Report updated Jun 10, 2026
St. Louis News from KSDK
For st. Louis area residents seeking local news, weather forecasts, and community-specific information.
St. Louis News from KSDK is a well-regarded news app that is completely free. With a 4.7/5 rating from 35.8K reviews, it maintains solid user satisfaction. Users particularly appreciate reliability of local weather alerts, though static content feed remains a common concern.
What is St. Louis News from KSDK?
KSDK News is a local broadcast news and weather app for St. Louis residents, available on iOS and Android.
Users hire the app for verified local situational awareness and severe weather alerts that national aggregators cannot replicate.
Current Momentum
v50.8 · 1w ago
Intense- Expanded morning show start time.
- Shipped general performance improvements.
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
What Are The Key Features?
Automated push notifications for severe weather events based on user location
Live broadcast of newscasts and local events directly within the app
Cast live streams and video clips to external TV devices via integrated casting protocols
Real-time tracking of local school status updates
How much does it cost?
- Free ad-supported access to all news, weather, and video content
The app operates as a free, ad-supported extension of the KSDK broadcast brand, monetizing via display and video ad inventory.
Who Built It?
Tegna
Delivering localized news and weather intelligence to US communities through a network of high-performance regional broadcast affiliates.
Portfolio
13
Apps
What other apps does Tegna make?
Cleveland News from WKYC
Charlotte News from WCNC
Indianapolis News from 13 WTHR
KARE 11 Minneapolis-St. Paul
Greensboro News from WFMY
WFAA - News from North Texas
Explore the full Tegna report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by Tegna.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 100 of 35.8K total reviews analyzed
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a excited sentiment. Users appreciate reliability of local weather alerts, but report static content feed.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for St. Louis News from KSDK?
Where is it available?
Localized markets (1)
How's The News Market?
How does it evolve in the News market?
KSDK News holds the #158 Free position in the US News & Magazines category, with a 4.77 rating on iOS. The decline in chart rank signals that the current broadcast-first content strategy is losing ground to algorithmic aggregators.
Rank progression
1 active ranking tracked — 30-day window
Which niche is St. Louis News from KSDK in?
to stay informed on local news and weather
Explore the full Sports News Aggregators niche
Every app in this space — 148 tracked, the niche's live rankings, and Marlvel's editorial take on the job-to-be-done.
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
With over 1.3 million reviews and a high-velocity release cadence, NewsBreak dominates the local news aggregation space by prioritizing hyper-local content discovery over traditional broadcast-first models.
Differentiators
- Aggregates hyper-local community updates and neighborhood alerts beyond traditional broadcast news station coverage
- Employs a high-frequency release strategy with 25 updates in six months to rapidly iterate on discovery algorithms
- Focuses on personalized news feeds that prioritize user location data over static broadcast programming schedules
Head to head
The target app must pivot from a static broadcast-first experience to a more dynamic, community-aware feed to prevent NewsBreak from capturing the local news intent of its core audience.
Contenders(3)
A direct competitor in the local broadcast space that mirrors the target app's core value proposition of local news and weather.
Differentiators
- Prioritizes traditional broadcast-style news delivery with a focus on local investigative reporting segments
- Offers a simplified, utility-focused interface designed for quick access to weather radar and traffic
A strong contender that leverages cable provider infrastructure to deliver localized, high-quality video storytelling.
Differentiators
- Focuses on long-form local storytelling rather than just breaking news headlines and weather alerts
- Leverages deep integration with cable provider subscriber data to offer exclusive regional content access
Represents the gold standard for local station-based apps with high-quality live video integration and consistent feature updates.
Differentiators
- Integrates high-production-value live news streaming that outperforms standard text-heavy news aggregators
- Maintains a consistent release cadence that ensures stability and feature parity across major iOS updates
Same space(2)
A high-authority peer that competes for the user's daily news attention span.
Differentiators
- Offers deep-dive investigative journalism and editorial content that local apps cannot replicate
- Utilizes a sophisticated subscription-based monetization model that prioritizes high-value reader engagement
A major national news peer that provides a broader context for breaking news stories.
Differentiators
- Provides national-level breaking news coverage that complements local reporting with broader context
- Features a robust video-on-demand library that covers national political and global events
New entrants(2)
Captures the 'real-time' news intent by providing direct audio access to emergency services.
Differentiators
- Delivers raw, unfiltered audio feeds from emergency scanners that provide immediate local situational awareness
- Offers a low-friction, audio-first experience that bypasses the need for traditional news production
An emerging threat that dominates the specialized niche of real-time emergency mapping and safety alerts.
Differentiators
- Provides real-time, crowdsourced wildfire tracking that offers higher utility than standard weather apps
- Focuses on a single, critical use case (public safety) to drive high user retention during emergencies
Compare St. Louis News from KSDK against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for St. Louis News from KSDK
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Trusted local broadcast brand identity sustains high user trust
- Severe weather alert infrastructure drives high-frequency daily opens
- Integrated TV casting extends session duration on large screens
Critical Frictions
- Static content feed lacks community-driven engagement loops
- Declining category rank indicates slowing organic install velocity
- Ad-only monetization limits revenue per active user
Growth Levers
- Integrate crowdsourced community alerts to increase daily retention
- Expand school-closing utility to year-round community event tracking
- Develop B2B partnerships with local businesses for sponsored content
Market Threats
- NewsBreak's discovery algorithm captures local news intent
- Watch Duty's emergency mapping siphons high-intent safety traffic
- Declining chart rank reduces organic new-user discovery
What are the next best moves?
Ship community-driven alert integration because static feeds lack engagement → increase daily session frequency
User requests for social-style engagement indicate a need for dynamic content to compete with aggregators.
Trade-off: Deprioritize the planned UI refresh for the weather radar — community engagement is a higher retention lever.
Pivot to year-round community event tracking because school-closing utility is seasonal → maximize ad-inventory year-round
High-utility seasonal features drive spikes in DAU, but lack year-round retention value.
Trade-off: Pause development of new video-on-demand categories — event tracking has higher daily utility.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's reliance on broadcast-first content is not a weakness but a high-trust barrier that aggregators cannot replicate, provided the team pivots to community-aware feeds rather than chasing aggregator-style automation.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Crowdsourced community alerts (available in NewsBreak but absent here)
- Real-time emergency mapping (available in Watch Duty but absent here)
Key Takeaways
KSDK News maintains a strong brand moat through weather utility, but the static content feed is losing the battle for daily attention to algorithmic aggregators, so the PM must prioritize community-driven engagement to stabilize retention.
Where Is It Heading?
Mixed Signals
The local news market is consolidating around dynamic, community-aware platforms that prioritize location-based discovery over static programming. KSDK News remains advantaged by its trusted brand, but the current maintenance-mode update cadence leaves it exposed to faster-moving competitors, so revenue growth hinges on increasing session frequency via community features.
Declining category rank (currently #158) suggests the broadcast-first content strategy is failing to capture new-user intent against modern aggregators.
High-frequency weather alerts continue to drive daily app opens, providing a stable foundation for testing new community-driven engagement features.