10up

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

City A.M. is London’s most-read financial and business newspaper, enjoyed by thousands of workers across the capital each weekday. Launched in 2006, it covers the latest economic, political and business news as well as comment, sport and lifestyle features. Cityam.com has around 3.2 million unique visitors per month primarily based in London and across the UK. We also have a strong international audience, with strong traffic sources from the United States and India.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire 10up, and what were your goals?

Our existing WordPress site was performing poorly in the significant areas of core web vitals and monetization. We had a difficult and inflexible relationship with the ongoing developers and needed to change in order to continue our growth. We wished to remain on the WordPress platform but needed to implement a design and backend that would deliver a reader experience closer to the newspaper design and quality while also allowing for rapid development in the future.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We did extensive research on WordPress agencies with a track record of delivery with similar publishers and long listed none in total, very rapidly establishing a shortlist of four based on experience, capacity and chemistry. At that stage a detailed tender document was supplied and more in depth discussions of delivery and pricing occurred. Final proposals from two agencies were evaluated and a decision made at that point.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

After an initial kick off meeting to introduce the team we worked through a detailed scope and validation of the project. A UX stage was undertaken alongside brand work to establish the visual look, feel and operation of the site. Sign offs were obtained at every stage . The existing reader and editorial toolset was examined and validated with our chosen hosting partner (VIP) and development & migration gaps identified.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The 10up team included a business development and strategy manager, a project manager and lead developer, front end UX and designers and developers. A team of about 10 in total.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our core web vitals scores improved by 40%. Site traffic increased by 32% and we experienced no organic traffic dip on launch, the move away from AMP had immediate benefits in terms of organic traffic. As well as positive feedback from readers we saw PVs per session increase. Reporting (via data studio) became easier and more accurate allowing for better decision making. Site uptime improved significantly and responsiveness to issues very rapid.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

During what was a very rapid development cycle we had daily updates from BM and PMs and weekly meetings with stakeholders for feedback and updates. All steps were delivered to schedule. In person communication was excellent and the team made good use of remote/distributed collaboration tools (this was during periods of covid lockdown) such as slack, teamwork, figma and miro.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

As a trusted partner 10UP always bring a good mix of industry experience, in-depth platform knowledge, and research to the table. This enhances collaborative engagement and was a real business advantage for us.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None.