Bringing Local News Back
with AI-Powered Software
What We Delivered:
- Turned an AI-built prototype into a production-ready mobile app
- Expanded the app to Android and iOS
- Improved stability, scalability, and user experience
Drove approximately 10x greater engagement in the app compared to the website
What We Delivered:
- Turned an AI-built prototype into a production-ready mobile app
- Expanded the app to Android and iOS
- Improved stability, scalability, and user experience
Drove approximately 10x greater engagement in the app compared to the website
The Challenge
Turning an AI-built prototype into a reliable, scalable news platform serving communities across Kansas.
Citizen Journal Founder, Greg Loving, saw a growing problem: local coverage of city councils, school boards, county commissions, and other community institutions was steadily disappearing.
“The internet had already decimated local news, shifting advertising revenue from newspapers to platforms such as Facebook and Google,” Greg said.
Citizen Journal began with a simple but ambitious idea: if the internet helped disrupt local news, could AI help rebuild it?
As AI technology advanced, Greg saw an opportunity to help rebuild local news. Although an engineer by background rather than a software developer, he used ChatGPT to build a functioning Android news app and continued improving it as AI tools became more capable.
The Problem
Greg had successfully proven the concept, but Citizen Journal was beginning to outgrow its original prototype.
As the app became more complex, bugs started to surface. Greg could often use AI to fix one issue, only to have another appear elsewhere in the application. At the same time, the platform needed to launch on iOS, support more Kansas communities, improve the user experience, add advertiser functionality, and become more stable and scalable.
Greg had taken the application surprisingly far with AI, but the growing complexity made it clear that getting it production-ready required experienced software development expertise. Building an entire development team in-house didn’t make business sense.
That led him to Flint Hills Group.
The Process
After finding Flint Hills Group through an online search, Greg was encouraged by the company’s customer reviews.
“I found a lot of comments about FHG being very responsive with good customer service, and we found that to be very true,” Greg said.
FHG worked closely with Greg and Citizen Journal developer Max Vidavsky through weekly planning sessions and a dedicated Slack channel.
Rather than starting over, the team built upon what Greg had already created. FHG refined the codebase, improved the application architecture, expanded functionality, supported Android and iOS development, managed app store deployments, and provided ongoing maintenance and enhancements.
The Result
Today, Citizen Journal serves approximately 20 Kansas communities through its website and mobile app.
The app has evolved far beyond its original prototype, with a more polished user experience, expanded features, advertiser functionality, and support for both Android and iOS.
The difference is also showing up in user engagement. According to Google Analytics, app users are approximately 10 times more engaged than website users based on dwell time and time per session.
“In general, our app attracts far more users than the website, and those users also interact with the app a lot more than website visitors,” Max said.
Citizen Journal also gained an experienced development partner that can quickly implement new features, resolve issues, and help the platform continue evolving.
- Turned an AI-built prototype into a production-ready mobile app
- Expanded the app to Android and iOS
- Improved stability, scalability, and user experience
Drove approximately 10x greater engagement in the app compared to the website
“AI allows you to make something that works pretty good. But it’s not ready for production. Flint Hills Group can take what you may do as a hobby and make it professional.”
– Greg Loving, Founder of Citizen Journal
“AI allows you to make something that works pretty good. But it’s not ready for production. Flint Hills Group can take what you may do as a hobby and make it professional.”
– Greg Loving, Founder of Citizen Journal
