St. Louis Magazine

St. Louis Magazine is an award-winning regional publication that has served the Gateway City for decades. Through their print magazine, website, suite of newsletters, and podcasts, SLM Media Group has built a loyal audience of educated and affluent St. Louisans looking for the definitive guide to their city. The publication covers everything from dining and culture to real estate and local business, publishing new content multiple times a day across their digital platforms.

After attending several publisher conferences and seeing what other regional magazines were doing with modern platforms, the leadership team knew their existing technology was holding them back. They needed a partner who could help them take their digital presence to the next level.

St. Louis Magazine had been running on MetroPublisher for years. The platform worked well enough when they started, but it had become a source of daily friction for everyone on the team.

The editorial workflow was clunky. Creating and approving newsletter content required workarounds. The site was slow. And the design no longer reflected the sophistication of the brand they had built in print. Navigation was confusing for readers, and mobile visitors faced a particularly frustrating experience.

But the real problem was not just the platform’s limitations. It was what was locked inside it.

After years of publishing, St. Louis Magazine had accumulated 30,000 articles, over 2,000 events with associated locations and schedules, and thousands of media files. Some articles contained over 200 images. All of this content was stored in MetroPublisher’s proprietary database structure, with no clear path out.

The team knew they needed to modernize. A significant portion of their revenue came in December, so timing mattered. But the fear of losing years of content, breaking URLs, and tanking their search rankings kept them hesitant. They had seen other publishers attempt migrations and come out the other side with broken sites and lost archives. They could not afford that risk.

They needed a partner who understood both the technical complexity and the business stakes.

Before writing any code, we helped the SLM team work through the decisions that would determine whether this migration succeeded or failed.

Content Audit and Cleanup

30,000 articles sounds impressive, but how much of it actually needed to move? We audited the existing content and found hundreds of custom HTML pages, many of which were old contests and one-off campaigns that had ended years ago. Rather than migrate everything blindly, we worked with the team to identify what mattered, what could be archived, and what should be redirected. This cleanup would make the new platform faster and easier to manage from day one.

Solving the Extraction Problem

MetroPublisher’s database structure was the core technical challenge. The platform lacked a reliable API, which meant standard migration tools would not work. We would need to engineer a custom extraction pipeline from scratch, combining API data extraction where possible, web scraping where necessary, and specialized export methods for the rest. This was not a matter of choosing the right plugin. It required building the migration infrastructure ourselves.

Content Format Conversion

All of the old articles were stored as raw HTML, but WordPress uses Gutenberg blocks for modern content management. If we simply imported the HTML as-is, the editorial team would be stuck managing legacy content that did not match their new workflow. We made the decision to convert all content to proper Gutenberg block format during migration, not after. This added complexity to the import process but meant the team would have a clean, consistent system from day one.

Handling Heavy Media

Some posts contained over 200 images. Migrating these without crashing the system or losing files required careful planning. We implemented batch processing strategies to handle articles with large media loads, ensuring nothing was lost while keeping the import process stable.

Events and Locations

The events system presented its own challenges. Over 2,000 events with associated locations and schedules needed to migrate accurately. For ongoing and future events, we ensured proper creation in WordPress so the calendar would work correctly from launch, not just display historical records.

Protecting Ad Revenue

St. Louis Magazine relies on Broadstreet Ads for display advertising, and this integration could not break during the transition. We mapped out exactly how ad placements would work in the new design and ensured continuity throughout the migration.

We migrated St. Louis Magazine from MetroPublisher to a custom WordPress platform designed for modern publishing workflows.

The Migration Pipeline

The migration handled 30,000 articles through a multi-stage process:

• Extracted content using a combination of API calls and custom scraping where the API fell short
• Mapped and transformed each piece of content to match the new information architecture
• Converted all HTML content to Gutenberg blocks, ensuring compatibility with WordPress and a consistent editing experience
• Used WP All Import to map the transformed data into WordPress
• Implemented batch processing for articles with heavy media loads to prevent system crashes

Every article was validated. Every URL was preserved or properly redirected.

Events Migration

Over 2,000 events migrated with their associated location data and schedules intact. The system handles both historical records and ongoing events, with a rebuilt submission workflow so community members can continue contributing.

Modern Design and User Experience

The new site features a sleek, responsive layout that works seamlessly across all devices. Bold visuals and intuitive navigation now engage readers at every touchpoint, finally matching the quality of the print publication.

Streamlined Editorial Tools

Using a custom WordPress CMS, we streamlined workflows to enable faster content creation and management. The editorial team now has powerful tools to publish articles without fighting their platform.

Subscription and Paywall Infrastructure

To unlock revenue opportunities the old platform could not support, we built a flexible paywall system that balances free and premium content. This gives the team options for exploring subscription models and gated content without disrupting casual readers.

Ad Integration

Full Broadstreet Ads integration ensures advertising revenue continued uninterrupted through the transition and beyond.

St. Louis Magazine now operates on a platform built for how publishers actually work.

The editorial team can publish content without fighting their tools. The workflow for creating and approving newsletter content is no longer a source of daily frustration. The site loads faster, looks better, and provides a foundation for features like paywalls and gated content that were impossible on the old platform.

The design finally reflects the bold, modern personality of the brand. Mobile visitors get a proper experience instead of a frustrating workaround. Navigation makes sense. Readers can find what they are looking for.

Most importantly, all 30,000 articles made it through. Every piece of content that mattered was preserved. Every URL was handled properly. Years of SEO value remained intact. The migration that other agencies might have stumbled on, the one that kept the team stuck on an outdated platform longer than they should have been, happened without losing a single article.

The site launched in time for their critical December revenue period.

Launch was just the beginning. St. Louis Magazine came to us looking for a long-term agency partner, not a one-time vendor, and that is exactly what the relationship has become.

We continue working with the SLM team on ongoing development, optimization, and new features as their digital strategy evolves. When questions come up about ad strategy, content analysis, or how to better leverage their platform, we are part of those conversations. The same team that understood the migration complexity and the business stakes is still here, helping them figure out what to invest in next.

This is what partnership looks like. Not a handoff and a support ticket queue, but an ongoing relationship where we grow together. St. Louis Magazine has a digital platform that can scale with them, and a team that knows their business well enough to help them make the most of it.