Migrate Editorial System to An Open-source Architecture

Project Activities

Setup and Planning: The team first defined the requirements for the new CMS, ranging from editorial workflows, a mobile-first branded front end and paid-content management to ads served by an external provider, SEO and AI features. It also mapped out roles and permissions, workflow states and transitions, the underlying data model, and the tags and categories used to organise content.

Development and Integration: The team configured Drupal's standard modules and editorial workflows, and built custom modules and a theme in line with Magyar Hang's branding. It set up the site structure, page layouts and editorial forms, and defined placements for priority articles, ads and banners. New features include YouTube embedding, a paywalled content type and an external ads integration. SEO modules help optimise the meta tags of every article. In addition, APIs for Adobe InDesign print workflows were specified, and five to eight AI services were tested.

Migration and Training: More than 80,000 free and paid articles were migrated, along with their authors, tags and images. The team fine-tuned caching, performance and security settings and connected the external ads provider. Online editors are now testing the platform as friendly users, while trained key users support journalists. Subscribers access paid content by logging in through the linked CRM platform.

Launch and Optimisation: With the migrated posts tested and corrected, the production editorial site has been set up. Its connection to the CRM and webshop platform is under continuous monitoring, while the team fine-tunes search engine optimisation using AI tools and Drupal SEO modules.

What is the impact?

Addressing and Countering News Deserts: Magyar Hang's mission is to provide independent, centre-right journalism in Hungary – a space that, until the general election of 12 April 2026, was dominated by pro-government propaganda. Although that propaganda has begun to diminish since the election, the news desert in this segment persists. The new open-source editorial system gives the outlet a far stronger technical foundation from which to serve this audience: its content and subscriber data are now in its own hands, its videos and podcasts are easier to find through search engines, and the platform is built to support regional newsletters for underserved areas.

Changes for the Audience: For online readers, the most visible change is improved video and podcast embedding. Magyar Hang's YouTube content now plays directly within articles, with proper search-engine metadata, instead of requiring extra scrolling and clicks. Better SEO across all articles is expected to help new readers find the outlet's journalism, although these effects cannot yet be measured. Subscribers benefit from a new stand-alone webshop offering more products (subscriptions, merchandise, books and events), along with a streamlined checkout and faster, more automated subscription processing. Inside the newsroom, editors and journalists now work with redesigned editorial screens and workflows on a platform that is far easier to maintain and develop, laying the groundwork for future features.

Project Pictures

Images by Magyar Hang