USA TODAY: US & Breaking News Reviews

by Dru27

I’m independent and like objective news sources. That’s increasingly hard to find these days, other outlets I appreciate because they state their leanings. I wish the news didn’t lean a certain way, but at least they put the proper disclaimer on it. Like a movie properly rating itself so you understand what you are about to view. You and other news outlets should strongly consider this course of action. It’s disingenuous and misleading to act objective while simultaneously pushing an obviously liberal/progressive agenda. Your editorial board and contributors are liberal leaning at the very least. I’ve seen you post opposing opinions, but overwhelmingly the opinions expressed here are liberal and it doesn’t take a conservative or trump supporter to see that, of which I am neither. I personally feel we all have a bias of some sort, but some are more willing to address and correct it than others. I personally actively try to dismantle my own arguments regularly to see if they can withstand basic scrutiny. Perhaps your network should consider doing the same, or simply state your bias. That would be a good first step toward better serving the people who consume your content.

by Magneticnorth124789

Years ago the USA Today App was a solid news delivery platform that incorporated national, international, and local news into a UI that functioned flawlessly. Today, after many updates to the UI it is now one of the most dysfunctional apps with a user experience that delivers the maximum amount of annoyance. While its AP and broad network content remains, that content is buried beneath a confused, glitchy interface that prioritizes junk trending articles and video advertisements that take over the screen and audio. Moving through the platform, trying to uncover the quality content, and reading articles is a joyless and even torturous run through an obstacle course of “features” that fight for attention and keep the words of the news articles jumping around the screen out of view. The very idea of reading - which is the central activity of news readers is insulted by a UI that has the design markers of a member of the zero attention span Snapchat Generation. No participation trophy for you, USATODAY is a failure. A failure which gets worse and less content prioritized with each quarterly update.

by The True Spork

USA TODAY used to be my go to app for news. Fast and good and usually no VPN necessary. Slowly we have drifted away from each other. They need to make money, which is cool, me too, I understand. However now like 80% of the content is for subscribers only and so I have to scroll and scroll to find something readable. Problem is that the quality with USA TODAY was never that high anyway unlike Time and Forbes etc., who themselves constantly make spell check errors and language usage errors. Hey me too, I feel for you guys but nobody’s paying me not to do that. They’re not worth paying for either, because well, nobody reports news anymore either, they just editorialize. I don’t want to give money to have my head molded when I can get that anywhere else for free. Are there even editors anymore? Ah well. I imagine they get some money from all those ads pretending to be news articles. And the ads. Off the soap-box. I have no need for finger exercises so bye bye USA TODAY, I wish you the best. Delete.

by LifeOnTop24

Really trying hard to push their paywall on users. Seems like over half of its content is for “subscribers only” these days. Never used to be like that. If you’re going to create content exclusively for subscribers it should only be that that is not relevant news to the average consumer. I find it ridiculous that there is even one piece of news blocked pertaining to COVID-19. Crazy but USA Today has put COVID articles behind its paywall. You would think regardless of the contents, COVID articles, should be available to EVERYONE. American corporate greed shining through hard. I do not use any social media because I believe it has been the stagnant slow death of the world. Literally useless. People who don’t receive their “news” from social media should have FREE access to whatever is considered news these days. I would hardly pay a dollar for the subscribers only content per year let alone 50 dollars plus for a year. Absolutely insane. Who knew in 2021 you would have to “struggle” to obtain relevant news without paying. Do better USA Today. I used to love USATODAY. Now I despise every time I have to scroll through multiple subscribers only articles to reach access to free ones. Get a clue and separate the subscribers content elsewhere. Don’t waste non-subscribers time.

by Mclnpatt

This used to be my favorite app. I would spend every morning over coffee reading many of the articles, which were well written, with just about the best political position. Certainly not conservative, but also not too liberal.
Awhile back they offered the opportunity to pay a monthly charge not to be bothered by advertisements. I didn’t do that, mainly because with internet, television, and all the other related charges I felt there was already more money goring out then good coming in. I could, and did deal with the ads.
Now, the next step is not letting me open the articles I want. More and more I get a banner that says I must be a member, and pay money, to read that article. That doesn’t set right with me. I’m sure the response is going to be that they need money to operate. I’m sure there is some truth to that, the same truth that all CEO’s of large corporations, like Facebook, Amazon’s, Microsoft, need enough money to buy half a dozen huge houses around the country. Not a good path we are going down.
Besides, the pure magic of the internet has a lot to do with it originally being developed by the common nerd, for common people, and the good of civilization. True news is one of the most important aspects of the net. It shouldn’t be limited for profit.

