Industrie: News & Magazines

Publishers like The Pharmaceutical Journal have unique challenges to face. There’s the need to keep up with consumers’ demand for digital-first products, and having to do so with minimal technical and financial resources.

For more than ten years, they were trying to keep their head above water with a custom-built app that was expensive, difficult to maintain and didn’t give them full ownership of their content.

Recently they switched to MobiLoud, and realized that they could put out a high-quality, professional product for less effort and resource allocation. Read on to learn more about their journey.

What They Needed From a Mobile App

The Pharmaceutical Journal is the official journal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, a professional leadership body for pharmacists in Great Britain. The site produces news content, research and learning material for their members.

The journal had been running a print version since 1841, which was retired in 2001 as they embarked on a digital transformation journey – a quest to become a modern, digital-first publication.

Alongside the website, they had an app for some time, which was built and put out by a third party who would take PDFs of their web content, extract the content in XML format and put it into an app platform.

This publishing workflow was difficult to manage, as Director Tony Scully states:

“The first generation of the app was very resource and production intensive. We had very limited ability to be able to add value to the content in the app or even just to correct errors or make changes.”

“It was outside of our tech stack, so it was a bit disjointed and our production and editorial teams had no way to access that content.”

In 2019 they moved their site from a proprietary platform to WordPress, to simplify things and take more control over their content. They saw this as as an opportunity to migrate their app to a platform that was easier to work with and didn’t leave their user experience in the hands of a third party.

“While we have peculiarities as an organization, our problems aren’t unique. We produce content, we want to reach an audience, we want to have a good experience, we want to have access to our content and so my default position is to look for things that are as off the shelf as possible.”

The Unique Challenges for a Non-Profit Publisher

The Pharmaceutical Journal is a non-profit organization. They aim to deliver high-quality content and a great user experience, but have to do so with limited financial resources – as well as a tiny development team with no mobile app development expertise.

“The consumer, they’ll subscribe to the New York Times for a dollar a month and get access to content being produced by a team of 1200 journalists and with a tech team of probably thousands as well. And here we are a team of 20-25 and I’ve got two people working on product, and we’ve got to be somewhat comparable to the product that organizations thousands of times bigger than us can produce.”

They weren’t sure if it was possible to provide a New York Times-level digital experience with such a limited budget, and the need to provide results for as little investment as possible.

How MobiLoud Made a Difference

Tony found MobiLoud, and found the cheat code to be able to offer an amazing app experience without a massive investment.

With MobiLoud, they got an app that was directly integrated with their WordPress site. Instead of a custom build separate to their website, MobiLoud allowed them to manage their app content through WordPress.

“What was very attractive about MobiLoud, one the confidence you have in working with WordPress, but also the cost model. We’re a not for profit organization, and MobiLoud had a very attractive pricing structure, fixed price and considerably lower cost than some of the proposals we received.”

Instead of an over-engineered, expensive app that was difficult to control, they got a simple app that achieved everything they needed, fit within their price constraints, and didn’t require additional dev work from their small technical team.

Initial Results

Tony’s team are putting the final touches on their rollout strategy, but have already seen positive results from their new app, most notably the difference their team notices in how they’re able to manage and control the app.

“We’re in soft launch currently, and I think a lot of the benefits with this app will be felt internally. That means being able to review and access and manage the user experience on the app in ways that previously with our legacy app we weren’t able to do. We were working through a third party and trying to make changes and it was just never possible.”

It’s also looking good from the test groups they’ve rolled the app out to. Their previous apps had a lot of issues, leading to a large number of negative reviews on the App Store and Google Play Store, but the new version has been much more user-friendly.

“We were able to get direct feedback from members in small samples and we had about 95% or 19 of 20 gave a positive response for accessibility and usability.”

Choose MobiLoud for Cost-Effective Native Apps

For non-profit organizations, as well as small and medium-sized businesses, building an app feels like a catch-22 situation.

You feel like you need to provide the same kind of experience people get from big brands’ apps in order to stay relevant. But doing so requires massive amounts of time and money, plus development expertise you don’t have.

MobiLoud is the perfect solution. You get an app that’s 95% of what you’d get with a custom build, yet you can manage it all from one codebase, saving you $500k+ and letting you manage and iterate on your app through your website.

“We’re looking for quality, however we’re a small organization, so to be able to produce something that our members value, as the size of organization that we are, and with the budgets that I have available, to me has been a real positive experience.”

