Publish a story
Write it once. It goes to the app, the website, Facebook, Instagram and X — whichever you tick.
Recent videos — paste a link
Paste a Facebook reel, YouTube link, or a direct video file (.mp4). Reels open in Facebook when tapped; direct .mp4 files play right inside the app's Recent videos row.
IN THE APP NOW
Submissions
Photos and video sent in by viewers. Approve one and it becomes a story.
Near Me reports
What residents are reporting from their phones — sirens, gunshots, suspicious activity, outages.
Weather
Live National Weather Service alerts for our counties. Send one and every phone in that footprint buzzes. Weather Console ↗ · Program mode ↗
Compose a weather push
Active alerts
Loading alerts…
Team
Who can sign in to this newsroom. Everyone sets up an authenticator on their first sign-in.
Add a teammate
They sign in at this same address with the username and password you set here. Passwords need at least 10 characters; they'll be asked to add an authenticator on first sign-in.
Ad Manager
Build a sponsor campaign, set how hard it competes for placement, then watch it run. Every story shows at most three ads: one guaranteed Hero the reader meets first, plus two standard slots filled by weighted rotation — never two ads from the same advertiser in one story.
Create an ad
Creative
The image or video carries the ad. It sits at the top of the card at full width, so anything important needs to survive being cropped to a wide strip on a phone.
Optional, but an ad without media shows as a plain text card and earns far fewer taps.
What works
- Photo size
- 1200 × 628 (1.91:1) — 600px wide minimum
- Photo format
- JPG, PNG or WebP, under 8 MB
- Video
- MP4 or MOV, 15–30 seconds, under 8 MB
- Sound
- Plays muted and loops — never rely on audio
Keep logos and faces out of the bottom-left corner — the SPONSORED label and advertiser name sit there. For video, land the message in the first 3 seconds; most readers scroll before it loops.
Message
The title is the line readers actually read. Lead with the offer or the name — not with “Click here”.
Shows in bold under the image. Aim for under 60 characters — longer titles get cut off on one line.
Only about two lines show before it clips — roughly 90 characters. The rest is stored but never seen.
Opens in the reader's browser, outside the app. Leave blank for a brand-awareness ad with nowhere to go — the card then shows no “Visit site” prompt.
Priority & reach
One number decides three things at once: which screens the ad may appear on, what format it takes, and how many times a day a single reader can see it. Higher levels win slots over lower ones.
0 saves a draft without showing it anywhere. 1–5 runs in the story feed. 6+ unlocks Weather, 8+ adds Traffic, and 10 is a full-screen takeover on app open — use it sparingly.
Live preview
Exactly how this ad renders inside a story, updating as you type.
How placement is decided
- ★The Hero is guaranteedSlot 1 of every story. Flag any running ad as Hero below to lock it there; with nothing flagged, the highest-priority live ad fills it automatically.
- 3Three ads per story, hard capHero first, then two standard slots by weighted rotation — priority level is the weight.
- ⊘One advertiser per storyCompetitive separation: once an advertiser takes a slot, ads sharing its link domain are skipped for the rest of that pod.
- ↻Frequency caps are per reader, per daySet by level — a Standard ad tops out at 4 views a day for the same person, so reach spreads instead of hammering one reader.
- ∞Ads run until you close themThere is no end date. Close an ad to stop it instantly; it stays in the list, greyed out, with its numbers intact.