Featured App: 828newsNOW by Saga Communications
When local newspapers shrink, communities lose more than headlines. They lose the reporting that tells them what is happening at the school board, on the roads and in their own neighborhoods. 828newsNOW was created to fill that gap for Asheville and Western North Carolina, and its app “delivers the latest breaking news, local news, community information and investigative reporting” straight to residents’ phones. Always local, always free, it is built with AppPresser.
In this featured app spotlight, we take a closer look at the team behind 828newsNOW, what the app does, who it serves, and why it is such a strong example of what happens when a WordPress site and a mobile app work together.
Who Is Behind Saga Communications
828newsNOW, online at 828newsnow.com, is the local news division of Asheville Media Group, the Asheville cluster of Saga Communications. Saga is a media company that began operations in 1986, became publicly traded in December 1992 and trades on NASDAQ as SGA. It focuses on broadcast properties run by strong local management, and in Asheville that family includes 105.9 The Mountain, Mix 96.5, 98.1 The River, Rewind 100.3, 105.5 The Outlaw, WISE Sports Radio and La Pantera 97.3.
828newsNOW debuted in April 2024, the same day as its sister site Jonesboro Right Now, as part of Saga’s push to launch free local news sites across its markets, modeled on the success of Clarksville Now in Tennessee. At launch, Market President Tom Davis described its mission “to provide timely, relevant, trusted, unbiased local news and information, for free,” and founding editor in chief M.E. Sprengelmeyer, a veteran reporter, war correspondent and newspaper publisher, promised to give people the information they need “without a pay wall, so everyone has a chance to be in the know.”
Today the newsroom is led by Editor in Chief Denise Pridgen, with reporters who live and work in Asheville. Its mission is “to keep local news accessible to everyone, because a connected community is a strong community,” and its published ethics policy, the 828newsNOW Promise, commits the team to transparency, compassion and independence. Just months after launch, that mission was put to the test when Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina in September 2024, and 828newsNOW published storm updates, shelter information and coverage of rescues and recovery as Asheville was cut off by wrecked roads and lost power and cell service.
What the 828newsNOW App Does
The 828newsNOW app brings the newsroom’s reporting to the phone in a clean, fast layout built for reading on the go. A bottom bar keeps four tabs, Top Stories, Latest News, Sections and Listen, one tap away, and a share button on every story makes it easy to pass news along.
Here are the main areas the app covers:
- Top Stories, which leads with the biggest news in Asheville and Western North Carolina, each story shown with a large photo and a short summary.
- Latest News, a running feed of the newest stories in the order they are published.
- Sections, with green buttons for Local, Crime, Politics, Business, Sports, Education, Lifestyle, Music, Weather and Podcasts.
- Listen, for streaming Asheville Media Group stations like Mix 96.5, “Asheville’s Hit Music Station,” and 98.1 The River.
- Breaking news alerts, push notifications for important local news.
- Local podcasts, with links to podcasts from the community.
What makes the app distinctive is how it brings a radio group’s two strengths together. Readers can scan the day’s local stories and then, with one tap, switch to a live stream of their favorite Asheville station. For a radio group, the app turns a news site and a radio dial into one connected local media experience.
The app launched on the App Store in April 2024, alongside the website, and it is free on iPhone and iPad.
App Screenshots
Here is a look at the app. Use the arrows or the numbered buttons to move through the screenshots.
Test Drive the App
The best way to understand 828newsNOW is to try it. Download the free app, turn on breaking news alerts, check today’s top stories and then tap Listen to tune in to your favorite Asheville station.
Key Features That Stand Out
Top Stories
Top Stories is the front page of the app. It leads with the most important local news of the moment, like the forecast for the April 2024 solar eclipse over Western North Carolina, with a large photo, a clear headline and a short summary of each story. It gives readers a quick, reliable picture of what is happening across the region.
Latest News
Latest News keeps every new story in order, from courtroom coverage to weekend weather, so readers who check in throughout the day never miss an update. Each story opens to the full article from the newsroom, and the share button makes it easy to send an important story to family and neighbors.
Every Section
Sections organizes the newsroom’s coverage into clear categories: Local, Crime, Politics, Business, Sports, Education, Lifestyle, Music, Weather and Podcasts. Readers who care most about their kids’ schools or the local music scene can go straight to the coverage they want, without scrolling past everything else.