If you want to get a professional-standard mobile app, for low cost, little effort and with minimal overhead, get in touch with us.

Schedule a free demo now, and we’ll show you a free preview of your app, and give you a guided walk through the process of launching amazing native apps with MobiLoud.

Medium Large Sports Media, a mid-sized digital sports publisher covering teams like the Lakers, Dodgers, and also the NHL, had wanted to launch mobile apps for years. They struggled with resource constraints and technical complexity, putting the project consistently on the back burner.

With 70-80% of their traffic coming from mobile users, they knew apps were essential for user retention and engagement. MobiLoud helped them finally achieve this long-desired goal with minimal operational overhead.

Snapshot

Vertical: Sports media/digital publishing

Platform: WordPress

Key Metrics:

• ~10 minutes average engagement time
• ~6 sessions per month per user
• 4.9/5 app rating with no negative user feedback

Business Impact:

• Launched apps after years of delays due to resource constraints
• Eliminated the need for an in-house development team or costly contractors
• Created a “baked-in” presence on users’ phones for better retention
• Seamless WordPress integration with push notifications

“MobiLoud did the heavy lifting, from build to launch, so we got a lightning-fast app without slowing our newsroom down. Fans love it; we’ve had zero complaints since day one.”
– Ian Chin, Co-Founder & Managing Director

The Roadblock

Medium Large Sports Media had been wanting to launch mobile apps for 4-5 years, but faced multiple barriers that kept the project on the back burner. As Ian Chin, founder and managing director, explained: 

“We’re a medium-sized company. So our resources are limited, and our time is limited. And we’ve got 17 full-time guys and three part-time guys. And 18 of them create content. And then me, my bookkeeper, and my ad guy run the entire business.”

The challenges were clear: limited budget, no in-house app development expertise, and the overwhelming technical complexity of building and maintaining native apps. 

The cost of custom development at $150-300 per hour wasn’t feasible for a sports media business with tight margins. And internally, all their team was focused on content and business operations. Ian himself had to handle server management and web development in the early days of the business.

Yet 70-80% of their audience was on mobile. And Ian recognized (drawing from his own habits), that people preferred to get their sports news and content from apps. So they needed to find a solution for the technical roadblock.

Why They Chose MobiLoud

MobiLoud solved the core issues that had prevented Medium Large Sports Media from launching apps for years. 

As Ian put it: 

“When we first thought about apps, they didn’t have companies like yours, right? So there was no ‘app out of a box’ or stuff like that. You had to hire a developer, right? And you had to put your trust in a developer.”

The key advantages MobiLoud provided:

• Eliminated technical complexity: “You guys take all that heavy lifting off my plate. And Diego goes, Ian, I need this from you. And I go, here you go.”
• No need to hire developers: Removed the need to vet contractors or manage a development team
• Turnkey solution: Complete handling of app submission and technical requirements
• WordPress integration: Seamless synchronization with their existing content management system

“It really made it easy. And that’s what’s needed for someone like me, where technologically, I get it, but I don’t have the time to do it myself, or vet people and hire people. That’s a lot of work.”

Launch & Results

The app launches exceeded expectations, with the Lakers Nation app achieving solid adoption out of the gate, with strong engagement metrics from app users.

Users are spending approximately 10 minutes per session and returning about 6 times per month – impressive numbers for a sports media app.

Most importantly, the user feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Ian noted:

“I haven’t heard anything negative. Generally speaking, with our usership, you only hear bad things… I haven’t heard one bad thing about the app. So that, to me, is a success.”

The WordPress integration with push notifications has been particularly effective at driving engagement, with relevant updates sent throughout the day bringing users back to fresh content.

The Takeaway

For content publishers, especially those with high mobile traffic, apps provide crucial user retention benefits that mobile web simply can’t match. 

As Ian explained: 

“There are too many steps to get to your site on mobile. But if you get this person to download your app, it’s baked into the phone, they will go to it. Like I go to MLB.com, I go to ESPN.com on the app.”

The key insight is that most publishers don’t need complex custom features. They need a clean, fast way to deliver their existing content in an app format. 

MobiLoud made this possible for Medium Large Sports Media without the technical overhead that had prevented them from launching for years. They could focus on what they do best – content.

Ready to launch your mobile app without the technical complexity? 

Get a free preview of your site as an app with MobiLoud and see how we can help you reach your mobile audience more effectively

DeeperBlue.com is one of the world’s oldest and largest diving communities and information sites.

