Your town paper, online, with every issue still on the shelf
In a lot of small towns, the paper still comes out once a week. People grab it at the post office or the general store. They read the council story, the letters, the sports page and the classifieds. Then they keep the one with their grandkid's photo on the fridge.
That paper is the record of the town. Online, it should feel the same. Each issue should stand on its own. Old issues should be easy to find. And a reader should know who wrote what.
A paper, not a feed
The Newspaper & Gazette starter is made for weekly and monthly papers, gazettes and small magazines. It is built around the issue, not the endless scroll.
You lay out a front page by section, like News, Opinion, Sports and Community. When it is ready, you set it as this week's issue. Last week's issue moves to the archive, where readers can search it. Each columnist gets a page with their byline and their past columns, using the names you give us.
There is room for a corrections list that stays in plain view. There is room for classifieds and for local shops who place ads. And there is a letters form, so each letter lands in the inbox you name.
You can see one look it can have on our demo, The New Vibe City Gazette. The Gazette is a made-up paper we run as a demo. Things like the subscriber tools are shown on the demo but are not included unless they are on your Launch list.
How a Launch works
The starter code is free and open. Anyone can clone it for $0. A Launch is when we set it up with you, live.
A Launch is $2,500 CAD, plus GST, paid once. You get two hours with one of our people. If you want each one, we set it up and test it with you:
- Payments. A reader pays for a year of the paper, or a shop pays for an ad. It goes into your own Stripe, PayPal or Square account. We never hold your money.
- A reader portal. Readers sign in with a code we email them. They see their invoices and any files you share, like a copy of an issue.
- Booking. Advertisers or people who want to be in a story can pick a time. We connect your Google or Microsoft calendar and make one real test booking.
- One contact list. Every letter, ad, payment and booking becomes a contact. We bring in your reader and advertiser lists.
Press day, made lighter
Press day is long enough. After Launch, you change your site by telling it what you want, in plain English, like a text message.
Type "add a correction: the bake sale is on Saturday, not Sunday." Or type "add a new columnist page for our garden writer, with this photo." That way of building is called vibe coding. On the call, you make one real change like this while we are there with you.
We also teach you the visual editor. You click a headline or a caption and fix it in place. It is perfect for the typo you spot after the issue is up.
Kept in your own hands
Your site runs in your own Replit account. We charge $0 a month. Your host bills about $20 US a month for use. That is the host's bill, in US dollars. Our prices are in Canadian dollars. Or we can host it for $19 CAD plus GST a month. You own the code and the archive. You can leave any time with a full copy.
We walk you through your own admin, so you know where each letter and payment lands. Your masthead, logo and colours go up as you send them. It works on a phone. The site never makes up a story, a quote or a name.
Get started
Read more on the Newspaper & Gazette starter page, or start your Launch. If you run a different kind of outlet, like a video bulletin, the News & Media starter may suit you better. Not sure which one? Book a free call, or type your web address on See what you'd get.