Website redesign and redevelopment brief – I Love Manchester

We are looking for an experienced WordPress developer or digital agency to redesign and rebuild the I Love Manchester website.

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.