by Erpwood

It used to be my first stop, my number one app for literally years. Then they started charging a subscription to give you access to some articles, that was fine, I understand why. Some of the articles seemed great and I did consider subscribing, but it was just way too expensive especially when compared to other premium news apps. Still, I generally kept it as my first stop. Then, over the past year or so they have become increasingly aggressive about pushing the subscription service. Pop up’s and push overs on almost every article, every time. It’s like playing one of those annoying freemium games where it’s interrupted with an ad every 5 seconds. And here’s the funny thing: I actually didn’t mind the actual advertisements on the site ever, like the real ads. They had an ok mix. But It’s the constant house ads that are relentlessly pushing the subscription service that has made USATODAY unusable. I have several news apps on my phone and I pay for two, but after the way USATODAY has evolved I would never shell out for it. Sentimental perhaps, because I used to enjoy the print edition when I traveled more, and I read USATODAY every day for literally years. But I was sad to delete it today.

by KLstil

I've had USATODAY for many years. While it's gotten prettier to look at, it's gotten less useful as time goes on. Absolutely every time I use it, USATODAY shuts down on me no less than three times before I've scrolled all the way through the Top Stories. Also, there are now paid advertisements that look like stories, right within the midst of the real news. If you're not careful, you're actually reading advertisements from sources like The Motley Fool and others. This is deceptive, and rather cheap of USA Today to fund their app this way. Other news apps do not take this approach. On the whole, USA Today app doesn't always have the latest news. I'll read a story from another news source on Twitter that was posted several hours ago, and I'll head to the USA Today app for more information, only to see they haven't even written about it yet. It's usually there by the end of the day, but it's half a day behind other news outlets. On the whole, USA Today is a pretty app that doesn't always work, has paid advertising peppered throughout their real stories and is usually behind other apps in posting the latest news.

by Jahobi

This used to be a great newspaper with reporters that gave unbiased opinions. Now it seems that they view the world through jaded lenses. I just read an article titled Canadians boycott American product. Let’s start with the title, “Canadians” a plural! Yet only one Canadian was named in the article outside of “other Canadians” what f@&$”);! Other Canadians?! How many of said Canadians?! What impact is this having on the U S economy?! How bout some f,?!&$@ facts instead of a one sentence quote from a small business woman in rural Canada? If it’s national news give me a national story with definitive facts that have numbers and dates and not words like greatly or negatively! Tell me how negative, tell me what it’s going to do! I like the news because I like to stay informed. I don’t give two s$&@! About one reporters opinion. If you have an experts opinion I want to know why their an expert and why their the ones I should listen too. And I swear I don’t care about a neighbor from down the streets opinion when it comes to national news unless there some documented expert on the situation that may be unfolding!!!!

by DonTheDude

I can remember seeing my first USA Today newspaper back in the early 80’s when I was a young guy in the Air Force. It was so innovative. We always had a copy in our break room. It was always nice seeing som info from my home state. USA Today has changed.
I’m at the point now that I’m thinking I need to part ways. For one, I’m really frustrated with USATODAY . It plays video ads that I can’t stop. It pushes subscriber only articles which I don’t want to see since I’m not a subscriber. It nags me to subscribe. It repeats articles in the grid which wastes my time. USATODAY lose my context and completely reloads when I switch to answer a text message and come back.
Secondly, the article editing is pretty bad. I see grammar and punctuation errors frequently. It looks like the writers do their own editing.
Thirdly, USA Today has lost its focus on news and has become more of an editorial dispenser. This is not a problem unique to USA Today in 2021. The news media in general has lost its ability to inform and has instead tried to become an influencer, bordering on just straight propaganda. Ironically, I have to work harder at getting to facts in 2021 than I did in 1982.
Sorry USA Today, you just aren’t excellent at anything these days. Why should you get my eyeballs?

by Thgt3

Number one most frustrating issue: every time you set the phone down or switch apps and come back the story you were reading scrolls back to the top of the article. Super annoying and serves absolutely no purpose. Can’t imagine this would be hard to correct, so please make this stop. I beg you.

