New Hampshire Union Leader

This app has a lot of problems that aren't being addressed

This app makes you play this ridiculous game of tapping the skip advertisement on the opening screen. Sometimes I’m tapping this for a full minute in an effort to get to the paper I paid for that also has advertisements. Zooming in on articles is also difficult as the paper resets and doesn’t hold the zoom. Page turning is also challenging and sometimes you’re forced to use the arrow buttons to turn the page. The previous app was much better.

Since putting the blue screen with the Daniel Webster quote it is a project to open up to the newspaper.

Makes it easy to read paper from anywhere in the world

The old version defaulted to downloading the daily edition so you could read it offline. Page turning was like a “newspaper”, duh! The new version is just another darn news site with adds and the ability to view a, eVersion of the paper. It keeps on checking the internet and out of the blue, will reload the page you are reading. Unlike the old version, if you, like me, don’t read the whole paper in one shot, and go check email or something, when you come back, you need to start on page 1 again. The old version picked up where you left off. The stupid little arrows in the upper right corner to change pages are WAY too small. In the center top, instead of the section & page, like B3, it shows page 4 of21. Doesn’t help when you want to go to page directly. The blue triangles on evert article are unexplained and annoying. I liked reading a local NH paper, but they ruined it. By by.

Horrible reading experience in the new app version released Feb. 2024. The newsfeed version has so many ads in the middle of the pages that it is annoying to try to use it. The E-version has many bugs which cause it to crash when navigating from page to page, or it just simply will not change pages despite using either the arrows or PAGES. Changing pages in the app causes it to crash, or to stop changing pages. I’ve deleted and reinstalled the app twice without any improvements. It is annoying to have to give up on the app and go back to reading the news in the browser, but at least I can read all the pages and it doesn’t crash. Shame on you, Union Leader, for putting out an app that doesn’t work properly for your customers.

Previous version was easier to move around within each edition. If I wanted to save an article or an obit, I tapped on it, and could save it as text or as the original version in the paper itself. New e-edition makes it difficult to save an article in a usable format for future reference. Sunday news being published on Saturday means it’s Friday’s news. Sunday news is just that- Sunday news not Friday news. Going downhill fast.

The new format for the digital edition is terrible. I was able in the past to just swipe from one page to another. Now I have to go through several steps for the next page. I wasn’t given the chance to retain the previous format.

As of Jan 2024 there has been a significant app update with a total UX redesign and new features like audio transcriptions. Unfortunately, this redesign is merely a way for the app to serve targeted ads to the user. Instead of just seeing ads featured in the print version (which I am fine with), the app now serves up targeted ads spliced in each article you click on. Additionally, the app is slower to swipe between pages on the e-reader. Probably because of all the bandwidth spent loading ads to further monetize and disrupt my experience. It feels like my subscription has been watered down significantly and the value reduced. Hope the newfound ad revenue is worth the subscription churn from users like me, union leader.

I’ve been a home delivery subscriber for 25 years. The paper is well organized, written with clarity, and mindful of varying opinions. And , the electronic edition is convenient on days when it snows, like today.