Can the crew run a whole news site?
It depends on what kind of news site. This one is an aggregator: the crew reads other outlets' reporting, rewrites it in the site's own words with a credited source line, and publishes ten articles every four hours on a routine. It also built and keeps current an Election HQ with a battleground map and race profiles. If you need original reporting, people in the field, or an editor reading every story before it goes out, this setup isn't that. You would add an approval step, and the site would publish less often.
The situation
A client with a conservative audience wanted a news site that runs itself. Their readers want the day's big stories in one place, fast, with the point of view stated plainly. The client didn't want to write articles, pick photos or press publish every few hours. They wanted to set the rules once and check in when they felt like it.
The site is rightnewsrightnow.com. It covers politics, border and security, the economy, culture, world news, opinion and video.
The brief
We aren't sharing the client's messages. Here is what they asked for, as one message you can copy:
Build a news site for a conservative U.S. audience. Cover politics, border and security, the economy, culture, world news, opinion and video. Rewrite the day's big stories in our own words and credit the outlet that reported each one, with a link. Keep the front page current around the clock. Add an election section for the midterms with a map and the key races, and an email sign-up for breaking news.
How it went
- October 13The first article. The oldest article in the site's sitemap is dated October 13, 2026.
- October 17A naming fix. The Studio had named the site after its tagline instead of its brand. Lenexa.AI fixed how site names are read, so a brand written as one word now matches its folder.
- By October 18The routine. On the Schedule, a routine writes and publishes ten new articles every four hours. Each run writes the stories and Deployment republishes the site.
- October 18The client's feedback, fixed the same day. The Sites page said Preview ready for a site that was already live, and every routine publish sent another "your site is live" email. Both were fixed for every Studio.
- By October 31Election HQ. A countdown to the first polls, a battleground map, race profiles and a four-step guide to voting. Its page says it was last updated October 31.
- November 1Where it stands. 735 articles, 80 election pages, and ten new articles every four hours.
What came out
735
articles, each with a source line naming the outlet and linking to the original
Every 4 hours
ten new articles written and published, with no one pressing publish
78
races tracked in Election HQ: 14 Senate, 14 governor and 50 House
80
election pages: the map, the 78 race profiles and the how-to-vote guide
7
sections, plus search, an RSS feed and a breaking-news ticker
1
sign-up list the site runs itself, with a confirmation email and one-click unsubscribe
We didn't measure traffic, sign-ups or page speed for this note, so we don't claim any.
Election HQ
The election section is the part of the site that changes the most. In the run-up to Election Day, November 3, it opened with a countdown to the first polls, buttons to check your registration and add Election Day to your calendar, and a plain guide to voting in four steps.
The battleground map shows each state as a square of the same size, so small states are easy to tap. The rating shows as a color and as a pattern, so it still reads for someone who can't tell red from blue. It works with the keyboard too: Tab, then the arrow keys and Enter. Tabs switch between Senate, governor and House races. Each key race has its own profile page.
The articles
The crew follows a written editorial policy that the site publishes for readers. Every article names the outlet whose reporting it relied on and links to the original. It is written in the site's own words, with no copied paragraphs. It states only what the source supports, attributes claims, and labels opinion as opinion. The site's About page says plainly that it is not a primary newsroom.
The design
One look runs through every page: a bold masthead, navy and red, a breaking-news ticker and an Election HQ bar on the front page. Every section page, article page and election page uses the same parts.
The email list
The sign-up is part of the site, not a third-party widget. It appears in the page and as a pop-up a reader can close, and it says what the reader gets: only the big stories, free, with one-click unsubscribe in every email. A new subscriber gets an email with a link to confirm before they are on the list. A hidden spam-trap field sits in the form. The privacy page says the email address is used only to send the brief, and that the site sets no cookies of its own and runs no ad or analytics scripts.
What it cost
We haven't totaled the credits for this site yet, so this note doesn't give a cost. A routine uses credits every time it runs, like any other work. Ten articles every four hours is sixty articles a day, so a site like this needs a plan with room for that. What a credit buys explains how to estimate it.
What we'd do differently
All three of these were problems in the Studio, found on this project and fixed for everyone.
- Tell a published site from a preview. The Sites page said Preview ready for a site that was live. Each site now shows a Live badge and when it was last deployed.
- Email about a launch, not every publish. A routine that republishes every four hours sent a "your site is live" email each time. That email now goes out only for a first launch or a redesign.
- Keep the routine in plain words. The routine first showed the crew's own instructions. The Schedule now shows only the task, such as "Write and publish 10 new articles", and when it runs.
Run this yourself
Fill in the brackets and send it to Lenexa. She plans the site with you and sets up the routine on your Schedule.
Build a news site for [your audience] covering [your sections]. Rewrite the day's top stories from [the outlets you trust] in our own words, with a source line and a link to the original on every article. Publish [ten] new articles every [four hours] on a routine. Add an email sign-up for [breaking news / a morning brief] with a confirmation email and one-click unsubscribe. Publish an editorial policy page that explains how we credit sources.