This local news publisher needed an app that shows readers what's happening where they live, and a way for editors to publish and push stories to them. An agency had left the app half-built and not ready to scale. I took it over, kept what worked, rewrote the rest, and shipped it in 12 weeks: a React Native app for iOS and Android, location-based news, push notifications, the backend, the editorial admin, advertising, and the release pipeline for both stores. It has 50K downloads and 20K monthly readers.
At a glance
Most news apps show everyone the same stream. For local news, that's the wrong way round: a road closure in your town matters more than a headline from another country. Readers need to see what's happening near them first.
The publisher also needed the other half: a way for editors to publish local stories, sort them by place and category, and alert the right readers when something breaks.
An agency had started the app and left it half-built. Parts of it worked, but it wasn't ready to scale or to ship to both app stores.
I reviewed the code, kept what was solid, and rewrote the rest. Then I finished the product, from the reader app to the editorial admin, and shipped it to iOS and Android in 12 weeks. It now has 50K downloads and 20K monthly readers.
The app uses the reader's location and preferences to put nearby news first. Readers can browse by category, search for stories, save articles for later, and engage with what they read, all organised around where they are.
News changes fast, and readers won't keep reopening the app to check. Editors send breaking, local, and category alerts from the admin, delivered through Firebase to both iOS and Android, so important stories reach readers quickly.
Editor publishes
Articles, categories, and locations in the admin.
Backend stores and serves it
NestJS APIs on MongoDB, with Redis for fast reads.
Push notification
Breaking and local stories sent through Firebase.
Reader opens it
News for their area, ready to read, save, or share.
Behind the app is an admin where editors manage articles, categories, locations, users, and notifications. A NestJS backend with MongoDB serves both the app and the admin, and Redis keeps frequently read data fast. Advertising is built in, so the business model lives in the same product.
The app is built once in React Native and released to both the App Store and Google Play. I set up the production builds and CI/CD pipeline, so new versions ship to both stores through the same process instead of two separate manual releases.
50K
downloads
20K
monthly readers
iOS + Android
from one codebase
12 weeks
to both app stores
One codebase for iOS and Android halves the work and keeps both apps in step.
Trade-off: Some platform-specific behaviour still needs separate handling.
Reliable delivery on both platforms without building push infrastructure from scratch.
Trade-off: Notifications depend on an external service.
Editors and readers work on the same data, so a story published in the admin is live in the app immediately.
“The agency left our app half-done. Milan finished it, built our editorial tools, and got it into both app stores. Now readers get local news the moment we publish.”
For most news apps, React Native is the better value. Content apps are mostly lists, articles, and notifications, which React Native handles well, and one codebase means one team and simultaneous releases on both stores. Go native only if you need heavy platform-specific features.
Each story is tagged with a place, and the app uses the reader's location or chosen area to show matching stories first. Readers can usually change their area or follow several, so the feed stays relevant when they travel.
Editors trigger a push notification from the admin, which goes through a service like Firebase Cloud Messaging to iOS and Android devices. Targeting by location or category keeps alerts relevant, so readers don't switch them off.
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