Case Studies | The Minnesota Star Tribune
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.
Founded in 1867, The Star Tribune is one of the most prestigious news brands in the US known for its comprehensive coverage of both local and national news. Today, it’s the seventh-largest newspaper in the US and is leading the charge in digital transformation, paving the way for regional news brands. The title has evolved from a traditional print publication to a forward-thinking, digital-first organisation while retaining the values and rich legacy they’re so well known and loved for.
We delivered a robust mobile app within an impressive six-week timeframe, stabilising the existing app and introducing a premium experience that offers added value to loyal subscribers. The new app provides a sleek, user-friendly interface that greatly improved navigation and content accessibility. allowed the Star Tribune to quickly build the “best possible” solution and reach a wider audience.
Together with Arc XP, we revolutionised the Star Tribune’s content management system, allowing for a seamless, unified publishing workflow that spanned both web and mobile platforms. Journalists and editors can now effortlessly manage and distribute content in real-time, enhancing productivity and ensuring a consistent user experience across different devices.
We took over the technical maintenance of the app, reducing workload for The Star Tribune’s team of engineers and allowing them to focus on strategic projects rather than being bogged down by routine maintenance tasks. This shift enabled the team to innovate and concentrate on enhancing content quality and other core business functions.
Our collaboration with Norkon brought a dynamic live blogging capability to the app, significantly boosting user engagement, especially during the US elections, when the app saw a 174% increase in screen views and a 35% increase in users. The live blog was seamlessly integrated with a native look and feel, providing up-to-the-minute interactive updates , keeping them engaged for longer and returning more frequently.
Using Bolt’s Timeline Layouts plugin, which is built on the core Pugpig code and adapted from Star Tribune’s website template thanks to our integration with Arc XP, minimised the need for extensive design work. The app’s design is that of a premium product that aligns seamlessly with Star Tribune’s new rebrand. Meanwhile, the search functionality and curated sections empower users to dive deeper into topics of interest, fostering meaningful engagement.
The initial goal was to get an MVP app to market within the tight six-week deadline. Once the app was live in both app stores, we started to think about the next round of development. In close collaboration with The Star Tribune team, we outlined a phase two roadmap to further elevate the mobile experience and grow subscribers. Roadmap priorities for the app include enhanced personalisation, innovative story formats, and improved integration of audio and video content.
The app has proved incredibly successful in retaining users, with 80.6% of users returning after a 30 day period. This demonstrates the app’s ongoing value, ability to provide a compelling mobile experience and value proposition for subscribers, solidifying its role as a cornerstone of the Star Tribune’s digital strategy and fostering long-term loyalty among subscribers.
Despite minimal pre or post-launch marketing, the app proved an instant hit with the people of Minnesota, reaching an impressive 45,000 downloads across both app stores within 48 hours of launching. By September, downloads had levelled out and have remained consistent since, with a +168% peak on election day.
An average of 89,600 MAUs (monthly active users)
The number of active users has remained remarkably steady since launch, showcasing the app’s strong retention ability. The app has lasting appeal, delivering consistent value to its audience through seamless navigation, engaging stories and an improved overall mobile experience. For the Star Tribune team, the app has proven itself as a key element for long-term engagement.
US election week proved a huge success. Bolt’s integration with the Norkon Live Center live blogging functionality played a key role here, surfacing breaking news updates in real time and keeping users returning to the app. “For the first time, we were able to push live results into the app and provide app users with an experience that was not just as good, but maybe even a bit better than the web experience. And that’s important.” said Aron Pilhofer, CPO.
With an average of 24 sessions per user per month since launch, the app has seen strong, consistent engagement. Users return to the app every six days out of seven, highlighting the app’s ability to provide a user experience that encourages regular interaction and cementing its role as a go-to source for the latest news in Minnesota and beyond. This consistent engagement shows that the app builds loyalty and habit while reinforcing its value as a critical component of The Star Tribune’s digital strategy.
40% of The Star Tribune’s user base have the app downloaded
After just six months and with minimal marketing effort, almost half (40%) of our user base has the app downloaded compared to 24% for the old app. This solid adoption gives us a strong indication that the new app is an essential part of daily life for a large portion of Minnesotans. Plus, significant growth in user interaction with push notifications, with the percentage of users opening notifications almost doubling (+181%) since launch.
The close collaboration between Pugpig, Arc XP and Norkon revolutionised The Star Tribune’s technical infrastructure while significantly minimising development time, and the results speak for themselves. This collaboration played a pivotal role in The Star Tribune’s new, digital-first strategy to foster loyalty, grow reader revenue, and pave the way for other regional media brands. For the newsroom, this collaboration modernised content workflows, enabling journalists and editors to effortlessly publish stories across web and mobile in real time. This streamlined process freed up valuable resources, allowing the team to focus on producing the high-quality journalism they’re so well known for.
We turned to Pugpig to rebuild our apps on a tight deadline, and boy did they deliver! Engagement is through the roof – we couldn’t be happier with our decision to go with Pugpig. For the first time during elections week, we were able to push live results into the app and provide app users with an experience that was not just as good, but maybe even a bit better than the web experience. And that’s important.
Aron Pilhofer
Chief Product Officer, The Minnesota Star Tribune
The success of the Star Tribune’s app transformation is a testament to the power of strong partnerships and a flexible digital platform. Working alongside Pugpig, we were able to seamlessly integrate Arc XP’s publishing capabilities, allowing the Star Tribune to rapidly launch a premium mobile experience for their readers. This project highlights how, through collaboration, we can quickly and effectively meet the evolving needs of media organisations and their audiences.
Joe Croney
Chief Technology Officer, Arc XP
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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
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