Second, and this is a compound issue: the main news feed refreshes too often. In the past, the top stories section was just that. Just the most newsworthy stories of the moment. Now, you have packed seemingly every story on the platform all into the top stories section. Well, I could live with that except as I work my way through the never ending list of articles, USATODAY refreshes the feed every so often making me lose my place. To add to the nuisance, all the stories are now in a different order so I can’t really ever get back to where I was.

Please pick one or the other: 1) go back to the perfectly logical way you had it before where the top stories were indeed the top stories and I will go into the individual sections for more depth on what I want more of, or 2) turn off the occasional refresh and let me do that whenever I feel the need. It’s fine if it refreshes when you open USATODAY , just not during an active session.

by 750360000

Love the writing. The selection of articles gives an excellent cross section of the morning news.
BUT, USATODAY itself seems to have been forgotten. I start to read the articles and leave 1 or 2 to come back to while read on. I might be half way through the top stories and suddenly USATODAY refreshes and I’m back at the top with 1 or 2 new articles but the ones I planned to come back to may be gone. And I have to read though the whole top stories page again to hopefully find what I missed. Some (more often than I would expect, the stories I planned to revisit are gone) of stories I never find again. You have been my go to morning read but, I you’ve just about broken me. There are just too many alternatives to go too. Simple fix is put an update button at the top to give control over the timing of updates.

Oh, and this nickname thing is very frustrating!!!!

by Midwest_Surf_Guy

I use it every day multiple times a day. I like it except for the way they have implemented the videos where they play an advertisement before the video. The problem is they play the same advertisement segments over and over! After a while you get so sick of hearing them that you would never by what they are advertising! The current most annoying thing is that they are slow to show the ads they have in static text articles. So you are reading along and then the text suddenly scrolls down so that you are in a different part of the article! It’s simply maddening! So now you have to scroll back up a screen or two to find your place! It’s kind of like a while back when the ads would hang and you couldn’t watch the video! I am not sure if the problem is my slow internet it their bad programming skills! When they are adding the ad content that is off the screen they SHOULD NOT CHANGE THE SCROLL!
I am guessing that the guys programming this do not use it on their iPhone otherwise they would not make such an obvious mistake.

by Josh2213

I have used the USA Today News app for quite awhile now(many years). I typically don’t write reviews but my once favorite news app is going down hill. The new subscriber option is quite annoying, and gates information behind a subscription. I have also noticed the article titles to be very “click baity” which is a sad turn for USATODAY. It’s fine to have exclusive articles but the annoying part is there currently is not a way to filter subscriber options so all the articles are thrown together on one feed (public and subscriber only reads). If you don’t sub, you will have a lot more limited reading. Again a simple filter option for non-subscribers would fix this.

I know many others have the same complaint and I hope USA Today realizes their recent faults in updates and changes direction of their app.

by Newshound69

I have enjoyed reading the news on the USA Today app for years. Recently the experience changed when some content was blocked and available only to subscribers. I’m sympathetic to the challenges faced by the print media and decided to go with a digital subscription especially since I like USA Today so much. That’s where the frustration started. Once I paid for my subscription naturally I expected to no longer have access blocked as only being available to subscribers but sure enough that is exactly what happened no matter what I did. Even after signing in. Since it was the weekend I only had the chat option for customer support and their suggestion was to call customer support on Monday. So I called customer support on Monday and they told me the same thing - can’t find my account, despite me having a receipt from Apple proving I paid for my digital subscription 48 hours. Their suggestion? Call back in 24 hours! Not sure how that’s going to help. The lack of helpful customer service (precipitated by the lack of a seamless process in 2021 to recognize when a reader has converted to a paid subscriber) holds me back from being able to rate higher than average. Please help!

by Nadmoorv

1. If you want consumers to look at multiple items why do you force them to see the same ad over and over. Can't you get more than one advertiser. Does the advertiser think seeing the same ad 6 times an hour helps? 2. Why such big pictures for the stories, it is news not advertising, you should not be promoting the item so much, give a clear item title and I'll pick the ones I'll read. You can list many items more concisely that way. 3. Too many items are in multiple sections. 95% of the stories should be in their section; sports, tech, money, etc. only. Or else do not have sections at all. 4. The new revision makes it harder to quickly update the stock market report. 5. Please restrain your self on videos. I'd like this to be much more like a newspaper. Write clear accurate items I can read. Yes I know videos are neat but I can get them a thousand other places. 6. If you can not restrain yourself on videos, make a video only section

