The Dominion Post partnered with WordHerd to migrate its online newspaper from the enterprise Kentico CMS to WordPress, creating a more flexible publishing platform for managing daily news, sports coverage, archives, digital assets, SEO, and paid access functionality.
The Dominion Post is the only commercial daily newspaper in Morgantown, West Virginia, providing local area and sports news to the community. As a news organization with thousands of published articles and a large media library, the migration required a structured approach to preserve content history, author attribution, categories, original publication dates, search visibility, and subscriber access functionality.
WordHerd migrated more than 4,000 posts and more than 10,000 assets from Kentico to WordPress, while also implementing SEO support, 301 redirects, and integration with a WordPress paywall plugin.
The Challenge
The Dominion Post’s existing website was built on Kentico, an enterprise content management system. While the platform had supported the publication’s digital presence, the newspaper needed a WordPress solution that would provide more flexibility for publishing, content management, archives, and paid access.
Because online newspapers rely heavily on accurate archives and content relationships, the migration required careful handling of article data, authors, categories, original publication dates, media files, redirects, and SEO metadata.
Key migration requirements included:
- Migrating more than 4,000 posts from Kentico to WordPress
- Migrating more than 10,000 assets
- Preserving authors, categories, and original publication dates
- Maintaining archive integrity for historical news content
- Supporting SEO during the CMS transition
- Implementing 301 redirects for changed URLs
- Integrating the WordPress site with a paywall plugin
- Creating a more maintainable publishing platform for ongoing news operations
For a daily newspaper, preserving the structure and history of published content was essential. The migration needed to protect both the reader experience and the operational needs of the editorial team.
The Solution
WordHerd migrated The Dominion Post from Kentico to WordPress using a structured migration process designed for large-scale publishing websites.
The new WordPress implementation gave The Dominion Post a more flexible foundation for managing news content, sports coverage, archives, media assets, SEO, and paid access functionality.
Kentico to WordPress Post Migration
WordHerd migrated more than 4,000 posts from Kentico into WordPress.
This process included extracting article content from the existing CMS, mapping it into WordPress posts, and preserving the key details that matter most for a newspaper archive, including author information, categories, and original publication dates.
By preserving these relationships, WordHerd helped ensure that the migrated archive remained organized, searchable, and historically accurate inside WordPress.
Asset Migration
The project also included the migration of more than 10,000 assets from the Kentico environment into WordPress.
This included media and supporting files used throughout the newspaper’s online archive. WordHerd’s migration process helped ensure that assets were transferred carefully and connected to the appropriate content where applicable.
Author, Category, and Date Preservation
For The Dominion Post, maintaining article attribution and archive structure was a critical part of the migration.
WordHerd preserved authors, categories, and original publication dates during the move to WordPress. This helped maintain the integrity of the publication’s historical content and allowed readers to continue browsing and discovering articles in a meaningful way.
SEO and 301 Redirects
Search engine optimization was an important part of the migration strategy.
WordHerd supported the transition with SEO-conscious content mapping and 301 redirects for changed URLs. These redirects helped preserve link equity, protect existing search visibility, and guide readers and search engines from legacy Kentico URLs to the correct WordPress content.
WordPress Paywall Integration
The new WordPress website was integrated with a paywall plugin to support paid access functionality.
This allowed The Dominion Post to continue offering subscriber-based access to selected content while benefiting from WordPress as the core publishing and content management platform.
Why WordPress
WordPress provided The Dominion Post with a flexible and widely supported publishing platform for managing online newspaper content.
By moving from Kentico to WordPress, The Dominion Post gained:
- Easier management of articles and archives
- A familiar editorial publishing experience
- Better flexibility for categories, authors, and post organization
- Support for large-scale media and asset management
- SEO management within the WordPress ecosystem
- Paywall integration for paid access functionality
- A scalable platform for future publishing needs
- A larger ecosystem of WordPress tools, plugins, and development support
Rather than continuing to manage its digital newspaper through an enterprise CMS, The Dominion Post gained a WordPress platform designed to support ongoing publishing, archive management, SEO, and subscriber access.
The Result
The completed migration moved The Dominion Post’s online newspaper from Kentico to WordPress while preserving the structure and value of its digital archive.
WordHerd successfully migrated more than 4,000 posts and more than 10,000 assets, while keeping authors, categories, and original publication dates intact. The project also included SEO support, 301 redirects, and integration with a WordPress paywall plugin for paid access functionality.
The result was a more flexible WordPress publishing platform that supports The Dominion Post’s role as Morgantown’s daily commercial newspaper and provides a stronger foundation for managing local news, sports coverage, archives, and subscriber-based content.
Project Highlights
- Migrated The Dominion Post from Kentico to WordPress
- Migrated more than 4,000 posts
- Migrated more than 10,000 assets
- Preserved authors, categories, and original publication dates
- Supported SEO during the CMS transition
- Implemented 301 redirects for changed URLs
- Integrated the website with a WordPress paywall plugin
- Preserved archive integrity for historical news content
- Delivered a more flexible publishing platform for ongoing newspaper operations
