My hometown’s leading newspaper launched a new iPad app yesterday. It’s called Today’s Paper from The Austin American-Statesman and it’s beyond terrible. It’s not just a terrible iPad newspaper app, it’s an embarrassing app to even have published in the App Store. I’m amazed any sensible publisher has put their name on this.
I should’ve realized how useless this ‘paper’ was when attempting to take a look at the app when it launched yesterday. That in itself was a farcically bad experience. It went something like this:
– I run an iPad site, do iPad app reviews, and especially enjoy iPad newspaper and magazine editions. So I was excited to see a new iPad app from Austin’s leading newspaper. I’m not a current print or online Statesman subscriber but I was a very keen potential iPad subscriber.
– I installed the app and immediately found that I could not so much as tap to view a single article before hitting a roadblock. To view anything at all in the app you have to sign in as an existing subscriber or take on a new subscription. I’ve been covering iPad newspaper and magazine apps for over two years now and I cannot recall a single other title that refuses to show any content at all before demanding your money. Great start, and it only gets (much) worse from there.
– I knew I couldn’t sign in so I hit the Subscribe button and chose the only available option – the $9.99 per month subscription. I tried this several times and got a variety of error messages that all seemed to imply it was just not possible to buy anything on the iPad App Store. Just for laughs, I went to the App Store, installed an iPad magazine, and bought an issue of it with zero errors or problems.
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