This is an updated and revised review which I feel is appropriate following a very informative genuine response from the developer. My original review complained of annoying ads in linked third party articles rendering many of them unreadable or sometimes being directed to articles that were behind a paywall. I noted in that review that these ad problems are in no way unique to Ground News and that Ground News app itself is an ad-free experience but that I felt it hampered the reader experience. The developer replied with a genuine and sympathetic response but clarified some additional things including the fact that they do not in any way profit from popups. I learned from the developer that there are ways of filtering and adjusting your feed so that paywall articles can be screened. Also, the developer indicates that an external browser function is available to better deal with pop ups and such like. I’ll be trying out these features and settings but overall I am very satisfied with what Ground News does, how it helps when it comes to news biases and the sheer breadth of content. It is clearly highly customizable - perhaps in a way that I didn’t fully understand at first. And of course, any developer who takes the time to reach out personally to address a concern is serious about doing the right thing and their product.
Hi Dan, thanks for your review and feedback. I completely understand your frustration with paywalls and ads. You are correct that the articles can be quite busy. In full transparency, we don't make any money off of ads and our sole revenue stream is subscriptions. However, we recently created an external browser that gives our readers a better news reading experience. To use this feature, click on the golden icon in the top right corner of an article. It makes for a less choppy news reading experience for articles that are inundated with unfortunate pop ups. You can also use the Sort & Filter tool to filter out any articles that are behind a paywall. I hope these suggestions help improve your experience.In terms of what Ground News offers, we hope that the bias and factuality ratings, ownership information, personalized news feeds, Blindspot feed, and My News Bias data, provide a better way to read the news. These tools help subscribers to critically engage with the news and see their own biases, as well as better understand who is writing about what events, and what language is being used to create certain narratives. If you have any other feedback or suggestions for us, we'd love to hear them - please feel free to reach out feedback@ground.news to share your thoughts.