The Challenge

Too Much Time Running the Business, Not Enough Creating Content

This independent media outlet publishes award-winning journalism. That’s what they’re good at. That’s what they want to spend their time doing.

But running the publication was consuming more time than creating content. Publishing an article meant working in one system. Managing subscribers meant logging into three others. Tracking which subscriptions generated revenue required pulling data from five platforms and reconciling it manually. Testing a new subscription offering meant coordinating changes across systems that didn’t talk to each other.

They were spending more time being platform administrators than journalists.

The fragmentation wasn’t just annoying—it was preventing them from running their business effectively. They wanted to test different subscription models (moving from forced bundles to letting readers choose what they wanted), but their systems made even simple changes nearly impossible. They couldn’t see which offerings generated revenue. They couldn’t segment subscribers effectively. They couldn’t publish and manage their business in one place.

Their infrastructure was getting in the way of doing what they actually do: journalism.

The Approach

One System for Publishing and Business

Moving an independent media outlet into HubSpot isn’t common—most agencies won’t touch it because of the complexity. You’re consolidating publishing workflows, subscription management, payment processing, email systems, and revenue tracking into one platform while maintaining the unique editorial identity that makes the publication recognizable.

Before touching any technical systems, we worked with their team on subscription strategy—what offerings made sense, how they should be priced, what structure would give them flexibility to test and adjust. Once we had that clarity, we could consolidate their platforms and build the infrastructure to support it.

Migrating Content and Consolidating Systems

We moved 900+ articles from WordPress and their legacy publishing platform into HubSpot, manually reviewing each one for templates and featured images. We migrated subscriber data from Substack (which has no API), connected Patreon for membership information, and integrated their Shopify store. Payment processing consolidated through Stripe.

The data cleanup was significant. When subscriber information lives in five places, none of them agree on who’s active or what they’re paying. We reconciled everything and made HubSpot the single source of truth.

Building Subscription Infrastructure That Works

The old subscription page reflected their system’s constraints—fixed bundles, unclear pricing, no transparency about what readers were getting.

We rebuilt it to support their new business model. Readers can now select exactly what they want: news briefing, digital magazine, print magazine, or everything together. Transparent pricing for each option, monthly or yearly.

On the back end, we built automated workflows so subscribers get the right emails based on what they selected. Subscribe to just the digital magazine, you get digital-specific communications. Add the news briefing, the system adjusts automatically. The publication controls the content and strategy—we built the infrastructure to make it work.

Making Publishing Easy

HubSpot’s CMS made creating and publishing content straightforward for their team. We rebuilt their site but kept everything that makes it theirs—the layout, the custom article components, the way different categories display on their homepage.

We built custom modules for their publishing workflow using HubDB so they could maintain their editorial style. Dozens of categories, custom callouts, attribution modules, web-exclusive tags—all the design elements that make their publication recognizable. For readers, it looks like the same site. For the team, publishing is simpler.

Making the Business Visible

Before, revenue reporting was broken because products were named differently across systems. Some subscribers had old product names, some had new ones, and there was no way to see which offerings generated revenue.

With everything consolidated, they can now see their business clearly: which subscription types drive revenue, who’s subscribing to what, what’s working and what isn’t. No more pulling data from five platforms and reconciling it in spreadsheets.

Training for Independence

We trained their team on what they needed: one person with design background learned the content management system, the marketing side learned segmentation and email tools. Just the basics to publish content and manage their business without calling anyone.

What Changed

They focus on journalism now. Publishing content, managing subscribers, processing payments, and tracking revenue all happen in one place. The team isn’t jumping between five systems or spending time on platform administration.

Publishing is straightforward. HubSpot’s CMS makes creating and publishing content easy. The custom modules we built let them maintain their unique editorial style while simplifying the day-to-day work of running a publication.

Business operations run in the background. Automated workflows handle subscriber emails based on what people purchased. Revenue reporting works. They can see which subscription offerings perform well and make decisions based on actual data.

They can test new approaches. Moving from forced bundles to à la carte subscriptions was a business strategy shift their old systems wouldn’t support. Now they can test pricing, adjust offerings, and see what readers actually want.

Their site looks like their site. They got modern publishing infrastructure and streamlined business operations without sacrificing their editorial brand.

What This Means for Other Media Outlets

Independent publishers face a specific challenge: you got into this to do journalism, not to be platform administrators.

But running a publication requires both creating content and managing the business. When those operations are spread across multiple platforms—newsletter here, payment processing there, website somewhere else, membership system over there—you spend more time coordinating systems than doing what you’re actually good at.

Each platform was probably added to solve a specific problem. Together they create a situation where the infrastructure consumes more attention than the content.

Consolidating everything is complex—migrating content, cleaning subscriber data, setting up payment processing, building automated workflows, preserving your unique publishing identity. Most agencies won’t touch media outlet work because of that complexity.

But the outcome is straightforward: you can focus on journalism while your business operations run smoothly in the background.

Working with Hypha

We handle complex technical implementations for organizations that need sophisticated infrastructure but don’t have technical teams. If you’re managing your operation across multiple platforms that don’t talk to each other, let’s talk about what’s possible.