For years, publisher apps have been the delivery mechanism. Someone buys a subscription, then downloads the app to consume content. Apps existed to serve subscribers and keep them renewing. Now, publishers are waking up to what the data has been saying for a while; apps aren’t just where subscribers go to read, they’re where subscribers come from. SensorTower’s numbers back t...

Back in December 2024 we wrote a media bulletin that looked at the shift publishers were starting to make towards vertical video. Back then, it was still an experiment for many, seen as a way to build an ...

Engelsberg Ideas, an international publication exploring history, politics and culture, has launched a new app on Pugpig Bolt.

Reader demand played a big role in the decision to launch the app. As more readers engaged with Engelsberg Ideas on mobile, it became clear they needed a dedicated, fully-owned space for essays, podcasts and discussions.

Staying tr...

For years, audio in publishing was almost synonymous with podcasts, a resource-intensive format that was mostly consumed off platform. Occasionally, a few publishers experimented with narrated articles or long reads voiced by journalists and actors, but these remained niche. Fast forward to today and AI-driven text-to-speech is reshaping that landscape. The technology has evo...

The Bulwark, the fast-growing US political publication with nearly 90,000 paid Substack subscribers, has launched a dedicated mobile app on Pugpig Bolt.

The app opens up a brand new owned channel for The Bulwark, whose content was previously only available on mobile via the Substack app and YouTube. 

A key driver behind launching a dedicated The Bulw...