Spring – Autumn 2022

Website Migration: Good News from Finland

Website redesign mockups for Good News from Finland.

PROJECT CONTEXT

Good News from Finland is a flagship platform promoting Finland’s commercial brand globally. It showcases Finnish businesses and innovations, strengthening Finland’s image as a destination for investment, R&D, education, work and travel. Website was the main channel for brand visibility. It had thousands long-form articles that were categorised under a long list of industries and article types. The website underwent a large brand renewal in 2021.

CHALLENGE

GNF website in 2020: before rebranding and migration.

When I joined as Editor-in-Chief in May 2022, even though UI of the website was redesigned, the platform still operated on an outdated WordPress version, posing security and functionality risks. Meanwhile, Finland’s wider country brand ecosystem (tourism, talent attraction, investment channels) was fragmented, with each channel publishing independently without efficient use of shared resources. To modernise the ecosystem, a unified enterprise-level CMS with flexibility and robust integrations was required. After evaluation and competitive tendering, the decision was made to migrate to Magnolia headless CMS.

MY ROLE

  • Coordinated the migration process of a 4,000-page website in three languages with agency partners and internal stakeholders.
  • Ensured delivery within agreed scope, budget and a six-month timeline.
  • Led evaluation of designs, functionality and editorial workflows.
  • Oversaw onboarding and training of a seven-member editorial team.
  • Managed post-launch error tracking, vendor negotiations and continuity planning.

APPROACH AND SOLUTION

  • Strategic alignment: Conducted evaluation workshops to define content-sharing opportunities and potential for workflow improvements.
  • Agile collaboration: Established clear sprints and milestones with the agency and internal team to for transparent progress tracking.
  • Content-first approach: Streamlined publishing processes and ensured new CMS supported content reuse across multiple platforms.
  • Risk management: Identified and mitigated risks early, including potential delays in migration.
  • Change management: Designed and delivered a structured onboarding program for editors to ensure smooth adoption of Magnolia.

RESULTS AND IMPACT

  • Successful migration to Magnolia within 5 months.
  • Website aligned with Finland’s broader country brand ecosystem.
  • Enhanced security and scalability by replacing outdated CMS, and delivered a future-proof platform with enterprise-grade security, scalability and customisable integrations.
  • Enabled cross-channel synergies for tourism, work and investment campaigns, strengthening Finland’s unified digital presence.
  • Improved website performance metrics (speed, SEO, uptime).
  • Boosted audience engagement and reach growth after launch (traffic uplift, longer time on site, reduced bounce rate, etc.).
  • Introduced advanced editorial features to support multi-language publishing and long-term growth.
  • Successfully onboarded and trained 7 editors, all fully active on Magnolia within one month of launch.
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