Akron Beacon Journal Now

Review by eFreeware

What sets the Akron Beacon Journal Now app apart from the flood of generic news readers is its center of gravity: Akron. The developer, USA TODAY Co., built this around the Beacon Journal's own reporting, with photography and video alongside the writing.

It has been on Google Play since September 24, 2018, and the most recent update arrived on September 25, 2026, bringing bug fixes and stability improvements. It has passed 10,000 installs and holds a 2.9 average from 122 ratings, with 73 written reviews. Those numbers suggest a reader base that is engaged enough to sound off, and a fair amount of frustration in the mix.

The app is free to download, carries ads, and offers in-app purchases. The developer's model is straightforward: everyone gets a sampling of free articles each month, and full access comes through a subscription. That combination shapes who will get along with it and who will not.

The journalism is the main draw

The feature the developer leads with is the reporting itself. The app is pitched as a home for in-depth journalism from the Beacon Journal, and the range runs from things to do around town to sports coverage that stretches from high school games up to the professional leagues. That spread is what a local paper does best, and it is the reason to pick this app over a national feed.

Photography and video both feature in the app. The developer describes the experience as streamlined and fast-loading, with stories, photos, and videos presented in a way that is meant to be easy to browse. I would treat the speed claim as a promise rather than a given, since load times depend on your device and connection as much as on the app.

What appeals to me about this setup is the pairing of the two scales. You get the hyper-local material — the town events, the school sports results — sitting next to the wider coverage that a USA TODAY-owned newsroom can supply. For someone who wants both without juggling two apps, that is a sensible arrangement.

Alerts, saving, and reading offline

Around the core reporting sits a set of supporting features. You can turn on real-time notifications for breaking news, sports scores, and weather alerts, and the developer says those alerts can be tailored to your interests. If you follow one team closely and could not care less about the rest, that kind of filtering is what keeps notifications useful instead of annoying.

The reading experience is adjustable in the ways that matter for a news app. You can save favorite stories, change the text size, switch to night mode, and read offline. Offline reading is the one I would value most on a long flight or anywhere the signal drops, because it means the stories you cared enough to save are still there when the network is not.

The eNewspaper feature rounds things out. The developer describes it as the print edition made accessible on mobile devices, and access extends to USA TODAY plus more than 200 local eNewspapers. For readers who grew up with the paper version and miss its layout, that is a meaningful addition rather than a throwaway extra.

What it asks of you: ads and a subscription

The app is free to download, and readers get a limited number of articles each month at no cost. Beyond that sampling, full access runs through a subscription. That is the central trade-off here, and it is worth understanding before you install rather than after you hit a wall mid-story.

Confirming a purchase charges your Google Play account, and the subscription then renews each month or year. To stop a renewal, switch it off in your Google Play account at least a day before the period ends. The app's settings include a Subscription Support section with more detail and customer service contact information.

The app also carries ads, and it offers in-app purchases alongside the subscription. Between the ads and the paywall, this is not a frictionless free product, and the 2.9 rating suggests some readers have found that mix hard to swallow. The content rating is Everyone 10+, so it is not aimed at young children.

Getting the most from it

If you decide to try it, the free monthly sampling is the natural place to start. Read across the sections you actually care about — local news, high school sports, events — and see whether the coverage matches your interests before you commit to a subscription. A month of sampling tells you more than any description can.

Set up notifications with some care. Breaking news, scores, and weather alerts are all available, and they can be tailored, so it is worth narrowing them to the subjects you genuinely follow. A news app that pings you about everything quickly becomes one you ignore, and an ignored alert is worse than none.

Use the reading tools to fit the app to your habits. Save the stories you want to come back to, bump the text size if the default is too small, and switch on night mode for evening reading. If you travel or commute through areas with patchy coverage, saved stories and offline reading let you keep going when the connection does not.

Finally, if you subscribe, put the renewal date somewhere you will see it. The 24-hour cancelation window before the period ends is easy to miss, and knowing when your term rolls over saves an awkward conversation with customer service later.

A local paper in your pocket, with strings attached

Akron Beacon Journal Now is a solid choice for readers with a real stake in Akron-area news. The combination of local reporting, photography, video, tailored alerts, offline reading, and an eNewspaper edition covering USA TODAY and 200-plus local papers is a lot of ground for one app, and the local focus gives it a clear identity that a general news aggregator cannot match.

The caveats are the ads and the subscription. Free readers get a monthly sampling rather than the full run of articles, and full access means a recurring charge that renews automatically unless you cancel in time. The middling rating from a modest install base tells you some users have found that arrangement frustrating.

If you want Akron coverage in one place and you are comfortable with a subscription for a local paper, this is a reasonable way to get it. If you only need the occasional headline, the free sampling may be enough on its own.

What's new in version 8.13.2

• This update includes bug fixes and stability improvements.