TABLE OF CONTENT

About the Client

Pajhwok News is Afghanistan’s largest independent news agency, headquartered in Kabul with eight regional bureaus. Serving over 200,000 daily visitors, it delivers news in Dari, Pashto, and English. Pajhwok plays a critical role in keeping Afghan citizens informed while promoting transparency, accountability, and human rights. The agency publishes over three dozen stories daily, covering politics, economy, and social issues.

Business Situation

Pajhwok faced multiple challenges with its outdated news portal, affecting user experience and operational efficiency:

Slow Loading Speed: A heavy database and inefficient caching resulted in sluggish performance.
Frequent Downtime: Server crashes and system failures led to unreliable access.
Outdated UI/UX: The portal lacked an intuitive, mobile-friendly design for seamless user navigation.
Inefficient Content Management: Poor database management made it difficult to upload and organize news articles, videos, and images.
Limited Monetization: The absence of subscription-based revenue models limited business growth.
No Social Media Integration: The inability to share news articles reduced engagement and traffic from external platforms.

The Solution

Unthinkable designed a robust CMS for Pajhwok using Drupal, integrating advanced content management, performance optimization, and monetization features. The CMS provided role-based access for admins, editors, and contributors to streamline content workflows.

To improve performance, Apache Solr Search and Memcache API were implemented, enhancing speed and database efficiency. The team also built an OTT framework, incorporating Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABS) for a seamless video experience. Subscription-based monetization was introduced through Ubercart and PayPal, enabling paid access to premium content. Additionally, a news archive subdomain was developed, ensuring efficient storage and retrieval of historical articles.

CMS Revamp: Migrated to Drupal for better scalability, speed, and user management.
OTT Streaming: Integrated adaptive streaming for high-quality video playback.
Subscription Model: Enabled recurring payments for premium content access.
News Archive Management: Developed an automated subdomain for storing old news.
Social Media Integration: Allowed easy sharing of articles and videos across platforms.

The Impact

With the newly developed platform, Pajhwok News saw a 74% increase in returning visitors and a 26% rise in new visitors. The implementation of caching mechanisms led to a 75% faster loading speed, significantly improving user experience. The CMS modernization reduced operational costs by 50%, thanks to the adoption of open-source technologies. Pajhwok also achieved a remarkable uptime record, experiencing only 30 minutes of downtime in the past four years. The improved content management workflow allowed editors to work efficiently, increasing overall productivity and content quality.

Conclusion

Unthinkable’s expertise in digital transformation helped Pajhwok News overcome its technological limitations and achieve a scalable, future-ready platform. The seamless integration of CMS, OTT streaming, and monetization features enabled the agency to provide a better user experience while increasing its revenue streams. With an optimized website, Pajhwok can now focus on delivering timely, high-quality journalism without technical roadblocks. This case study showcases how innovative technology solutions can revolutionize digital media platforms.