Data journalism and news apps
Where the newsroom meets the codebase
Hack The Press is a quiet workbench for journalists, newsroom developers and designers: long, practical guides to the data work, the news apps and the tools behind them.
From the workbench
Latest guides
How to Build a Searchable Database for a News Site 2026
Learn how to build a searchable database for a news site with PostgreSQL 16: schema design, clean imports, weighted search, a safe…
How to Design a Data Dashboard for Readers (2026 Guide)
How to design a data dashboard for readers in : a seven-step workflow covering hierarchy, chart choice, context, annotations and accessibility for…
How to Test a News App with Real Readers: A Guide (2026)
Learn how to test a news app with real readers: recruiting, neutral tasks, methods, metrics and prioritization, plus the mistakes that skew…
How to Build a News App from Scratch in 2026: A Practical Guide
How to build a news app from scratch in : pick your content source, check the licensing, choose a stack, design the…
How to Make a News Graphic Load Faster in 2026: Easy Guide
Learn how to make a news graphic load faster in : practical compression, responsive sizing, lazy loading, caching, and real-device testing.
How to Make a Scrollytelling Story: A Practical Guide (2026)
Learn how to make a scrollytelling story in : the reader journey, four formats, the tools, the sticky-graphic code pattern, and five…
Beats and toolchains
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Why this site exists
Written for the newsroom’s tech floor
Hack The Press is for the people who build news products: reporters who write code, developers working inside newsrooms, and designers deciding how a story gets read on a screen.
The guides here take the long route through the data, the interfaces and the toolchains, and they explain the reasoning the way a colleague at the next desk would.
Spotted something wrong, or want a tool covered? Get in touch.