by Hotdude724

Your paper makes huge profits selling ads for the online readers. Now you are forcing people to pay $4.99 more per month to read the best stories. Disgusting for you to go into this direction. Many people need the news everyday and on fixed incomes and can’t afford to pay for news. I have to travel a lot for my job . For the past 12 years I get up, and start my day by reading your newspaper so I can stay current on what is happening in the world. I have purchased dozens of products from the ads. Now I am retired on a budget. Going forward I will stop reading your paper and read Google News and another paper daily. Thanks for being loyal to your customers!
Joe Reuber
Enon, Ohio

by BronzeDragon

I like USA Today’s general news application on the Apple iPhone. USA Today has started to charge a monthly subscription fee for certain articles but not all, not yet at least. The thing is I wouldn’t mind paying a premium for their content as I’ve stated in previous reviews that I’ve read them for years and they have proven to me well worth it. However there s a negative, chiefly some of the articles which only subscribed paying members can obtain access to can be viewed for free on their very own platform through googling the articles headline. Secondly the monthly subscription price is simply to high. I would be willing to pay a couple dollars at most per month on a permanent basis. One more thing of note would be is perhaps you can view the article for free on google as opposed to USATODAY is perhaps their intending on capitalizing on the convenience of going though USATODAY . If this is the case even though their customers once realized you can obtain the article for free through Google will perhaps still feel like their getting cheated. Hope my review helps in some contributing factor.

by BRartistNYC

I was born in NYC and still live here, age 72. I have a Master’s Degree, a bit of journalism background, and have subscribed for home delivery of the NYTimes my entire adult life until the pandemic made me use online services. So I have been reading a wide variety of papers from around the world. I realize that the Times dispatches its own reporters, whereas USA Today relies mostly on wire services, but the variety of serious headline stories you cover and present to my iphone via your app, is far superior to what comes in from the Times. Also, you seem more level-headed, as I have been detecting a shocking series of biases at the Times, as compared to, for example, you, the Manchester Guardian and the Washington Post. Keep it up!

by MAugustJeske

I actually work for Gannett (USA Today’s parent company)- but as unbiased as I can be - USATODAY is awesome. They are a solid company & provide a well designed app to the everyday person even to the news junkies. As a company - They don’t look to invade your privacy, they have great leadership, they have incredible people working for them and dedicated & award winning reporters who look to bring real news to the people. They are a company who looks to help humanity, further all beings & bring legitimate unbiased news and services in the best of ways. Get USATODAY , select your news preferences, allow the notifications. It’s a lot (as far as notifications go) if you want it to be, but it’s worth it to be updated on the things you want to know. Well done as an app for an employee, or for anyone, and for everyone. Especially during these times. Thanks all.

by JV58

Overall, I’ve enjoyed and appreciated the USA Today app on my iPhone and iPad for several years. Good content, reasonable balance. I do perceive a bit of a liberal/left bias, but in their defense, they do post opinion pieces from a conservative viewpoint, and they do a good job of identifying and labeling opinions that may be biased when they are posted.

My only criticism with the current app is that the text shifts forward in the article as the ads load, and causes sections of articles to be skipped ahead. This happens sometimes 2-3 times while reading an article—definitely frustrating when trying to read through the article. (I’m trusting this problem will be addressed.)

Overall, a good source of information that I’ll continue to use.

by RENOLUKE

USA Today used to be one of the pillars of fair and unbiased news outlets. They were always my go to source for all news. Unfortunately USA Today has become extremely biased towards the left (I am, and will continue to be a registered Democrat). Leanings, left or right, should only be published in opinion pieces. Leave the biased “news reporting” to Fox News and the Huffington Post. Also USA Today, your incessant coverage of “celebrities” and publishing of articles about “celebrities” should be left to your Life section. I should not be inundated with articles about a bunch of people I don’t care about. I understand that there are many who relish in the life of others, but let them relish in the section they belong not your Top Stories. In light of these two I have currently deleted your app, but I will download occasionally to see if you have rediscovered your journalistic integrity.
PS Your sports coverage is still top notch, but not enough to keep me.

