New York Daily News

Review by eFreeware

Breaking news rarely arrives at a convenient moment. A story develops while you are at work, on a school run or out for the evening, and by the time you sit down to read, the version you saved is already out of date. That is the gap a newspaper's own app is meant to close, and it is the pitch behind the New York Daily News app from Tribune Publishing Inc.

The app carries the paper's reporting on New York itself: local news, crime, entertainment, lifestyle and sports, with dedicated coverage of the Knicks, Jets, Giants, Mets, Yankees and Rangers. It has been on Google Play since January 2012 and sits in the News & Magazines category, with more than 100,000 installs and a 3.3 average across 2,988 ratings.

What I find interesting here is the combination of a live feed with the tools to tame it. The developer's emphasis is on reporting that updates through the day, but the app also lets you shape what you see, keep what you want and read it later without a connection. That is a more useful proposition than a simple headline ticker, and it is where most of my attention goes below.

A feed that keeps moving

The core of the app is a stream of stories that refreshes as the newsroom publishes. The app promises reporting on the day's important stories, refreshed as news develops. For a city paper, that rhythm matters: a shooting, a subway disruption, a trade rumor or a storm warning all change shape over a few hours, and a feed built around that pace is more useful than a fixed daily edition.

The developer's summary calls it the best news, sports and entertainment, which is the kind of line every publisher writes about its own product. Coverage is broad within its patch: city news, crime, entertainment, lifestyle and sport, plus a section for each of the six teams named. If your interest in New York is narrow and deep, the team pages are likely to be the part you open first.

Personalization is the other half of this. You build a feed by picking the topics that interest you, and the app assembles a view around those choices. In practice that means you can keep the Knicks and city politics close while letting entertainment drift further down, rather than scrolling past everything to reach the two subjects you actually follow.

Saving, swiping and reading on the move

Around that feed sit several conveniences worth knowing about. You can swipe from one section front to the next without leaving the page you are on, which suits the way many people read a paper: a quick pass across the front pages before settling into anything. There is a save-for-later option for stories, photos and videos, so a long read or a highlights clip can wait until you have the time for it.

Push notifications are part of the package too, and the developer describes them as landing on a list of topics you can personalize. That detail matters more than it might appear: a single firehose of alerts is easy to switch off, while a list you control is something you can keep on for the subjects you care about. Font size is adjustable as well, which helps on a phone screen during a long read.

Offline reading rounds out the set. You can download content and read it without a connection, which is the feature I would lean on for a flight, a long drive as a passenger or a stretch of the day in a basement office with no signal. Taken together, these are the features that turn a news feed into something closer to a daily reading habit.

What access costs and what it requires

The app is free to download, and it carries advertising. Non-subscribers can read five stories each month, which is enough to judge whether the coverage suits you but not enough to make it a daily habit. Past that point, a month of unlimited access to the app, the website and the web version of the eNewspaper is free, after which the subscription runs at $19.99 a month.

That subscription renews automatically each month unless auto-renew is switched off in your account settings at least 24 hours before the current period ends, and the renewal charge is applied within 24 hours of that point. The developer also notes that an active subscription period cannot be canceled partway through. Those are ordinary terms for a publisher's app, but they are worth reading before you start the free month.

Existing subscribers have a path in as well. If you already pay for nydailynews.com, your email and password unlock the app. Print subscribers need to activate their account on the website before signing in. Anyone subscribed to the eNewspaper through Google Play should note that the developer treats that as a standalone subscription which does not include this app or the website, and that the mobile eNewspaper app needs its own separate subscription.

Getting the most from it

If you decide to try it, I would start by setting up the personalized feed rather than reading whatever the app opens on. Choosing your topics early, and being selective about them, is what separates a feed you check twice a day from one you stop opening. The team pages are the obvious place to begin if you follow one of the six clubs, and the city sections if you do not.

Notifications deserve the same care. The app supports a personalizable list of topics for breaking news alerts, so the sensible approach is to enable the handful of subjects where you genuinely want to know within minutes, and leave the rest to the feed. A list built that way stays useful for months; one that covers everything tends to get muted within a week.

Then use the save-for-later and offline features as a pair. Anything long that you cannot read now can be saved and downloaded, which means a commute, a flight or a waiting room becomes reading time rather than dead time. The adjustable font size is worth a minute of your attention as well, particularly if you read on a smaller screen or in low light.

One thing to keep in mind is the rhythm of the app itself. It is built around reporting that changes as the day goes on, so the value comes from returning to it rather than reading it once. If you check in a few times a day, the updates are the point; if you open it weekly, you are mostly catching up on stories you have already seen elsewhere.

Where the experience is thinner

The clearest limitation is the paywall. Five free stories a month is a small allowance for anyone who reads news daily, and the step up to $19.99 a month is a real commitment, particularly for readers who already pay for another paper or a general news service. The free month softens that decision, but the renewal terms and the no-cancellation rule during an active period mean it is not a commitment to make casually.

The subscription structure also takes some untangling. Digital subscribers, print subscribers and eNewspaper subscribers each have a different route in, and the developer is explicit that an eNewspaper subscription bought through Google Play does not cover this app or the website. If you hold more than one of those, it is worth checking which one gives you access before you pay for anything new.

The app is also a single-paper product, and it is built for people who follow New York. Its sports coverage is fixed to the six teams named, and the rest of the reporting is city-focused by design. Readers who want a broad national or international digest, or who follow teams outside that list, will find the scope narrower than they need.

Finally, there is the advertising. For a free download with a metered story allowance, that is a reasonable trade.

A daily paper for people who follow New York

The New York Daily News app is a straightforward proposition: the paper's reporting on the city, its teams and its culture, delivered as a feed you can shape, save and read offline. The swiping between section fronts, the topic-based personalization, the notifications you control and the font size adjustment are the sort of features that make a news app comfortable to live with rather than merely functional.

The trade-offs are equally clear. You get five stories a month before the paywall, ads come with the free download, and full access runs at $19.99 a month after a free trial month, with automatic renewal. The subscription routes for digital, print and eNewspaper readers are worth understanding before you commit, and the coverage stays within New York and the six named teams.

If you follow the city and its sports closely, and you want breaking updates plus a way to keep longer pieces for later, this is built for you. If your reading is broader, or occasional, the free allowance will tell you quickly whether the coverage is worth paying for.

It suits readers who want one paper, read it often, and value being able to catch up offline. The 3.3 average from nearly 3,000 ratings suggests a mixed reception, so the free month is the sensible way to decide for yourself.

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