Our readers wanted a way to follow stories as they unfold, track previous updates, and understand events in a clear chronological flow. Recognizing this need, we designed and launched The Inquirer Live Blog in January 2020 with a focus on iterative testing, localized research, and a workflow tailored to our newsroom’s needs.

The impact was immediate: we saw a notable increase in click-through rates, especially from mobile web readers, making the Live Blog our highest-engagement tool to date. The timing was pivotal—what started as a quiet stress test evolved into an essential platform as COVID-19 emerged, cementing its role as a go-to resource for real-time updates.

In 2023, we redesigned the Service Article Hub to deliver more impactful, actionable journalism, resulting in a 29.15% traffic increase. Service journalism—stories that help readers solve real problems—is essential for our audience, so we reimagined the hub with targeted SEO strategies, in-depth user research, and an extensive comparative analysis. To reinforce our expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, we developed new workflows for the newsroom, emphasizing fact-checking and content authority.

This holistic approach created a more intuitive, trustworthy hub that increased engagement and strengthened our search visibility, establishing us as a go-to resource for practical, reliable information.

We optimized the mobile subscription checkout flow, resulting in an 87% increase in digital-only subscribers over approximately five years. By streamlining the process into a single-page user flow and applying Baymard Guidelines, we created a mobile-focused design that improved accessibility and reduced friction. Key improvements included clarified input labels, simplified forms, and enhanced error states, making the experience smoother for users. We also integrated PayPal, single sign on, and conducted thorough usability research to boost conversions further.

This work earned us the UserTesting Illumni award and stands as one of our team’s proudest successes in UX improvement.

The "About Us" project aimed to create a platform that effectively communicates The Philadelphia Inquirer's mission, values, and initiatives to diverse audiences, including potential talent, the business community, funders, and external journalists. Recognizing the company's historical reluctance to self-promote, we designed and developed a WordPress-based platform that empowers our communications team to independently craft and manage content.

This autonomy ensures timely and authentic storytelling that resonates with each target audience. The resulting site serves as a comprehensive resource, highlighting our commitment to quality journalism, community engagement, and innovation in the digital age.

A seamless registration experience should be as clear, efficient, and trustworthy as good journalism. Mather Economics shows registered readers are four times more likely to subscribe, highlighting the value of this project. We began with a comparative analysis and blue-sky thinking to refine our strategy.

Emphasizing third-party sign-ins, we found Apple and Google accounted for 34% of total registrations, enhancing convenience and boosting sign-ups. Challenges remain, including duplicate accounts and Google SSO limitations in embedded web browsers on social platforms, which cause 404 errors for readers accessing articles via social media.

To better align our print and digital products, we partnered with renowned digital agency Pentagram to redefine our brand’s tone and visual language, drawing inspiration from Philadelphia's rich history. Together, we developed a new font inspired by a legacy Inquirer typeface, refined our masthead, brand colors, and print layout, and updated our typographic approach for digital platforms.

We collaborated closely with Pentagram to ensure web-friendly fonts, optimizing for readability and comprehension on screens. Through user testing and a refined typestack, we revamped our design system, creating a cohesive brand experience across both print and digital formats.

Recognizing that trends are only meaningful when they persist over time, we launched The Philadelphia Inquirer’s first Diary Study to capture readers' contextual behaviors and engagement patterns over an extended period. This project established an in-house process for conducting studies independently, providing actionable insights that both confirmed and challenged our hypotheses.

The study demonstrated the immense value of engaging directly with readers, adding a qualitative layer to our already robust quantitative team. Although we faced challenges like limited diversity in recruitment, the study’s success laid the groundwork for building our first internal qualitative research team, enhancing our capacity to make data-driven, reader-focused decisions.

Our goal was to fully develop live activities to deliver timely, glanceable updates on key events for iOS users in Philadelphia. This initiative aimed to integrate live activities more deeply into our content strategy, enabling users to follow developing stories directly from their lock screens—essentially turning the Live Blog into a second-screen experience.

We created templates to support Apple News integration, resulting in over 6 million reads since launch. This effort also included designing widgets for key events, like tracking the Philadelphia mayoral race, which was highlighted by NiemanLab, and pushing relevant sports updates to keep fans connected in real time. Developing these live activity trackers required careful design for Apple’s Dynamic Island and Apple Watch, navigating the unique constraints of each platform to offer seamless, real-time updates for our audience.

To expand our audience, we developed a new sports vertical aimed at attracting casual fans ages 28-40 with player-focused, personality-driven content. Recognizing that premium subscriptions had maximized top-of-funnel engagement, our goal was to create an entry point for new users to explore our sports content without immediately encountering a paywall. This new vertical encourages users to return frequently, browsing a “snackable” feed of sports updates, with the ultimate goal of moving this experience to an app format.

Over the course of a year, we collaborated with the sports desk and younger Philadelphia sports fans, conducting research and iterative testing to launch three new storytelling formats and refresh the sports front page. Data collection is ongoing, but early insights indicate increased engagement among our target audience.