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DISCOVERCreate your local newspaper app
Local newspaper app: your readers, your print subscribers and your advertisers in an app that carries your masthead
One section per town, an alert whenever local news moves, access for your print subscribers and banners sold to businesses in your area.
Give your local newspaper or regional weekly its own iOS and Android app, without writing code: editions by town, push notifications, digital subscriptions, access for print subscribers, an ad server for local advertisers, an events calendar and readers’ photos.
Free 30-day trial - No credit card required
Pioneers of no-code
15 years of experience building native apps for businesses and content publishers. And the numbers to prove it.
25 000+
Daily downloads for apps built with GoodBarber*
30 000+
Clients have brought their app projects to life with GoodBarber
2011
The year GoodBarber was born: no-code, before anyone else
* Source: internal download tracking, App Store and Google Play, April 2026.
Print subscribers don’t pay twice
Grant access from the back office, one reader at a time or all at once with your AI agent
Your print subscribers have already paid. Each one creates an account in the app with the email of their subscription, and you open the subscriber-only articles to them until their print subscription ends. For a handful of readers, you do it by hand; for your whole list, an AI assistant that talks to your app over the MCP server matches the accounts against your subscriber file, opens access for each one and records their subscriber number in a private note. New readers simply buy the digital subscription inside the app.
Write once, publish everywhere
The back-office editor and its assistant, or your WordPress site feeding the app
Type your stories in the editor: the AI Assistant suggests a headline, condenses long council meeting minutes or translates an article, and you decide what gets published. Does your paper already have a WordPress site? The GoodBarber plugin picks up its posts and files them in the app’s sections, with no copy and paste: see the WordPress app page.
A section for every town
The app follows the way your paper is organized, and alerts go out at the right time
Lay out the app like your pages: one section per town or per edition, plus local sports, the calendar and classifieds. Each section can trigger its own notification with every new article, during the hours you set, and on the reader’s side, a profile setting lets them keep only the towns they care about. For a one-off alert, a notification can also target readers by location.
Numbers for your advertisers
The bakery, the garage and the town hall buy space they can see working
The internal ad server lets you sell your own placements to local businesses and public bodies: a banner on the home page, a full-screen ad between two articles, with a start date, an end date and a maximum number of impressions or clicks. Each campaign links to the advertiser’s website or to a page in your app, and its results come in handy when the contract is up for renewal. App statistics also show which cities your readers come from.
Your newspaper’s app in four steps
Everything is prepared in the back office, without calling in a developer.
Set up your sections
One section per town or edition, one for local sports, one for the calendar: the app mirrors the way your paper is organized.Connect your articles
Write in the CMS, or link your WordPress site or RSS feed: articles reach the app without being typed twice.Open access
Grant access to your print subscribers, pick the free sections and the subscriber-only ones, then put the digital subscription on sale.Get advertisers ready
One campaign per advertiser in the internal ad server, with its dates, its visuals and the link to its website.
Also in your newspaper’s app
Offline reading
Articles already loaded stay readable in poorly covered areas, from mountain valleys to open countryside.
Searchable archive
A reader finds the article about the new school project, even if it ran last year.
Moderated comments
Readers react under your articles, and you decide what stays online.
Podcasts and video
The weekly column as audio, the match highlights as video: everything goes into the same app.
Web version included
An article shared in a neighborhood group opens in the browser, even for people who don’t have the app.
Several titles, one app
A press group brings its local editions together in one app, with a section for each title.
Three uses of AI for a local newspaper
Specific tasks that leave the writing and the choices to journalists.
For readers
A Chatbot that knows your archive
Christmas market hours, the date of the next council meeting, the score of the local derby: the Chatbot answers from your articles and your calendar, in the language of the question.
$35/month
For writing
The AI Assistant in the editor
A shorter headline, a standfirst, a translation of an article for summer visitors: you ask, it suggests, you keep what works.
Free
For running things
Your agent, connected through MCP
Plug your assistant, Claude or ChatGPT, into the app with MCP and hand over the routine: “Open access for the print subscribers who signed up this week and schedule tomorrow’s front page.” It carries out each action and reports back.
Included
Website, Facebook page or newspaper app?
