CMS Sites
Groundwork Journal
Editorial CMS rebuild
Nine years of archive migrated into a content model built around how editors actually file a story, with series, contributors and issues as first-class collections.
- Client
- Groundwork Journal
- Industry
- Independent media
- Category
- CMS Sites
- Year
- 2024
- Archive migrated with every original URL preserved
- Editors publishing on day one, unassisted
- Series and contributor pages generated automatically
01Client goal
What they came to us with
Groundwork publishes long-form reporting in themed series, with rotating contributors and a quarterly issue. Their old site treated every piece as a flat blog post, so series had to be assembled by hand and contributor pages went stale within weeks. They wanted the structure they already worked in reflected in the CMS, and they could not afford to lose a single archive URL.
02Scope
What we agreed to build
- 01Content model covering articles, series, contributors and issues
- 02Migration of nine years of archive content
- 03Article, series, contributor and issue templates
- 04Filtered archive with search, and a redirect map
03Delivery
What maztech delivered
A model that matches the newsroom
Four collections, related rather than duplicated. An article references one series, one issue and one or more contributors. Series and contributor pages are generated from those references, so they are never out of date and nobody maintains a list by hand.
Migration without broken links
Every archive URL was mapped to its new address before launch and loaded as a redirect list. Old slugs, old category paths and the previous pagination pattern all resolve, so nine years of inbound links and citations still land on the right piece.
An archive people can actually search
The archive filters by series, contributor, issue and year without a page reload, combines filters, and reflects the active filter set in the URL so a filtered view can be shared or bookmarked. Empty results explain what to change rather than showing a blank column.
An editor guide that gets read
A short written guide covering each field, what it does on the page and what happens if it is left empty, plus the two rules that keep the archive tidy. Written for editors, not for developers.
04CMS setup
How the content model was built
Four related collections carry the whole site. Nothing on a template is typed twice, and every list page is generated from references rather than assembled by hand.
Articles
Collection- Fields
- Title, slug, standfirst, body, hero image, reading time, published date, series reference, issue reference, contributor multi-reference, featured toggle
- Why
- The only collection editors touch daily. Standfirst doubles as the meta description when no override is set.
Series
Collection- Fields
- Name, slug, description, accent colour, cover image, running order
- Why
- Generates a series landing page listing its articles in running order, with the accent colour applied to the page furniture.
Contributors
Collection- Fields
- Name, slug, role, biography, portrait, links
- Why
- Referenced from articles, so a contributor page lists everything they have filed without anyone updating it.
Issues
Collection- Fields
- Number, title, slug, cover, published date, editor letter
- Why
- Groups articles into the quarterly issue and drives the issue archive index.
05Components
Components used
- Article template with sticky reading progress
- Standfirst and byline block with contributor references
- Pull quote and full-bleed figure blocks
- Series card with accent colour
- Filtered archive list with combined filters
- Contributor card
- Related reading list drawn from the series reference
Each one is a named, reusable component in the project, not a one-off section. That is what lets the team add pages later without the design drifting.
06Performance
Performance notes
Images sized for the slot
Hero, card and thumbnail crops are separate sizes rather than one large image scaled down in three places. Below-the-fold imagery loads lazily, and the article hero is the only preloaded asset on the page.
Long pages that stay smooth
The reading progress indicator is driven by a scroll-linked animation rather than a scroll event handler, so a ten-thousand-word piece scrolls without the jank that used to appear on older phones.
Structured data on every article
Article schema is generated from the collection fields, including headline, author from the contributor reference, publish date and hero image, so search results carry the right byline and date.
07Gallery
Screens from the build
The CMS model was the part I expected to fight with. Instead our editors moved in and started publishing without asking me a single question. Everything is where a writer would look for it.
Next step
Want a build like this one?
Tell us about the project and we will come back with a scope, a timeline and a price, plus an honest note on anything we think should change.
Or reach us directly
Studio hours are 9am to 6pm across US and EU time zones, Monday to Friday.
