The Eastside Chronicle is a hyperlocal news site covering a mid-size metro area. With three full-time reporters and a WordPress site running since 2018, they had a loyal readership but a mobile problem: 65% of their traffic came from phones, but mobile sessions lasted half as long as desktop.
The Challenge
Editor-in-chief Marcus Dean saw the trend clearly. “Our readers were on their phones, but the experience wasn’t keeping them. We’d publish a breaking story, share it on Facebook, and get a spike — but those readers wouldn’t come back until the next Facebook share.”
Email newsletters helped, but open rates were declining and the turnaround time meant breaking news was already hours old by delivery.
The Solution
The Chronicle installed PressNative in March 2025 and launched their app on both stores within weeks. They configured a hero carousel featuring their “Featured” category and a post grid sorted by recency, giving the app a newspaper-front-page feel.
The critical feature: push notifications for breaking news. “When something happens, we publish in WordPress and our readers know about it in seconds,” Dean said.
The Results (After 6 Months)
- Session duration: 4.2 minutes (app) vs. 1.8 minutes (mobile web) — a 133% increase
- Return visits within 7 days: 72% of app users vs. 28% of mobile web users
- Push notification open rate: 48%, compared to 19% email open rate
- Overall mobile engagement: 340% increase in total time spent
- App installs: 8,200 in the first six months, with 61% monthly active
Key Takeaway
“The app didn’t change what we publish,” Dean said. “It changed how our readers experience it. Same stories, same WordPress workflow, completely different relationship with our audience.”
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