Listen Live
The Listen tab is where the app’s radio roots show. It streams Asheville Media Group stations like Mix 96.5 and 98.1 The River, each with its own logo and a Listen button. Readers can catch up on the news and then keep their favorite station playing, all inside one app.
At a Glance
- Free to download on iPhone and iPad.
- Breaking news alerts for Asheville and Western North Carolina.
- Top Stories and Latest News feeds.
- Ten sections, from Local and Education to Music and Weather.
- Live streams of Asheville Media Group radio stations.
- Always local, always free, with no pay wall.
Who 828newsNOW Serves
The first audience is the people of Asheville and Buncombe County. Residents want to know what is happening in their schools, local government, businesses and neighborhoods, and 828newsNOW reports it without a pay wall. The app makes that reporting easy to check on a commute, during lunch or before bed, with breaking news alerts when something important happens.
The app also serves the wider communities of Western North Carolina. After Hurricane Helene, the region learned how vital timely local information can be, when roads, power and cell service were all disrupted. A local news app with push alerts gives mountain communities a direct line to updates from reporters who live in the area.
Finally, the app serves the listeners of Asheville Media Group’s stations. Fans of Mix 96.5, 98.1 The River and their sister stations can stream them from the Listen tab and catch up on local news in the same place, bringing a familiar radio voice and a trusted newsroom together.
Technology Behind the App
828newsNOW is powered by its own WordPress site, 828newsnow.com.
The app is built from WordPress, and WordPress drives it. Every story is published on the WordPress site, and AppPresser carries that content straight into the app, so updates made on the site show up in the app without a separate system to manage.
Looking at the site itself, these are the platforms behind the experience:
WordPress, the foundation for the newsroom. WordPress is the open source content management system that powers more websites than any other platform.
Gravity Forms, for the site’s forms. Gravity Forms is a WordPress form builder plugin used for contact forms, registrations and more.
Saga News Theme, a custom WordPress theme built for Saga Communications news sites.
WP Google Maps, for maps. WP Google Maps is a WordPress maps plugin.
GTranslate, for translation. GTranslate is a WordPress translation plugin.
AppPresser, which turns the WordPress site into the mobile app. AppPresser is a mobile app builder that creates native iOS and Android apps from a WordPress site.
What 828newsNOW Shows About AppPresser
Saga Communications runs 828newsNOW on WordPress at 828newsnow.com, where every story is published. With AppPresser, that same WordPress newsroom powers a native app with top stories, sections, breaking news alerts and live radio, so reporters can publish once and reach readers on the web and in the app at the same time.
That matters for local news, where readers want stories as they happen. A small newsroom does not have time to manage a separate mobile publishing system, and push notifications put breaking news on residents’ lock screens in seconds. During a crisis like Hurricane Helene, that kind of speed and reach can make a real difference.
It also shows how one publisher can use AppPresser across many cities. 828newsNOW launched alongside Jonesboro Right Now as part of a wider rollout of Saga’s local news sites, and the same approach can bring free local news apps to community after community, each with its own name, sections and local stations.
828newsNOW in the Press
828newsNOW’s launch drew attention in the radio industry. In April 2024, Inside Radio reported on the debut of 828NewsNow as a new local news platform for the Western North Carolina region, quoting Market President Tom Davis and Editor in Chief M.E. Sprengelmeyer and describing Saga’s plan to launch local news sites in 18 markets, part of a broader effort by radio companies to fill so-called news deserts.
Congratulations to Denise Pridgen, Tom Davis, the 828newsNOW newsroom, Asheville Media Group and Saga Communications on building an app that keeps Western North Carolina informed. We are proud to have AppPresser behind it.
Do You Want Your Own App?
If your organization already runs on WordPress, launching your app with AppPresser is simple. Your app pulls directly from the website you already manage, so every update you make to your site appears in your app automatically. Ready to get started on your app right now? Check out our pricing page.
Not on WordPress yet? AppPresser can still help. Our team can move your website onto WordPress and then set up your app, so everything works together from the start. And if you need something more tailored, from custom features to a completely custom app, our custom development services have you covered.
If you need help or have any questions, tell us about your organization and what you’d like your app to do, and we’ll get back to you with a clear answer on costs and next steps.