by ChristophCA88

I’ve been seeking an alternative paper for awhile, as the overall quality of stories printed in USA Today (at least in their app version) rarely rises above the writing skills of a mediocre high school English student. Spelling and grammatical errors occur too frequently. Bias is extraordinary in this publication. Today’s story that USA Today decided to print suggesting The currrent SCOTUS nominee is indeed a child molester and shouldn’t be allowed near children is beyond gutter writing and is discraceful. I cancelled my print subscription to the LA Times over a decade ago due to their inability to report objectively, and have never read that paper since. Today, I delete this trash paper which is competing with the National Enquirer from my tablet and phone. Having recently subscribed to the Wall Street Journal, that paper raises the bar on intellectual discourse by several sigmas. Along with the sports and travel which otherwise were my go to sections, I have tagged websites to curate hockey and travel news. This paper used to reflect the American population objectively. Sadly, no more. Goodbye USA Today.

by Xntriclatino

My last review I complained about the constant and intrusive adds that ruin the experience. Cant watch a single video without having to watch an intrusive add. Very frustrating when you want a quick update on major news. Not to mention that when I first got USATODAY I paid for the pro version without adds. In less than a year they did away with it and left me feeling very cheated out of my money. I recently downloaded USATODAY again to see if there’s any improvement and alas. It’s just worse.
NOW USATODAY randomly crashes when just reading an article. This happens every single time no matter what article. My iPhone X also gets extremely hot by the where the camera is. This doesn’t happen on any other app. I will never ever recommend anyone waste their time on USATODAY. Many other choices out there to deal with this frustration and possible phone damage.

by KDub102.4

I have read USA today for years, in both subscribed paper form and now digitally on my iPad.

I still love USA Today, but the shifting text is maddening. Frequently, while reading an article, the article shifts quickly to another part of the same article as though some new material has been added somewhere. Then, I’m forced to search for my previous spot to return to my reading.

Also, often when hitting the back arrow at the top left of USATODAY , USATODAY jumps to the very beginning of the newspaper section, causing me to have to scroll, scroll, and scroll some more to get back to the location of the last article I was reading. A real pain. I sure hope a future bug fix will take care of these hiccups. I am reluctant to move to a paid subscription until these bugs are resolved.

by Guwain

For my purposes, the USA Today app is just fine. It provides the news and some amplifying coverage. That's all I expect. USA Today has long been known as the fast food outlet for news so one should calibrate expectations to match reality. If one seeks in-depth analysis and penetrating Op Ed pieces then one should look elsewhere as as the major papers (e.g., The Washington Post, The New York Times, LA Times, et al) or periodicals. This is not to denigrate USA Today but rather to properly align user expectations. I read USA Today every single day but augment that with other sources if I'm interested in more coverage of a news story. I like USA Today and USATODAY and enjoy it, every single day. Well, designed, easy to navigate and informative at a certain level. I offer my compliments for doing precisely what I expect.

by Mr. Cash Tye

this app rolled out a much better update. I love how news is divided into section at the bottom of the tabs. Much cleaner feel. I will change my old review from 1 star to 5 star.

Below is reference to my old review:

USA today DID NOT perform any update what so ever that was satisfactory to the user community. There is still no way to change to a dark background. The ads are still as big and a nuisance. Their top story section is a mess, unlike previous versions which was a great viewing experience but this version makes me skip it. I use to use USA TODAY exclusively but I might have to move to cnn or other competitors, I give them 2 more updates before I am completely turned off.

by Walshgolf

First of all, if you want to be a great nation, there are moments that should be cherished for a lifetime. If I were in charge of education, I would declare this Wednesday “a no school day for all of New England”. Businesses would make out. The kids would always remember it. Everyone would have a legal chance to attend instead of skipping work or school, and most of all the attitudes of the people would be jolly for a change instead of hearing the gloomy problems of our country with hate crimes and bad mouthing our politician’s decisions every time they make a vote. Stand up America and enjoy the fruits of this great nation. I’ll see you in Boston this Wednesday, and I guarantee you there be many people with smiles on their faces!

by AzeotropeETOH

USATODAY has gotten out of control with ads. This is the first time I've ever seen ads that pop up with absolutely no input from the user. All of a sudden your phone is full of web sites and App Store offerings for stuff completely unrelated to what one happens to be browsing in the USA today app. This crap has increased in frequency to the point where it is no longer the main source of news for me. To avoid the hassle get yourself a copy of Feedly and ditch USATODAY. These people don't seem to have any sense on limiting the distraction of their advertising. I'm not gonna enable that kind of behavior any more.