Austin American Statesman Reviews

As an auditory learner, I find the electronic version of the Austin American-Statesman lacking in a crucial feature: the ability to listen to articles seamlessly. Due to conditions that make prolonged reading challenging, I rely on audio options to stay informed. This feature is vital not only for me but also for visually impaired individuals.

I subscribe to three other major publications—The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times—all of which offer comprehensive audio capabilities, allowing readers to listen to entire articles. This functionality is a game-changer, enabling multitasking, such as walking, running, exercising, driving, bathing, conducting chores at home, or any number of additional tasks while staying up-to-date with the news.

To compound the issue, the Statesman app only permits users to select and listen to one paragraph at a time. This piecemeal approach is extremely frustrating and counterproductive. It defeats the purpose of combining reading and listening, making it difficult to fully engage with the content while on the go. For the Austin American-Statesman to truly meet the needs of all its readers in 2024 and beyond, it is essential to incorporate a feature that allows entire articles to be read aloud seamlessly.

It seems to me that if you pay for a subscription, you should be able to access the content. Apparently, that’s not the case with the Austin American-Statesman app. Although I have subscribed to the Statesman for the 40+ years I’ve been in Austin, now, when I try to access content they present to me via an email alert, I am not able to access the article unless I consent to let AustinAmericanStatesman share information about me and my interest with others, a violation of my privacy. To say I’m disappointed with this development is an understatement. I am now considering whether to keep my subscription or cancel it. What a shame.

I had to reload the American Statesman app when I changed iPads. The old app functions the same as the Wall Street Journal app. It worked well enough to meet my needs. The new app doesn’t. I want to read the E print version of the paper. I don’t want the articles to continually pop up in your reader mode. I don’t see any way to change the options for how AustinAmericanStatesman works. You should give us the option to reload and use the old app.

Most days the enewspaper will not load at all. When it does load, will usually freeze up at some point resulting in iPad not responding to any input. Requires reboot of iPad. Having to click thru pop up ads, in addition to having to scroll through tons of content ads, is super annoying. And then there’s the content - news articles may be published48 hours after the event being reported; example : Saturday football games reported on Monday.

There must have been a major update on 11/1 because I logged in to a whole new user interface. There is probably supposed to be an index on the left but it is all blank. When I jump to “next section” it goes to the second page. Click on an individual article and it shows a skinny little preview along the right. Print function does not work. Changing settings does not help. Is anyone developing actually using AustinAmericanStatesman ? This is on an iPad Air with the latest updates to your app.

Yes, that’s right—the Austin “American” Statesman uses an overseas call center to manage their subscriptions! After using this subscription for over 4 months, I decided it wasn’t worth my time. To cancel my subscription was an exercise in frustration. When I finally found the well-buried and hidden “cancel subscription” link, I got a “this feature not available at this time” message, with a telephone number to call for assistance. That number connected me to the overseas call center. It took several minutes to cancel the subscription, but only after insisting I did not want to transfer it to another family member or friend. Typical of this subscription, to be expected of a news feed filled with ads disguised as news stories, video news links that lock you into 15-second ads you can’t skip or back up from, old, repeated news articles, and those irritating links that trick you into accidentally linking into other ads. This is a BAD news ap!

Disappointed in AustinAmericanStatesman. After I read each story it takes me back to the top and I have to scroll all the way down. I just read another story that referred to tweets being sent by people and every place where there should have been an image of the tweet being referred to there was an ad. It won't let me scroll through different sections of the paper. I like the version I loaded onto my iPad so much better.....I could even pull up the actual page of the newspaper instead of just these small samples of stories. Come on Statesman...... You are better than this! I know you are.....

We have been subscribers for nearly 20 years, starting with the paper edition and then the digital edition for the last 7 years. It is difficult to stomach the never ending left skew of this publication. You make no effort to provide any balance in your reporting and many of the hit pieces are just completely unhinged against anything the right says, does, or thinks. We often discuss terminating our subscription. At this point, I read the sports page for UT sports news and scan the front page section. The rest is not worthy of our time. You asked for feedback.

I must ask why if I’m already logged in I am I constantly being sold and questioned and prompted for responses. I just want to read what’s on the phone. I don’t understand why the links, though handy, are in this royal blue color that is impossible to read on my iPhone. If I try to swipe and expand the text so I can read it, no go. It is absolutely infuriating. Admittedly, I am a chimp with most tech, but the iPhone has become one of the most generic devices ever made. Help me out here!

Well, I’ll take it back about the blue links. A friend of mine has shown me how to increase text size which allows the blue color to be readable. Ahem…“Sorry”, said the newly enlightened chimp. Hook ‘em.