Three ways to reach your readers, and they don’t do the same job.
| Newspaper website | Social media page | Newspaper app | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alert on the reader’s phone | No | Depends on the algorithm | Yes, for every big story |
| Readers who arrive without a search engine | Only some of them | Depends on the algorithm | Yes, the icon is on their screen |
| Print subscribers recognized | Depends on your subscription tool | No | Yes, access granted from the back office |
| Subscription paid in one tap | Payment form | No | Yes, with the store account |
| Ads sold to local businesses | Yes | No, the space belongs to the network | Yes, with the internal ad server |
| Reading without a network | No | No | Yes, for articles already loaded |
Election night
Town-by-town results in an article updated all evening, a notification for each result people are waiting for, and the map of polling stations close at hand.
See push notificationsA storm, a closed road
An Alerts section with its own automatic notification: every article published there warns readers straight away, at night too if you have allowed it.
See automatic pushThe village festival weekend
The program in the calendar, parking and food stalls on the map, and photos sent in by readers, published once you approve them.
See the calendarExtension Store
Extensions a local newspaper will use. All of them are free, except the Chatbot and Memberships, which is included in the Pro plan and an option with Premium.
How much does a local newspaper app cost?
From the Premium plan, your paper publishes its native app in both stores; Memberships is added to sell digital subscriptions, and the Pro plan includes it, with as many collaborators as you need. Hosting, notifications and app updates are included in the price.
| Premium · iOS, Android and web app | $55 /month, billed yearly |
| Memberships, with Premium | $49 /month |
| Pro · Memberships included | $105 /month, billed yearly |
Apple and Google developer accounts are paid for separately, to the stores.
What our customers say
Reviews published by GoodBarber customers, all activities combined.
GoodBarber is a powerful app builder.
GoodBarber is a powerful app builder. If you want to build your app using a pre-built template, GoodBarber is ideal for you. At Global Academy, we almost completed the 5th year using their easy-to-use pre-built platforms to build premium Apps for our customers. Also, Goodbarber's customer support is excellent. Highly recommended.
Great support and always very helpful answers.
Great support and always very helpful answers. Nothing is too trivial for the team to answer.
Responsive support and usually quick.
Responsive support and usually quick. Software is by far the best in the market, with tremendous capabilities for configurations.
Local newspaper app: frequently asked questions
How can a local newspaper sell subscriptions in its app?
With Memberships, readers subscribe monthly or yearly from the app, paying with the App Store or Google Play account they already use. You choose which sections are free and which are for subscribers, and you can switch off ads for them. Apple and Google take their share; GoodBarber takes nothing on your sales.
Do our print subscribers have to pay a second time?
No. Each print subscriber creates an account in the app, ideally with the email of their subscription, and you grant them access until their print subscription ends, or with no end date. You can do it one by one in the back office, or all at once with an AI assistant connected through MCP, which finds the accounts from your subscriber file. Run it again every week for new sign-ups.
Which app builder should a local news outlet choose?
Check five things: genuine native apps for iPhone and Android, plus a browser version, subscriptions sold in the app with no commission for the tool, access for print subscribers, an ad server to sell your own space, and syncing with your website. GoodBarber covers all five from the same back office, and the app stays published under your own developer accounts. For a national outlet or a news website, see also the news app page.
Can we offer an edition for each town?
Yes: one section per town or per edition, each with its own automatic notification. Readers with an account keep only the towns they care about, and a one-off alert can target readers by location.
How do we sell advertising to local businesses in the app?
With the internal ad server, which is free: one campaign per advertiser, banners on the home page or in articles, full-screen ads, an end date and a cap on impressions or clicks, then statistics to show the business. You set your rates and invoice your advertisers yourself.
Can readers send us their photos?
Yes, through a Submission section: a photo or a video with some text, or text alone. Nothing appears until you approve it in the back office.
Does the app work in areas with poor coverage?
Articles already loaded can be read without a network: a reader opens the app in town in the morning and reads it in the evening in a village with no signal. New articles arrive at the next connection.
How many notifications can we send?
The allowance is counted per recipient: an alert sent to 5,000 readers uses 5,000 notifications. The Premium plan includes 30,000 a month, the Pro plan 250,000, and extra notifications can be bought in the back office if needed.
How much does a local newspaper app cost?
Count on the Premium plan for a store app, adding Memberships to sell digital subscriptions, or choose Pro, which includes it. The amounts, converted into your currency, are in the price box above and on the pricing page.
GoodBarber brings your newspaper’s articles, your print subscribers and your local advertisers together in a native app under your own name
One section per town, alerts at the right moment, access for print subscribers, digital subscriptions in one tap and an ad server for local businesses, in both stores and on the web.