Chillicothe Gazette

Review by eFreeware

If you live in or around Chillicothe and want the local paper's reporting on your phone, this is the app built for that. It comes from USA TODAY Co. and carries the Gazette's own journalism: community events, high school sports through to professional coverage, photography and video. The focus is narrow by design, and that is the point.

What you get is a reading app first and foremost. Stories, photos and video sit in a layout the developer describes as streamlined and fast-loading, and there are tools for saving pieces you want to come back to. For anyone who follows a hometown paper closely, that combination covers most of what a daily news app needs to do.

It has been on Google Play since August 2012, with the most recent update in September 2026. The install base sits above 10,000, and the average rating is 3.8 from 82 ratings. Those numbers suggest a modest but established audience rather than a breakout hit.

Who tends to get the most from it

The clearest fit is someone with a real stake in Chillicothe-area news: a resident who wants the school sports results, the local government stories and the weekend event listings without hunting across several sources. The app gathers that material in one place, which is the main argument for installing it.

It also suits readers who have moved away but still want to keep up with home. The eNewspaper feature reproduces the print edition in a mobile-friendly form, so the familiar page layout is available even if the physical paper is not.

I would not frame this as a general-purpose news app. It is tied to one publication and one region, and the value depends entirely on whether that publication covers the place you care about. If it does, the app is a direct line to it; if it does not, there is little here for you.

Reading, saving and offline access

The core reading experience is built around the paper's own output: in-depth journalism, local event coverage and sports from high school up to the professional level. Stories, photos and videos are presented in a layout the developer calls streamlined and fast-loading, which matters when you are checking headlines in a spare moment.

Customization is handled through a few practical controls. You can save favorite stories for later, adjust the text size to something comfortable, and switch on night mode for reading in low light. Offline reading is included as well.

Notifications are the other half of the daily routine. Push alerts cover breaking news, scores and weather, and can be customized. That means you can decide which categories are worth interrupting your day for and which are not.

The eNewspaper and the wider network

The eNewspaper is the feature that sets this apart from a plain feed of articles. It presents the paper as it was printed, adapted for a phone or tablet, which appeals to readers who like the structure of a full edition rather than a stream of individual stories.

Access extends beyond Chillicothe. The same feature includes USA TODAY and more than 200 other local eNewspapers, so a reader who follows news in more than one place can reach those editions from the same app. That breadth is unusual for a single-title news app and gives the subscription more reach than the name suggests.

For someone who reads the paper cover to cover, this is likely the most-used part of the app. For someone who only dips in for headlines, the article feed will do most of the work.

What it costs and how access works

The app itself is free to download. It carries advertising, and in-app purchases are offered. Everyone can read a sampling of free articles each month, and subscriptions are available for more.

Confirming a purchase charges your Google Play account, and the subscription renews monthly or yearly. Canceling a subscription requires switching off auto-renewal in Google Play 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.

So the practical picture is a free tier with a monthly article limit, plus ads and an optional paid subscription. If you only read the occasional local story, the free sampling may be enough; if you want the eNewspaper and regular access, the subscription is the route. The content rating is Everyone 10+.

How it compares with the alternatives

The obvious alternative is reading the Gazette in a browser. That keeps you out of the app store entirely, but you lose the saved-story list, the text-size and night-mode controls and the push alerts for scores and weather. The app is essentially those conveniences wrapped around the same journalism.

A general news aggregator is the other option, and it covers far more ground. What it cannot do is give the same depth on Chillicothe specifically, and it will not include the eNewspaper editions. The trade is breadth against local focus.

A dedicated print subscription is the third comparison. The app's eNewspaper is presented as the print edition adapted for mobile, so if the physical paper is what you actually want, the app is a companion to that rather than a replacement for the habit.

A straightforward pick for Chillicothe readers

This is an easy recommendation for people who follow Chillicothe news and want it on their phone. The free download and monthly sampling of articles let you judge the coverage before paying anything.

The reservations are the ones the model implies. Ads are present, the free article allowance is limited each month, and full access runs through a subscription that renews automatically unless you cancel in time. The app is also tied to a single publication, so its usefulness rises and falls with how closely that publication covers your area.

I would install it if the Gazette is your local paper or the place you still think of as home. The 3.8 average from 82 ratings points to a settled, workmanlike app rather than a polished flagship, and the September 2026 update was limited to bug fixes and stability work. For the right reader, that is enough.

What's new in version 8.13.2

• This update includes bug fixes and stability improvements.