Tens of thousands of visitors a month enjoy their articles and guides on freediving, scuba, spearfishing and ocean conservation. They publish daily news, features, hints and tips, and cover events like the world championships.

One of their most successful channels is their native apps on iOS and Android, which we were proud to build for them.

The apps have been live for five years now, so we caught up with Stephan Whelan, founder and publisher at DeeperBlue, to share his story.

Why did DeeperBlue decide to build an app?

DeeperBlue have been around for over 20 years, so they’ve seen it all come and go as far as web and mobile technology. The growing dominance of mobile over the last few years was something new though for a site that had been around since the 90s.

“We’ve seen every kind of tech unfold. The real shift to mobile-first meant that we started looking into native applications though”

Native apps are the best way to reach your audience on mobile, and in 2019 mobile is where they spend most of their time.

Apps provide a convenient home for your most loyal and engaged audience members that even the best mobile sites can’t compare to. As Stephan put it:

“It’s about getting the right information to the right people at the right time”

This is exactly what native content apps do and why they’re an ideal fit for any publishing or media brand. Five years is a long time in tech though, and the choice wasn’t quite so obvious back in 2014.

Stephan saw the opportunity clearly though.

“There was a gap for us. The mobile web was relatively immature. So the best way of reaching our audience on mobile was on a native app. We kept analyzing new and interesting ways of getting to our audience. MobiLoud really filled that space after we’d analyzed the market and realized that an app was the best route to mobile”

After realizing that native apps were the way to go, Stephan and the DeeperBlue team started weighing the options.

“We had a few options open. We could have developed our own native application, but that looked like quite a costly option for us”

Developing the app in-house or through an agency is usually the first option people consider. This is the old way of doing things.

The problem with this route is that it often takes many months, tens of thousands of dollars, and the headache of managing a large project and teams of developers.

There’s a more efficient option that delivers the same results in days, not months and at a fraction of the cost.

Finding MobiLoud

“We used WordPress as our backend. So we were trying to figure out if there was a solution out there that would natively work with WordPress but would provide a native experience for users who wanted it”

This is exactly what our solution does. We work with WordPress based digital publishers to build powerful apps off their existing WordPress sites.

The apps mirror your existing site, and update automatically with any new content you publish. There’s very little to add to your existing workflow and you can manage everything through your existing WordPress backend.

“We found MobiLoud. It was amazing and ticked all the boxes. The apps could natively integrate with WordPress, provide full native functionality, and they have a great support model. They helped us to avoid the cost and difficulties of building our own app, while providing the same end result”

Like every new project, things started off with a consultation with one of our app experts.

We go through all your requirements and what your vision for the app, then we work out a roadmap to get there. Every project is unique and custom, so if there’s a feature you really want chances are we can make it happen.

“We’re a niche content site. The challenge is that every dollar counts. So when we were looking at MobiLoud it was an ongoing investment, but we felt that looking at all the features that MobiLoud provided it versus the actual cost, it was the best return on investment for us”

Building the DeeperBlue Apps

Within a few weeks we had test versions of the app ready for Stephan and the team to try out, and the final apps ready and published within a month.

“It all just worked when we first started using it”

Stephan was happy with the apps from the very beginning. Their readers love them too!

The apps have been a great success, and have made a real impact on the DeeperBlue brand.

“There is a constant stream of downloads during the course of each week and month People consistently come back and say they like using the app. In fact, even my own team of writers and editors use the app as their primary way of getting news”

With advanced app analytics and push notifications – not to mention a host of other features – understanding their readers and connecting with them is simple and effective.

If you already have a high traffic WordPress site, building apps on iOS and Android is the best way to grow your brand.

“Both our users and staff-base find it an incredibly convenient way of doing things. A little alert pops up on their phone, which means that they keep abreast of what’s going on”

An Ongoing Relationship

We take care of the entire build process, customizations, and publishing the apps on Google Play and the App Store.

That isn’t the end of the deal though.

We provide a full service that never leaves your side, making sure that the apps keep performing optimally and taking care of any ongoing updates and maintenance.

“In the ongoing relationship, our implementation of WordPress and our requirements around the mobile app have changed over the years. All the way through, MobiLoud and the team there have always been very supportive”

Technology shifts, the platforms change their rules, new features are released.

“There have been a few times we’ve installed some new functionality or done some new development on WordPress that caused something funky in the app”

We’re here the whole time to take care of all the necessities.

