About itsy news
Honest headlines. Concise news. Zero tracking. Free forever.
Why I built it
I'm Chris, the one-person team behind itsy news, built (almost literally) out of my garage in the Youngstown, Ohio area. After years of building for the web, I got tired of news that was slow, clickbaity, and riddled with paywalls, trackers, and endless filler. So I built the site I wanted to use: fast, clean, and respectful of your time and privacy.
What you'll get
- Headlines that reflect the story -- no clickbait.
- Concise news so you can get the gist in seconds.
- Source-first links so you can read the full story if you want.
- No paywalls, no ads, no popups, no nags.
Privacy, by design
itsy news does not collect personal data about you. No analytics, no cookies, and no third‑party scripts or trackers from me. The site is served through Cloudflare Pages, which may process basic request data (like IP address) for security and caching. I don't sell or share data, ever.
How it's funded
itsy news is a free public service. If you'd like to support it, you can donate one‑time or monthly via Stripe. You can also choose from curated charities and decide how to split your donation between itsy and the charity. No intrusive donation prompts, just an option for those who want to help.
Donate and split with charity →
Payments are processed by Stripe; I never see your full card number. You can cancel monthly support anytime.
About me
I'm Chris Clower, a web developer since 2001 (started tinkering back in'94). After industry layoffs in early 2025, I made itsy news my full‑time work. I'm a father of four, and I'm building this to support my family while keeping the site fast, calm, and useful for everyone. I'm also open to full‑time roles or contract work.
GitHub: github.com/clowerweb
How it's built
itsy news runs on Vue (Nuxt) and is hosted on Cloudflare Pages. A separate PHP 8 + Docker pipeline generates headlines and articles, optimizes images, builds the site statically, and deploys to the edge. There's no server or database to query on page load, just fast, cached pages.
Why it's fast
- Static generation + edge caching
- Lean JavaScript and CSS with aggressive minification
- Smart image optimization
- Client‑side routing for snappy navigation
Most pages hit a 100% Google Lighthouse score in an incognito window (browser extensions can affect results).
Editorial approach
- Headlines match the content with zero sensationalism.
- Articles are concise and link back to original sources.
- Feedback and corrections are welcome.
Have a suggestion or spot an issue? Reach out via GitHub or your preferred channel.