The Yale News newsletter feels fresh and modern, but, as one user noted, going from the newsletter to the website “felt like a time warp.” There was a deep disconnect between the university’s editorial ambitions and practical content management capabilities. Editorial overhead and dated infrastructure with limited multimedia capabilities was constraining the Yale News editorial team and hurting engagement. With 68% of sessions coming from new users and less than one article read per session, the site struggled to convert visitors into engaged readers.
Conducting workshops and interviews with over 60 stakeholders across Yale's community—from students and faculty to communication leads and site editors—helped us visualize a way forward.
We developed six strategic principles that were our North Star as we sought concrete solutions:
- Be unmistakably Yale.
- Don't just amplify stories, connect them through strategic curation
- Treat every story like a destination with modular, flexible templates
- Center the audience with personalized pathways and search
- Increase reach through better sharing and recirculation
- Make it all easy to manage with smart editorial tools
Editorial efficiency through modular storytelling was a key concept. We designed a site that acts like a newsroom but feels like a magazine, featuring flexible homepage components that can shift modes based on news cycles—from highlighting major events like Commencement to showcasing strategic research areas like quantum computing or climate change. Since every article is built from components rather than fixed templates, it’s easy for editors to incorporate interactive elements, data visualizations, video, and rich media without technical overhead. Stories can range from simple text to complex multimedia experiences, each optimized for engagement and recirculation.
For intelligent content organization, we implemented a dual taxonomy system combining stable categories with flexible topic areas that can be dynamically featured. This allows Yale to surface connections between stories while highlighting topics that are strategic priorities and covering emerging research themes.
That organizational strategy allowed us to build an audience-centered navigation system. Recognizing that over half of Yale News’s traffic was coming from mobile devices, we created responsive interfaces that help different audiences quickly find relevant content—whether through school-specific landing pages, audience taxonomies, or robust search functionality.
We also developed a future-ready infrastruture. The new Drupal 10 platform includes smart defaults that reduce manual curation and allow for streamlined media management, and has backwards compatibility with existing content. Custom integrations with Yale's NetX digital asset management system will further simplify editorial workflows.
The redesigned platform elevates Yale News from a traditional university newsfeed into a sophisticated publication.
Highlights:
- Strategic Storytelling: Curated topic areas and flexible homepage components that can spotlight Yale's research priorities and major initiatives
- Enhanced Engagement: Story stubs and improved recirculation tools designed to increase time on site and reduce single-page visits
- Editorial Efficiency: Modular content blocks and smart defaults that enable rich storytelling without overwhelming content creators
- Future-Ready Infrastructure: Migration to Drupal 10 provides a foundation for continued innovation in digital storytelling