“The MobiLoud team would always just jump on it. They’ve been amazing and in a few days we always have a new version of the app out that means we don’t lose any functionality”

The Perfect Fit For Content Publishers

We asked Stephan to sum up his overall experience of working with us.

“Clients and readers, no matter the industry, are interested in getting things through their phone. If you’re looking for a solution that allows you to get content out of WordPress into a native app – MobiLoud provides a huge number of features, and the ability to have it working quickly. It’s incredibly valuable. I can’t recommend them highly enough to be honest”

We’re grateful to Stephan for his kind words and to the team at DeeperBlue for being great customers over the years. We look forward to continuing a great relationship with an interesting publishing brand.

We can help your brand get on the App Stores fast and affordably too.

If you run a high traffic site and are willing to share ad revenue generated by the apps, you will likely quality for our Publisher Program. You’ll get iOS and Android apps as good as The New York Times or Huffpost, at no upfront cost to you!

Find out more – get in touch with our team.

Simple flying is a wonderful success story of entrepreneurial publishing. The world’s biggest aviation news site was founded by British Entrepreneur and aviation enthusiast Arran Rice in 2018 with the vision of a one-stop destination commercial aviation content. Simple flying has a team of journalists that produce up to 200 stories a week. The primary focus is on news from Europe and the US, but lately they’ve been heavily expanding their coverage into Asia, Latin America and Africa. The audience is diverse, but united by a common interest in all things aviation!

“It’s a real mix. Firstly we have people who work in the industry – executives and airline employees. We also have a lot of frequent flyers and aviation enthusiasts. If you look at our email list we have such a mixture of people from different businesses and aviation geeks.”

Along with the main site simpleflying.com, they also run a YouTube channel with over 50,000 subscribers, podcasts, and of course news apps for iOS & Android. Simple Flying created their apps through MobiLoud – our News platform is entirely focused on building native apps for WordPress-based digital publishers.

Why Build Apps?

Arran saw that 70%+ of traffic was coming through on mobile, so giving the best possible mobile UX was crucial. In 2020, that means native apps.

“It’s a brand extension. There’s going to be a percentage of your audience that wants an app. I really saw the apps as a way to get an audience on mobile who would come back daily – it’s an extension of the site to get people into the brand”

The apps were a natural part of Simple Flying’s overall growth trajectory.

“I think really it felt like a natural progression to build the app. You know, we got a base audience of a couple of million users per month. Then with that audience to  support, there’s obviously going to be demand for an app. So it was really a natural progression and to provide choice”

A couple of million users per month is really impressive. Such a huge audience isn’t necessary for building apps though, whether your content is supported by advertising or subscriptions. They can help you grow regardless. Arran also wanted a way to deepen loyalty. He realized that apps self-select for the most engaged and loyal readers, and bring them all together in one place.

“At the time as well, I had a different website for Google AMP, different websites for mobile. So I really wanted just a place that kind of felt premium to bring the most loyal users together”

This fitted into Arran’s overall strategy of giving Simple Flying as much visibility as possible.

“The more avenues you can attract an audience through – whether that’s social media, podcasts, a YouTube channel, and of course an app – you really want to be hitting every single thing and you need to be doing it well. You should make it perfect”

Why Simple Flying Chose MobiLoud

Arran had worked with us on different projects in the past and realized we were the best fit.

“I wanted an easy option. I wanted an option to literally convert my WordPress website into an app. Obviously MobiLoud was the one that works best from my previous experience. If you already have a really good mobile site, I don’t really see the benefit of rebuilding an app to go with it from scratch when you can convert your site”

This is a great point. MobiLoud lets you convert your site to apps, so you get the ideal news apps for 10% of the cost compared to native development, and they’re ready to go live in days/weeks rather than months. They mirror your existing site and update automatically, so there’s nothing to rebuild or to add to your workflow.

“MobiLoud had very good communication, were quick to resolve any issues and got the initial build out fast. It didn’t take long at all. You’re converting a WordPress site into an app, so the process is simple and the mechanism is already there in the (MobiLoud) platform. With a monthly fee paying just a few hundred up-front is a lot nicer paying 20 grand. So yeah, it worked really well”

A Hyper-Engaged App Audience

The Simple Flying Apps have been downloaded over 17,000 times. Arran has noticed that app users are vastly more engaged and loyal than those who come through the website.

