Reno Gazette Journal 12+

In days past, local newspapers could be counted on to be truly connected to their communities. They held sway. They held those in power accountable. They served a greater good. As news organizations have been gobbled up by a corporate super structure that diminishes or eliminates local coverage, it is more than refreshing that despite its national corporate ownership, the RGJ rigorously reports on local issues. Even more stunning is that the RGJ continues to support true investigative reporting, especially where government and government actions are concerned. I live in Phoenix, AZ. Our newspaper is owned by the same company and there is rarely any substantive and investigative reporting related to state and local government. I appreciate the work of the RGJ and am a paid subscriber to their work.

Used to be the app showed the actual paper on the left side of the screen and when you clicked on the article, it would pop up on the right side of the screen where you could read it. Also, it was very easy to select “Editions” and go back and read previous versions of the newspaper. No more. After an update, it now looks like a Website search result: Pictures, headlines, videos. What is on the front page of the Reno Gazette Journal? I have no idea as the powers-that-be have decided national Top Stories should be listed first (RGJ typically has local stories on the front page but this app now shows national headlines). Further down I did identify some stories that were in the RGJ but these were yesterday’s articles, not today (there were no dates either in the head lines or in the article itself but I read a hard copy the day before so I knew it was old news). Want to call up an article from Friday’s paper? Good luck. With the previous version, you just clicked on Editions and selected the paper you want. Now, there is no option for selecting yesterday’s paper, or the day before, etc. Probably going to cancel RGJ subscription as I don’t want to spend an hour each day sifting through all the stuff they have listed - I just want to read what is in today’s paper but that doesn’t appear to be possible with the “new and improved” app.

The latest app version as combined the two different versions (e-newspaper and online internet) and is very buggy and harder to navigate! I liked the older version where you could just open the e-newspaper directly and it opened and offered to open the latest daily version. It rarely asked for your login subscription. Now, it takes multiple clicks to get there (when the app is working) and requires multiple sign ins get the e-newspaper. It apparently doesn’t keep you logged in from day to day. You also can’t refresh the download to correct blurry images and comics. Today I got a message that the app “wasn’t working properly and try again later”. I would recommend an optional setting that prioritizes the e-newspaper upon opening the app.
It also has separated the USA Today and RGJ versions which also requires additional navigation clicks to view where the old version just had the USA Today follow the RGJ e-newspaper automatically.