E-paper archive migration: a checklist for changing providers

The new edition opens beautifully. Then somebody searches for last year’s local election supplement. Can they find it, and does their subscription still let them read it? An e-paper archive migration needs its own acceptance criteria. Before choosing a new platform, agree which issues will move, how readers will find them and what access should look like afterward. A folder full of successfully transferred PDFs is useful evidence. It is not the whole reader experience.

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Define the archive you are actually buying and moving

Start with a simple scope sheet: publication, date range, regional edition, supplements and expected source files. Identify gaps before the transfer begins. Include titles that changed name and editions with several parts. Decide whether the project covers complete issue replicas, separately searchable articles, or both. Those are different deliverables; a PDF transfer alone does not establish what article search will support.

Agree who supplies missing material, which formats are accepted and how exceptions will be recorded. If you are comparing suppliers, use the same scope with each. Use Prenly’s digital newspaper platform as one starting point for discussing your requirements. The agreed archive scope should make every supplier’s proposal assessable against the same reader needs.

Keep file identity separate from reader-facing labels

A predictable file name helps an import process recognize material. A useful archive also needs titles and dates that make sense to the reader. Prenly’s archive upload guidance documents structured file naming using a publication name and date, with parts or pages where needed. It also describes optional issue-number naming.

Use that guidance when preparing source files, then agree how the imported issues should appear. Check a date-based daily paper and, where relevant, a numbered special edition. Do not change the naming convention halfway through a batch without agreeing the consequences with the migration team.

Write down who should be allowed to read what

An archive is not necessarily one permission rule. A current subscription may cover some titles or periods, while other content may be open or excluded. Document the intended rules and test them using approved test accounts. Include an account that should have access and one that should not. A successful sign-in proves identity, not the correct archive entitlement.

The Berliner Zeitung migration case describes connecting an existing subscription system through Prenly Remote API. That is a concrete example of retaining established access management. It does not demonstrate which archive permissions your own publication will need, or guarantee the same integration for every publisher.

Separate the server archive from downloaded copies

Ask what happens to issues already stored on a reader’s device. The platform’s archive, an app’s local downloads and a reader’s saved navigation are different things. Establish which of them the proposed migration covers. If an app update or a new download is required, prepare clear instructions rather than promising that everything will carry over unchanged.

Accept a reader journey, not just a transfer count

Reconcile the supplied issue list with the imported list. Then sample different titles, periods, regional versions and multipart issues. Search for an agreed older edition, open it with the appropriate test account and check the expected pages. Record missing issues, wrong labels and access failures separately, with an owner and a resolution date.

Agree whether archive batches can be accepted independently of the next live edition. Keep unresolved items visible after launch. This checklist concerns archive scope and acceptance; your wider launch rehearsal should also cover the current publication cycle.

Bring a small archive sample and your access rules to a meeting with Prenly. You will have a much more useful conversation about migration scope, dependencies and what a successful handover should mean for your readers.