“We’ve only got around 17,000 users, but those users read on average 94 articles per month. So the app is doing about 1.6 million screen views for them from 17,000 people. Compared to the website, where the average number of articles read per month is around two, the app users are hyper engaged”

App users also spend a lot more time engaging with content on a per-article basis.

“I think on average, people spend like four minutes per article versus the main website, probably like one or two minutes. So it’s at least double. Huge”

This is an amazingly stark difference. We see similar stories often though, apps provide a home for the most engaged readers – then deepen that engagement and loyalty to new levels. Arran thinks that the reason for this is partly the more “premium” feel of native apps, and the fact that the presence of your app icon on users’ home screens is a constant reminder of the brand. A mobile site alone, no matter how well bookmarked, can’t achieve this level of intimacy, which Arran sees as playing into his wider goals.

“With an app, you can achieve a much more kind of premium feel, and I think the readers will feel closer to the brand. With an app, you know that every time they pick up their phone, they’ll see the icon of your brand on their home screen which is powerful. It drills down into the audience’s head that Simple Flying is a thing. That really helps to achieve our aim in becoming the go-to aviation news site. People on the app are really in touch with the brand – on the mobile site, not so much”

Another great advantage of apps is the ability to reach your audience directly through push notifications. Arran and the Simple Flying team can send out push notifications automatically whenever a new article is published, or manually at any time they choose.

“I’ve seen return visit rates go up since launching the apps – people will get notifications on their phone and end up going on the site or vice versa. The daily active users are growing nicely and the uninstall rates are really low. Once I’ve got someone on the app they’ll stay on the app and keep consuming our content – which is what we want”

Monetizing Through Apps & Reaching a New Audience Through The App Stores

MobiLoud apps are build with the exact needs of digital publishers in mind, which is why we have a flexible range of advertising integrations that let you run whatever ads you want in-app. This was important to Arran as Simple Flying is largely supported by ad revenue.

“94 articles per month for an average app user. And obviously there’s ad revenue attached to that as well with over 1.6 million screen views I’m getting with the apps”

As the apps are 100% synced with the Simple Flying main site and update automatically with anything new the Simple Flying team publishes, this new revenue stream is nice and low-maintenance.

“It’s a nice, almost passive income for the business as a whole”

On top of this passive income, the apps also passively pick up new readers that discover the Simple Flying brand through searching on the App Stores rather than Google!

“I haven’t even promoted the app that much. I’m actually getting a lot of signups and downloads through the app store from people’s searching, like aviation and aviation news. So actually it has also been a great way for me to get a bigger audience”

How Arran is Using the Apps to Test Subscription Revenue Models

As apps gather the most loyal and engaged readers all in one place, they are a great channel to test new ideas through. Simple Flying recently decided to test out a subscription model for the first time by creating an ad-free version of the app that readers pay to access.

“About two months ago, we did a big reader survey and we had a lot of people say they know ads are a thing and they know we need ads to support the business – but they said if we would provide an option to go ad-free, they would pay. So really that confirmed what we wanted to do. It’s a test”

We worked with Arran and the team to make it happen, and the results have been encouraging.

“We’ve gone live and built an ad-free subscription for the app. Users can pay monthly or yearly. Interestingly, most users paid yearly. Which is great. It means that they’re confident in the content. From this, now we need to decide whether we want to go on to the website as well and do an ad free version there. Um. So we’ll see. I’m not too sure just yet”

If this is something you’re interested in replicating for your business – we can make it happen for you too!

The Future of Simple Flying

Arran has a lot of plans to grow the brand even further in the future. A key part of that is expanding into new markets by launching Simple Flying in multiple languages. The apps are going to be a key part of that, as Arran explained:

“The most loyal readers come through the apps. I think we’ll do some pushing when we launch the international sites, and we’ll have international versions of the app. We’ll have a Spanish app, German app, French app, and Portuguese app. Really more of the same cause they’re doing really well”

It’s amazing what Arran and Simple Flying have achieved in just a couple of years. We’re proud to help them build a winning App Store presence and give their readers the best possible mobile UX.

If you want to learn more about Arran and Simple Flying, you can read this article about how he started the company on our blog, or listen to the interview on our podcast.

