First of all, I am grateful for having an online source for local news. Having said that, I believe that there is news other than the Cardinals. I know that it creates views, but many people want to know what's actually happening in our area. One thing that irritates me are the house spotlight features. Taking pictures of garden trolls or a family heirloom does not express the architectural merit of a house. Get a new home feature photographer/writer if you are going to do these type of stories. Do you guys have spellcheck? In this day and age there is no excuse to misspell words. It's as if the writers were in high school finishing their homework in the hallway. I know investigative reporting costs money, but I deserve content after watching 15 seconds of a Bommarito commercial. I sometimes read stories where I can't figure out the chronology or connection of events. They are stories and you are supposed to be storytellers. Missouri is supposed to to have a great J school, get some interns who want to bolster their resume. As much as I whine about STL Today, it is the first thing I check, after my emails, in the morning. It's all we have.

Update: Every time I stop by the app to see if it’s any better, if I can read even one story, I am reminded how horrible it is — and I think the paper loses another opportunity for me to add to their readership numbers, to improve their metrics, to see the advertising, and to support their writers by participating. They won’t get $26/month from me for just one interest, and I wonder: Where do they make the most money? Digital subscriptions or advertising? They, obviously, want both. How many people have just walked away, taking their eyeballs with them? I pay for great journalism, local and national, and I want to support the hometown paper and its writers (particularly the great Derrick Goold) … but $26/month is insane. (And is it a month or one time cost? I get confused.) I get digital editions of WaPost and NYT for much less. I don’t live in STL or the region, so I have specific interests: this case Cardinals, Blues, St Louis City FC … let me pay a fair price for these. On top of the economics, the digital app remains horrid in so many ways, including intrusive advertising and stunningly poor usability. Here is what the big wigs need to know: Instead of driving me to you, you’re driving me away. I want to support you, I want to pay you a fair price, but your economics and app make it impossible.

First of all, I agree with the negative reviews of the latest update. It is difficult to view on my I phone 6s. The old version using a text-based list was much easier to use and quicker. I could swiftly view the articles and get to what I wanted. The large picture graphics in the new update align with many of the more modern news sites but I find it, like so many things in life these days, to be dumbed down. I still take the print edition and totally prefer it over digital. Interestingly, I found that if I sign up for the digital edition I get my delivered paper at a lower monthly rate. Go figure. But it shows the power of those annoying digital ads - that’s where the money is. I will continue to read the print version and use the digital edition for late breaking updates, all the while keeping in mind the liberal bias in the news articles and the ridiculous lack of any alternative viewpoints on the editorial page.

The app crashed when redirecting me to write a review, so I sought to leave this feedback… I am thankful to read reporting from our region and I loved that they offered a version that is typeset just like a physical newspaper. In fact it was a major selling point for me. This changed, however, e-edition app was rebranded a year or two ago. Now the app will return to the full screen after I zoom to make the text a comfortable size. This leads to a constant and infuriating battle with the app as I try to get the day’s news. Clicking on the article is a slight improvement, however the 3 text options also make it difficult to get the text to a comfortable size, constant insertion of ads make me love my place or result in an accidental touch. The software used to reformat the article struggles to place pull quotes, emphasize sub headed sections, and does not embed the photos where they should be. If any devs are reading this- please fix the e-edition zoom issue! It is all that I really want from this app (to have an electronic newspaper!). This problem with that feature has been enough for me to consider cancelling my subscription.