Case Studies | The Baltimore Banner
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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
News media
A seamless Newspack and Pugpig Bolt integration powering two native apps in two local communities – Santa Cruz and Eugene-Springfield – driving sustainable, long-term engagement and a scalable, repeatable model for local news growth.
News media
The Star Tribune app plays a crucial role in driving audience engagement and reader revenue as this prestigious news brand enters a new era of technology growth. The six week turnaround was supercharged by Bolt’s seamless integrations with Arc XP and Norkon, resulting in a premium product that’s added significant value for loyal subscribers.
Users return to the app almost daily
+174% screen views during election week
40% of the user base have the app downloaded
News media
Team Pugpig worked extensively with this iconic news journal to beautifully replicate the look and feel of its premium magazine into their app. As well as digital editions, the app showcases podcasts and editorially-curated content in true The Spectator style.
Lowered their tech spend
4.8/5 rating on App Store
In the top 25 apps in ‘Magazines’ in App Store
News media
Euromoney’s BCA Research app is a great example of the incredible range of customisation possible on the Bolt platform. From highly curated dynamic timelines to optimising their research reports for mobile, the work of our Professional Services team has been instrumental in improving the Bolt product as a whole, with some of these features now available for all Bolt customers.
