Times Herald

Review by eFreeware

The Times Herald app is a local news app from USA TODAY Co., and the most distinctive thing about it is how much it tries to be more than a feed of articles. Alongside community reporting it carries photography and video, real-time alerts, and the eNewspaper, a digital version of the print edition. That combination is what separates it from a generic news reader.

It is built for people with a stake in one place: residents who want to know what is happening in their town, parents following high school sports, and readers who have kept up with a local paper for years. If you follow a specific community and want that coverage on your phone, this is the app's territory.

The app is free to download, carries ads, and offers in-app purchases. It has been on Google Play since May 2012 and sits at a 3.5 average from 186 ratings, with more than 10,000 installs.

Local coverage, from town events to Friday night scores

The core of the app is the journalism itself. The developer lists in-depth reporting that spans things to do around town, sports from high school up to the professional leagues, and more. That range matters because local papers are often the only place where a school board meeting, a restaurant opening and a playoff game all appear side by side.

Sports coverage is worth calling out on its own. Following a high school team usually means checking a score on a Friday night, and the app is set up for that kind of quick look rather than a long read. The same section covers professional sports, so scores and stories from bigger leagues sit alongside the local ones.

I would expect this to work best for someone who reads a handful of stories a day rather than someone who wants a broad national digest. The app includes national news, but the community reporting is the reason to choose it over a general news reader.

Alerts, saving and the reading experience

Notifications cover breaking news, scores and weather, and can be adjusted to what you follow. That is a useful distinction: you can decide which categories are worth interrupting your day, rather than muting the app entirely because one type of alert became tiresome.

There is a set of reading controls that matter more than they sound. You can save favorite stories, adjust text size, switch on night mode, and read offline. Night mode and text size are the two settings I would change first on any news app, and offline reading is what makes a saved article useful on a flight or in a spot with poor signal.

The developer describes the experience as streamlined and fast-loading, which is the kind of claim every news app makes. The app is organized around viewing stories, photos and videos, so the reading view is clearly meant to be the center of the product.

The eNewspaper, print edition included

The eNewspaper is the feature that sets this app apart from a standard article feed. It presents the paper much as it appears in print, laid out for a mobile screen, so readers who like the familiar order of sections and pages can keep that habit on a phone or tablet.

Access extends beyond the local title. The app includes USA TODAY and more than 200 other local eNewspapers, which turns it into a way to read a paper from another city when you are traveling or keeping up with a place you used to live. For anyone who reads more than one local paper, that breadth is the strongest argument for the app.

It is also the feature most tied to the subscription model. A sampling of articles is free every month for all users, and the subscription terms apply to the full experience. How much of the eNewspaper falls inside the free sampling is something to check against the subscription details in the app's settings.

What the free download includes and how billing works

Downloading costs nothing, and each month a limited selection of articles is open to everyone. After that, Google Play takes the payment when you confirm, and the plan renews on its own each month or year. Auto-renewal must be switched off through Google Play no later than a day before the period closes.

The app's settings include a Subscription Support section with further details and customer service contact information, which is where I would look first if billing or access questions come up. The app also carries ads alongside the in-app purchase option.

There is nothing in the setup worth planning around. You download it, and the reading, saving and alert features are available from there. The latest update brings only bug fixes and stability improvements, so there is no new feature to learn.

Readers who will get the most from it

This app fits readers who belong to a community and want its news on their phone. That includes people who follow local government, school sports parents, and longtime subscribers who want the print edition in digital form. The eNewspaper library also suits readers who keep up with more than one city.

It is a narrower proposition for someone who wants a single app for national and international headlines. The app carries national news, but its identity is local, and the features are arranged around one community's coverage rather than a broad news aggregation.

The content rating is Everyone 10+, and the app is free with ads and in-app purchases. The 3.5 average from 186 ratings suggests a mixed reception among the people who have rated it, which is worth weighing against your own priorities.

If you already read the Times Herald in print or on the web, the app is a straightforward extension of that habit. If you are deciding whether a local paper is worth a subscription, the monthly free sampling gives you a way to judge the coverage before committing.

A local paper in your pocket, with the eNewspaper on top

The reading controls, offline saving and night mode round out a package that is clearly built for daily use.

The trade-offs are the ones that come with any subscription news app. Ads are present, the free tier is a monthly sampling rather than full access, and billing runs through Google Play with automatic renewal. The 3.5 rating from 186 ratings is a reminder that not every reader is satisfied.

I would recommend it to residents who follow their local paper closely, sports parents who want scores quickly, and readers who like the print layout enough to want it on a screen. If your news diet is national and broad, a general news app will serve you better than this one.

What's new in version 8.13.2

• This update includes bug fixes and stability improvements.