‍With MobiLoud, you too can build winning native news apps that can expand your audience, please your readers, generate revenue and take your brand to the next level. The apps will be just as good as those from a major publisher like The New York Times or BuzzFeed – but you’ll get them in under a month for a fraction of the usual price tag. In fact, with our publisher program – you don’t need to pay anything up front at all and we take care of 100% of the development and customization for you, building apps to your exact specification just like we did for Arran and Simple Flying. In return, you share some of the ad revenue the app generates.

Everything will be managed from your existing WordPress backend, and the apps sync and update automatically with your site. You’ll also get peace of mind, as our team handles all the technical aspects like submission to the App Stores, updates, and ongoing maintenance.

Start taking your publishing to the next level, and book a consultation with one of our team of app experts today!

In a competitive arena, GV Wire could no longer afford to put their mobile user experience on the back burner.

When they rebuilt their website with mobile users in mind, the timing turned out perfect to launch a mobile app as well. This app and their new focus on mobile UX has helped GV Wire be recognized as one of the standouts in their industry.

Read on to learn more about GV Wire’s journey to building an app, and why they chose MobiLoud to help them do it.

About GV Wire

GV Wire is a news outlet based in the Central Valley area of California, publishing news and content on issues relevant to the region’s residents.

With a number of mid-sized cities and news outlets in the region, there’s a lot of competition for reader’s attention, leading GV Wire to look for a way not just to keep up, but to stand out.

The Challenge

Most people today prefer to use their phones to get fresh news and content. In the Central California publisher arena, those who stood out were the outlets who were able to provide a great experience for mobile readers.

This is something that GV Wire had on their horizon for some time, as Product Manager Jake Tracy told us:

“I started with GV Wire in 2020 and they’d wanted a mobile-first experience for their user base for over a decade. We did a complete redesign and rebuild in 2021 of the website to focus on a mobile-first experience.”

The Solution

Along with a mobile-friendly website, many competitors took it one step further and launched their own app as well.

“We noticed that a lot of news media outlets were starting to have a mobile app companion for their website, even though their website remained their flagship.”

Jake and GV Wire set out to do the same. Their idea was to take the new, improved mobile website they’d built and package it as an app as many of their competitors had done.

Choosing MobiLoud

Most customers we talk to felt out what it would take to build a custom native app first. Jake was the same. However, budget aside, he felt a custom app project didn’t really fit what they wanted.

“I reached out to a couple of contacts I had for custom mobile app development, but I was trying to find something almost like a template or framework that could house GV Wire so we could minimize the technical debt for the project. You guys actually had a really solid solution.” 

Our solution was the MobiLoud platform, which let them wrap their website in mobile app code, delivering the same experience as an app, with little to no changes to their backend or to their publishing workflow.

MobiLoud’s track record helped convince Jake this was the way to go.

“It seemed like you guys were very professional and had experience. You guys were able to provide case studies to build our confidence in the decision process.”

Results

GV Wire’s readers are happy with the app, with users and downloads showing sustained growth.

“Our mobile app has grown about 62% year over year in users and downloads, and we hope to continue that growth as we continue to grow our brand.”

But more notably, their new app, along with their overall focus on mobile users, has made GV Wire into an award-winner in the California news publisher market.

“This year we were awarded the Best Mid-Sized Digital News Site by the CNPA (California News Publishing Association). I think that partnering with MobiLoud to launch our mobile app last year as a companion to the website has been a great help in achieving that.”

MobiLoud is the Best Way for Publishers to Build Their Own App

Helping publishers turn their site into mobile apps with minimal expense, effort and complexity is our bread and butter.

Jake is another happy customer, having seen the impact an app can have and the extremely low investment required to ship it.

“I would definitely recommend MobiLoud for any kind of mobile app development in the digital news space.”

Whether you’re on WordPress, any other CMS, or you have a custom-built HTML website, MobiLoud is a perfect fit.

Read more here about the benefits of MobiLoud for publishers. We help you boost retention, increase engagement, and separate yourself from other publishers in your industry.

If you’re ready to move forward and learn more, book a free demo with one of our product managers.

On this call, we’ll walk you through the process and share a free, interactive preview of your app.

Let MobiLoud help you take your news outlet to the next level.

Foreign Policy is a US-based publisher focused on current affairs, global events, and domestic and international policy matters.

They’ve been around for half a century and are still going strong, presenting “the world to Washington and Washington to the world”.

Foreign Policy publishes six print issues annually and have several podcasts and newsletters.

Naturally though, their website is the cornerstone of their brand, where they publish articles throughout the day.