**6/7/24. Renewing my 1-star rating for the American Statesman & my determination that it is good when it works & Horrible when it has an issue.

**I only read the Statesman OFFLINE on my iPad. For the last WEEK or so I download for Offline reading but when I disconnect from the internet & go to the paper for Offline reading most or a large block of the printed material vanishes when the page is accessed. Go past the page, go back to the page & the printed material shows for a split second & vanishes again. In addition one edition was so fuzzy that the entire paper after the first page was unreadable Offline. This does NOT happen with the USA Today.

**Two settings, 1 for downloading the entire paper at one time & the other is that only the pages accessed are downloaded. I usually use the download the entire paper at once setting. Over the week what aI have found is that I have to go to each individual page, a very time consuming process. You can’t just go to the page, you have to scroll to the bottom & wait until the last line is no longer fuzzy, even then there might be a page or two still with a problem.

**It seems that over the WEEK no one has noticed a problem or they can’t fix it.

I have a subscription. I switched from home delivery after tiring of having the paper thrown somewhere other than near the front door, if at all. Now I’m overseas with a slow connection and despite having the content downloaded, can’t read it because the resolution past page two is so blurry.
Additionally, the ap does not recognize my login, which is saved on my device. I’m about out of patience!

Seems like the articles online are limited and repressed sign in seems to be required every few months AND , most problematic, they give you a couple of guest subscribers with your online subscription and those “guest” accounts get mysteriously deleted a couple times a year with much hassle associated with re-enrollment— at the end of the day , this is not award winning journalism you’re getting so paying for it and getting bombarded with ads seems a bit much , coupled with the access issues it’s really not a bargain or worthwhile

The new app is fine for web-type reading but if you want to read a print facsimile , not so good. Often the print is blurry. It says the internet connection ismdown but it seems to work fine for all the other apps on my iPad so it is more likely a server problem.
And then there is the comics page. For some bizarre reason I can never get it to flip to second page of the comics! It's as if page D5 does not exist. It consistently jumps from D5 to D7 skipping D6!
All in all, I like the old app better.

The latest app update has a few problems. I like reading the paper in the e newspaper format. This latest app starts with the two options side by side with a pop up ad from that must be closed each time. Incidentally, I have vowed never to use this law firm that buys ad space. Even after selecting the e newspaper option and choosing it in my settings and closing the other display option, it will switch back. Please let me configure it in a way that will always open in the e newspaper format and stay there similar to how the old app functioned. If you want to see how an e newspaper app that is ideal, look at the New York Post e paper. Exactly like the print and works so well, no pop ups and other disfunction.

Had to use AustinAmericanStatesman today as the American Statesmen did not deliver my paper today. What a waste of my time. AustinAmericanStatesman is extremely slow and does not contain the latest news. There is NO news on AustinAmericanStatesman for the local Longhorn football game for tomorrow. Or any Longhorn sports for that matter. After over 30 years of being a loyal subscriber I am finally at the point of canceling. The customer service for this news organization is poor and seemingly non-existent. I will have better luck getting my news from other local sources, at no cost, and no frustrations with something that is so simple by today’s standards. Advertisers are foolish to spend their ad dollars with this organization as they are not dependable.

It allows me the opportunity to browse news article as the article was printed among newsworthy articles. AustinAmericanStatesman is stilted when I try to move around from one article to another or move from horizontal to vertical orientation but it manages. It’s much better than AI telling what I ought to read or avoid.

I have enjoyed the Statesman for decades, even more digitally than the old hard copy. The writers and editing are great. I wish I didn’t have to sign in so often, and that the arrows to turn pages still worked on my iPad. Those are my only complaints!

I have read the Statesman since I was six. I am now 76. I have lived in LA, Stanford California, Durham NC and the North Carolina, Houston and the North Shore of Oahu before coming home.
The investigative reporting of the Statesman is top
Notch. I love Micheal Barnes and -Herman. I get the digital daily and the Sunday plus Show World.
Austin needs to have its own top-notch newspaper plus connection to the national news. I will keep subscribers and hope that people who move into the Austin area will subscribe to the Statesman in order to learn about their new remarkable home and the things it loves like sports.

Smooth. Logical. Yay! The improvements in using AustinAmericanStatesman since the buyout of the Statesman several years ago are dramatic! Easy navigation with ads enough out of the way that you can digest articles without constant worry. The paper has good enough focus on local but not as much investigative content as needed but AustinAmericanStatesman works very well.

As a displaced Austinite, I appreciate being able to read what's happening in the City of the Violet Crown. Navigating the site can be tricky at first but with patience it becomes manageable.

Modified my rating from 4 to 5 stars. The late 2020 revamp eased navigation considerably, and the new layout is much cleaner.