The Chicagoist

Local News, Twice

Chicagoist was a local news site long before I touched it. My part came when we picked it up at Agency Enterprise and rebuilt it as a platform: a React Native app, a Node API, a CMS admin for the writers, data and asset services, and a separate microsite for aldermen. The first app build went out as 0.0.43 in January 2019.

I have a soft spot for this kind of job. I liked helping bring back a site that told a city what was going on. The work wrapped in December 2020.

Version 0.0.43 Of A Newspaper

Seven weeks in, the app hit 0.0.43. Chicagoist was a local news platform, and by January 2019 it had a bunch of pieces: a React Native app, a Node API, a CMS admin so editors could work without asking a developer, a data service, an asset service, and a separate alderman site that showed up in December.

The domain was older, but this was a rebuild. The app and the API were both started on December 3rd, 2018. 0.0.43 was about where the app stopped being scaffolding and became something you could put on a phone and hand to someone.

The CMS got as much attention as the app, since the people using it were writers, not developers. It kept going another two years, and the last release landed in December 2020.