In 2020, MobiLoud helped them turn their website into a native app, improving their workflow by making it easier to manage their website and app together.

Read more to learn about their experience.

What about apps?

We spoke with Chief Product Officer Adam Griffiths who explained they already had an iOS mobile app on the stores for about three years, but it wasn’t set up in a way that was easy to update, evolve and iterate on. It wasn’t syncing with their WordPress site and constantly required the external team that developed it to manage and improve on it.

Last year, a new publisher came on board at Foreign Policy. One of his goals was to get the app up and running again, modernize it, and develop one for Android too.

Developing an Android app was a smart goal, as it broadened the reach of the magazine, given its global audience.

Finding MobiLoud

Adam was tasked with making it happen. He checked out a few options and came across MobiLoud. We specialize in developing apps for publishers and news outlets so it was a natural fit.

Adam wanted to check out our references before committing to anything.

“First, we talked to some references. MobiLoud had built an app for Business Insider in Europe and our publisher came from Business Insider here. We got in touch with the head of that project for that app, and they had a really good experience with MobiLoud. That definitely made us feel good about making that decision”

With the decision made, the work could begin.

Adam already had a good idea of what they wanted and had thrown around some design ideas and concepts with his team.

“We were able to hit the ground running really fast which was nice”

It’s great if you have a solid plan for what you want from your app. If you don’t though that’s no problem – we’ll help you to build one.

We can take care of the whole design and build process through our custom plan, or you can use our platform to easily develop great apps yourself. Either way we’re in regular contact with throughout the process to make sure the apps are a success.

“The previous company we used was pretty much totally an offshoring operation, so it was nice to have the team at MobiLoud connecting with us directly on a weekly basis as the project evolved. We got a good sense very quickly that they were easy to work with”

Adam had a list of features and customizations he wanted the app to have, so we got to work building a roadmap to get there.

“Very early on the thing that I appreciated about working with Pietro and the team was that we had a pretty clear cut vision as to what we wanted when we went in. MobiLoud’s team took that outline and within a couple of weeks had a really good assessment of whether these things were doable”

After assessing everything, we let Adam and the team know exactly what was completely doable right out of the box, and what might need some additional thought and planning.

“Many of the things we asked for were already on the MobiLoud roadmap, as they help each client customize the app and tailor it to individual needs. The process is very clear and transparent”

We support many features as standard, but whatever the requirements our team can generally work with you to figure out a solution. That’s what we’re doing with Foreign Policy.

But the priority was getting great apps launched so their audience could start enjoying them on iOS and Android ASAP.

An Ongoing Partnership

Once the app was ready and live they were very happy with it – and had to let their readers know that there was a new and improved channel to get their content through.

“We did a marketing campaign as soon as we had this new app that we were really proud of. It was shiny and new and we knew it would work reliably for anyone who installed it!”

Promoting your app to your audience when it launches is a smart move. Many of them are probably already wondering when you’ll release one and will be excited to install it.

“I just checked this morning and we’ve already seen about a 40% uptick in traffic to the product page on the Appstore”

A Better Reader Experience

There was also some solid evidence that Foreign Policy readers were enjoying the new and improved mobile experience.

“We’ve also seen more people keeping the app installed for more than 30 days. People are definitely seeing the update and using it. We’ve got a lot of great feedback from our users. We just launched on Android and we had a thousand installs in the first 30 days”

We worked closely with Adam and the team at Foreign policy to make sure the success of their app project continues to grow.

“If you’re set up on WordPress and you’re serious about WordPress – MobiLoud really get WordPress. [..] They can really be there for you in whatever capacity you need them to be for your team”

They’ve since moved on to a custom developed app, but their MobiLoud app was a key step in the growth of their digital publishing strategy.

Our platform takes any site, on any platform, and converts it into native apps. That includes WordPress, custom sites on platforms like React and Laravel, and sites on ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce.

We were happy to work with a brand like Foreign Policy, helping them get their great content out to their audience through the best possible channel.

We can help your brand get on the App Stores fast and affordably too.

If you run a high traffic site and are willing to share a little ad space, you might quality for our Publisher Program. You’ll get iOS and Android apps as good as The New York Times or Huffpost, at no upfront cost to you!

Find out more – get in touch with our team.

Sports Mockery is a news site that helps Chicago sports fans to stay up to date with their favorite teams.

We sat down with CEO and President of Sports Mockery, Chris Burhans, for a chat about why they decided to build an app, and their experiences with MobiLoud and their app so far.

