This is Southeast Asia
This Is Southeast Asia publishes long essays about places, each one commissioned, edited and translated from writers in the region. We built the WordPress publication and the paid membership that funds it.
This Is Southeast Asia now publishes on a WordPress site with paid digital membership, donations and a place-led archive, launched in 2022 and still running today.
What we were solving
This Is Southeast Asia is an editorial project with one rule: every essay is about a place. A writer takes a town, a street or a market and writes about what it looks like, how it feels and what it says about the society around it. The site began with voices from Indonesia and adds a country only once it can commission, edit and translate local-language writing from there.
Editor David Fettling needed a website that could do three jobs. Present long-form writing well, on phones as much as desktops. Organise essays by place rather than by date, because the archive is the product. And fund itself, by asking readers to become paid members or donate, with the money going to young Southeast Asian writers.
There was no existing site and no large team behind it. The brief was for a publication that felt quiet and considered, with a membership system a small team could run without a developer on call.
How we tackled it
Design for reading, structure for places
We built the site on WordPress with a layout that puts the essay first: generous type, uncluttered pages and imagery that supports the writing rather than competing with it. The information architecture is organised around places, so a reader can move through the archive geographically and the editor can add a new country without reworking the site.
Editorial control stayed with David. We set up the tools for featuring and manually ordering articles, so the front page reflects an editor's judgement rather than publication order.
A membership that funds the writing
The funding model is reader support, so we built paid digital membership into the site alongside a donation path. Members sign up for digital access, the site handles the recurring payment, and the editor sees each new subscription as it arrives. The membership copy explains where the money goes: full access to the essays, and support for young writers from the region.
A steady first year
The site launched in the first half of 2022 and joined our Website Care plan for its first year. Weekly updates, spam protection on the contact form after a wave of junk submissions, and support on editorial features as David settled into running the publication.
What we delivered
This Is Southeast Asia now publishes with the same proposition it launched with: essays about places, beginning with Indonesia, funded by paid members and donations. The archive has grown by place, as the structure was built to allow.
At the end of the first year's care term we handed over a full Website Owner's Manual and the publication carried on under its own management. It did not need a developer on call, which was the brief.
What we learned
An archive organised by place is a different product from a blog organised by date. Deciding that early, and building the structure around it, is what lets a small publication grow one country at a time without a redesign.
A one-year care plan with a proper handover is a legitimate ending. Not every client needs us for a decade. Some need a sound build, a steady first year and a manual, and then they are fine.
