Case Studies | The Baltimore Banner

The Baltimore Banner is the city's newest local news platform and holds a 4.8 rating on iOS App Store

The Baltimore Banner app truly captures the essence of a premium local news app. It uses our domain linking feature so links from newsletters, social or inline open seamlessly in-app.

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About The Baltimore Banner

The Baltimore Banner is the city’s newest non-profit digital-only news start up, founded in 2022 by The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism. They believe that strong local news is essential to a strong community, from what’s happening downtown to news from the surrounding counties.

The main objectives

Build a sustainable subscription model for digital-only local news
Strengthen communities through local news that’s strong and trustworthy
Deliver more than just breaking news and find the story behind the story

What we did

Focus on the latest news section

The app is centred around the ‘latest’ section – a dynamic news feed fully curated by the editorial team and packed with the city’s breaking news and top stories. Users can navigate through each section using the carousel.

Push notification integration

The app is fully integrated with push notification platform OneSignal to keep the people of Baltimore informed about the latest news as soon as it happens. Push notifications are also a great way to drive engagement.

External link entitlement

The Baltimore Banner app takes full advantage of one of Apple’s newest initiatives – external link entitlement. This means they can link back to a page on their own site to handle subscriptions and user data, rather than the App Store.

The results

Quick 8 week turnaround

From kickoff to launch, this project took just eight weeks – pretty impressive given the scope of work. We designed the app, integrated with Washington Post’s ARC XP CMS and Piano’s subscriptions platform before launching in both app stores.

Consistent growth since launch

So far, the app is proving a hit with Baltimore residents. Since launching in October 2022, the app has seen consistent growth in screen views month after month. The latest news section is the most popular, followed by politics and sports.

Hundreds of 5 star reviews

The app holds a 4.8/5 rating in the App Store with hundreds of five star reviews. Their readers love the elegant design of the app, the truly local news angles and the option of a free guest subscription for all members.

“Pugpig went above and beyond on problem solving.”

Pugpig was easy to work with, got us the quick turnaround we needed, and they went above and beyond on problem solving some of the challenges we ran into. They’ve been fantastic partners.
Cassie Wimberly
Director of Design, The Baltimore Banner

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