Reach a Wider Audience on Mobile

Sports Mockery started out with a WordPress site and a strong social media presence that they’d grown.

They realized that an increasing number of people these days are turning mainly to mobile apps to get their news. Chris realized that his company was missing out on a big opportunity by not having a mobile app:

“A common conversation would be ‘What’s your company?’, and I’d say ‘Sports Mockery’. They’d pull up the App Store and search, but nothing would show up”

People spend the majority of their mobile time in apps, rather than the browser.

Your readers expect your brand to have a presence on the App Stores.

“I’d say, ‘Oh, you have to go to our website’ – which would be answered with ‘Oh, you don’t have an app yet?’. Not having one always seemed to put us in a position where we were losing out on viewers and fans”

Chris soon figured out that they were leaving revenue on the table and needed a presence in the App Stores as soon as possible.

Finding MobiLoud

Chris and his team checked out several options for building their app, but none were what they hoped for:

“I looked at several different other solutions. Some are skins that just take your site and turn it into a mobile version. That wasn’t effective because it would’ve changed the formatting and look of the site – and still didn’t make it available in the App Store. The other solutions seemed to be very cookie cutter, where we’d have to take our website and put it into a box”

Eventually, they came across MobiLoud. It was the first solution that allowed them to take what worked best from their site and leverage it through fully native mobile apps.

“MobiLoud was the first solution that I found that allowed me to keep enough flexibility and build a full-fledged iOS and Android application”

Chris was also happy that our service integrates with all the features needed to grow a publishing brand, and that he didn’t need to touch any code himself.

“MobiLoud has many, many features that a lot of the competitors were lacking. With MobiLoud it’s all done for you. It’s a very sleek and fast process”

Building the Apps to take Sports Mockery to the Next Level

We got to work building highly customized, state of the art apps that retained the site’s unique personality and key features. We do all the work building your app – all you have to do is tell us exactly what you want and it’ll be ready to launch in a few weeks.

When the apps launched, Chris realized that Sports Mockery had begun an exciting new journey:

“I’ll never forget the day we went live and posted on social media telling everybody to download our new app. It was as if our entire company took a step forward by creating a presence on the Apple Store and Google Play – and we became a more legitimate company in the eyes of our fans and everyone who interacted with us”

Increased Reach, Higher Revenue, and a Stronger Brand

Since launching, Sports Mockery have been making the most of their app’s features like ad platform integration and push notifications. They’ve been able to reach a whole new audience and find powerful new opportunities to monetize their content:

“MobiLoud gave us a whole new revenue stream by allowing us to reach these fans for the first time.”

Native apps give you a new way to engage potential readers that might not be on social.

“A lot of our fans don’t use Facebook or Twitter – so they never found our content. We were suddenly able to approach fans and ask them to download our app. We’ve sent push notifications out to hundreds of thousands of people.”

As well as reaching a broader audience, Chris and his team have found new ways to monetize through their app.

“Through MobiLoud, we’ve taken on a new ad model, which has created additional revenue for us through ads that weren’t previously compatible with our site. This has consistently increased our revenue month after month since we implemented it.”

A Great Relationship and an Exciting Future

After your app is built and launched we take care of ongoing updates, maintenance, and any customizations that you need.

Our technology is also improving and evolving all the time, as Chris noted in our conversation:

“Not only do MobiLoud have great support, but they’ve really come a long way with their technology. The ability to quickly configure your options and keep a lot of flexibility between WordPress and your mobile app is really a one of a kind experience”

As with all our clients, Sports Mockery were able to easily manage their apps through their existing WordPress dashboard – which simplified their workflow and cut away any learning curve for the team.

What would Chris say to other publishers looking to build a native presence?

“It’s very easy, it’s very practical. MobiLoud gives any company the ability to take the next step forward by offering their fans or customers a full-fledged mobile app inside of Apple Store and Google Play and reach everybody”

We look forward to continuing a great relationship with Sports Mockery and helping them to grow their brand and become even more successful on mobile.

Want to replicate the success of Sports Mockery in your own business?

We have solutions to turn any site or web app into iOS and Android apps – but if you’re a WordPress-based digital publisher looking to grow through native apps, MobiLoud News is for you.

If your site has a reasonable amount of traffic and you’re willing to share a little ad space with us – you can even get native iOS and Android apps at zero upfront cost! Check out our publisher program today.