Soundings Magazine was founded by Rich Turner, a seasoned publisher and photographer with a knack for crafting various compelling articles. Positioned as a startup, Soundings Magazine embarks on a journey to curate and publish a collection of articles that would presumably revolve around specific niches or topics that Rich is passionate about. Though it started with minimal information and a few initial articles provided by the client, the endeavor was aimed at blossoming into a full-fledged digital magazine under Rich’s guidance and experience.
STRUGGLE
Being a startup, Soundings Magazine presented a blank canvas that required robust digital infrastructure to blossom into a potent digital presence. Rich, after evaluating various web design services, opted to collaborate with Dray Web Services, drawn to the thorough discovery and planning phase they employed before diving into the project. The initial struggle lay in sculpting a digital platform from the ground up with limited initial content and defining a digital strategy and structural blueprint that would enable the magazine to flourish digitally.
Discovery
The journey to find the optimal solution for Soundings Magazine involved exploring various membership plugins and page builders before deciding on a combination of Elementor and Restrict Content Pro, layered on top of the WordPress platform. The discovery phase was pivoted on architecting a solution that was not only custom-tailored to cater to the unique needs of a digital magazine startup but also flexible and user-friendly enough to allow a non-technical founder like Rich to manage and modify it with ease. The objective was to create a dynamic, quickly editable, and reliable platform that was adept at managing content and memberships alike.
RESULT
Soundings Magazine now boasts a custom-built, dynamically flexible website that not only facilitates quick edits and content management but also proves to be a reliable and user-friendly platform for a founder without a technical background. It presents an “out of the box” solution that aligns with the startup nature of the business, providing a digital environment that is adaptive to the evolving needs of the magazine. The infrastructure, which allows for both content presentation and membership management via Restrict Content Pro, lays down a sturdy digital foundation upon which Soundings Magazine can build its digital presence, content repository, and reader base in a manner that is synergistic with its growth and evolution.
