The JC

The Jewish Chronicle, founded in London in 1841, is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world. We redesigned the journey around The Vault, its subscription-only historical archive, from user research and benchmarking through new user flows, wireframes and final UI, with a single objective: grow the number of archive subscribers.

The JC publishes news and writing on Jewish life in English, and it holds what is, to our knowledge, the largest archive of Jewish journalism in the UK, and one of the oldest anywhere, reaching back to its first issue in 1841. That archive, The Vault, is open only to subscribers, and it is the paper’s most important single source of revenue. Our brief was direct: increase the number of people who subscribe to reach it.

We began with user research and a benchmark of how other news, heritage and archive products present and sell access, to understand what moved someone from interest into a paid subscription. We paired that with the quantitative and behavioural picture from Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Hotjar, then analysed the existing user flow end to end, from the first encounter with an archive result to the subscription and payment. That combination showed where readers stalled or left, and where the current path was losing potential subscribers.

From there we designed a new user flow built around conversion, wireframed every screen along it, and took the design through to final UI: the archive entry and search, the results and article views, the paywall and subscribe moments, and the account and payment steps. Because most of that journey happened on mobile, we built the interactive prototypes for mobile so the flow could be tested the way readers actually met it. The work was design only and ran in 2021. We delivered the research, the new flow, the wireframes and the finished UI for The JC’s team to take into build.