feed memberships, etc.), or more as distinct content verticals under one brand umbrella?
The reason I ask is because the answer heavily affects the WordPress architecture, taxonomy strategy, internal linking model, scalability for future city editions, and even how Elementor templates should be structured from day one to avoid expensive restructuring later. -
-/ Could you please clarify if you want the membership system to support multiple tiers with differentiated access to articles, events, and directories, or will a single membership level suffice initially?
-/ Do you envision expanding the directory functionality to allow claimable business listings, premium listing options, and location-based SEO optimization, or is a simpler directory structure preferred for launch?
-/ For the events section, should we implement recurring events, featured events, and ticket booking integration directly on the site, or will external links be sufficient initially?
-/ Are there any new pages or features you want to add, such as city guides, seasonal content hubs, or campaign-driven landing pages, that are not currently on the site?