Marin Independent Journal News

In response to some of the earlier reviews, I notice that the app now shows weather for San Rafael, which is where I am. It also functions fine on iOS 6, and it always has, at least for me.

Marin probably has a fully educated readership that is as educated as any of any countrywide newspaper in the USA with only a very few exceptions yet when I read it I feel it could be written for a high school. Senior or college class. I am suspect our country has one of THE best educated college educated groups in the USA but many large USA cities read above the 7B reading level I subscribe to the NYTimes yet local insight, I do read the IJ which leaped forward when sold a dozen years ago. It try’s and is allot better than nothing at all. Thanks for asking, no please share.

There are so many moments when I scroll through an article and all of a sudden my screen is half-covered by multiple ads. The ads are too distracting and annoying for the app to be useful. I’m going back to a browser and ad-blocker.

I can’t login to this app with my own paid-for user ID, but only with the Auth0 ID, which tells me it will sell all my data. Honest, but ecch. There’s no way to exercise my privacy choices under the California Consumer Privacy Act— all links that might lead to the choice buttons are dead. The website isn’t easy to navigate, either, and it puts up more ads than my iPhone can reasonably handle. This app, and the website, need a compete rewrite— perhaps with a lawyer’s guidance. Update: a long phone call to the IJ allowed me to update my card expiration date and password, and, even though I was still Auth0, I could then exercise my privacy choices. I still can’t give this more than one star, though; this process should be much easier and doable without a phone call from within the app.

I've used this app for over a year. This month (Apr 2015) the format changed (with no notice) so that only paid subscribers can read news stories. Non-subscribers can see headlines only. It was nice to keep up on local news, but guess I'll hope for another source for that now. Also, the new format does not fix a problem that this app has had the entire time I've used it: it takes several minutes to load current content. So each time you open the app, it shows you the headlines that were there the last time you opened the app (perhaps 3 days prior). And then you wait several minutes for it to update. :-/ I've kept the app for now to use the live traffic map (helpful), but if I find another app for that purpose, I guess I'll delete it.

I have been a San Rafael resident for nearly 50 years and the IJ has been the local fish wrap. I even delivered it as a young man. Unfortunately the website is broken, non-inviting and boring. Example of broken: I now get the paper through the app on my iPhone. Today I had a flag depicting New news as well as a banner flash talking about the Paris accord. When I clicked the icon, instead of the article that flashed all over my iPhone coming up, some basketball article came up instead. Moreover, I had to search the news list to find the article, it was fifth from the top. I'm not sure why they flash a banner and flag my app with a red number then make me search for the article?

I like reading the IJ, and have been reading the web version on my IPhone, so I'm glad they got an app. However the app needs a little work. It cuts off headlines in the list of articles, just so it doesn't have to display more than two lines (even after an update to 1.1). Let it wrap as many times as necessary for me to see what the article is called. Otherwise it's nice to see the IJ in an app.

Yes, you have to pay for a subscription to access the content in the app. It's far less expensive than having a newspaper delivered to your home and much more convenient. That being said, I'd like to see more content added to the app. I enjoy the articles and would like more of them and more frequent updates.

This app is decent at providing local news, but it updates the headline maybe 2-3 times a week. I am the type of person who reads a few news apps throughout the day and this one really does take a day or two to update stories that were already previously posted. Does nothing happen in Marin? I doubt it. They need to update stories more often. Other than that it's good.

Now the app warns me that it is telling my information to a third-party but gives me zero options for opting out except to contact the company -and it won’t let you in unless you accept. I called three times and got dropped by the automated system - when I select the different departments just go dead. So then I emailed them to let them know that I did not want my privacy information sold. It’s unclear if I’ll get removed or not.

Previous version of app worked like a charm on my iPad. Updated to v7.4 this morning and now app just crashes and won't load at all. My iOS is up to date and have tried un/reinstalling the v7.4 app without success. I tried clicking the "app support" option in the App Store and get a 404 notice on the IJ webpage. Classic. I wish there was an easy way to access old app versions! Please undo whatever you did because I enjoyed your old app.

I have a subscription to this lowly rag because I need it for business. The interface online is unsophisticated and clumsy. And now they threaten my access to my paid subscription if I don’t link my subscription to a social account? This is unfortunately yet another example of overstepping boundaries and authority. This is a news paper for Christ sake! Not a game app. UPDATE: I want up to date news not last weeks news. Clumsy and idiotic app

use it every day

I was enjoying the app a lot actually, until I ran into the press pass you have to subscribe to. I don't understand this since I can just go onto the main website and see all the news anyway. When I was doing this, I was notified to install the app multiple times, so I did. Now I run into not being able to view the news I want. Sorry, just me ranting but I call shenanigans.

New version MUCH easier to navigate - using buttons that show up only if you tap "Show More", otherwise it's the old, confusing menu-based search, which I could never master. Thanks!

What a disappointment. I want to support local journalism but sorry, this paper is not really available online. And the promised benefit of access to merc news et al. is never fulfilled/broken. The folks at “customer service” are of no use(Tho they are always very pleasant), please provide them w training! I’ll come back when you address these problems.

I like the ease of having local news but don't have useless sections (local jobs always says "network error") please fix or remove. Sports isn't updated daily. Cartoons are nice. Content doesn't often update quickly, days old.

Couple annoying issues with new app. Cannot read in landscape view and cannot see stories that ran earlier in the week. Was going to call about this. Bother wise nice look and assume this is a more responsive version.

This app is awful. I need to unsubscribe- there are few that are full articles, most are only headlines linking to a series of ads or tweets. And I can’t figure out how to easily cancel my subscription. Now I can’t even post this because I need a ‘nickname’ and the ones I enter all seem to be taken… Argh

1) Where are Ask Amy and the movie listings? 2) White print on black background = instant eye pain. 3) Why aren't there user-friendly sections to look at, like Front Page and Life+ in the actual paper? I enjoy the print IJ, and hope someday to be able to say the same for reading it on an iPhone.

I used to like this app up until I regrettably updated it with a version that promised bug fixes but in actuality added a very annoying advertising ticker at each and every page. I have to use my finger to cover it up so I do not have an epileptic seizure. It is bright, annoying and a nuisance. Note to developers: Give people an option to purchase the application to eliminate the advertising ticker. I would happily pay $5 to never have to see them again. -Jeremiah Lazarus

Marin Independent Journal An addition of the San Jose Mercury News. Is that why in the app store the weather page shows the Sunnyvale weather. Sunnyvale is not in Marin County it is in the San Jose Mercury News area. So my question is how local is the Marin IJ??? Also when i am interested to read 11 hour old stories I would have read them in the PRESS DEMOCRATS app. 12 HOURS AGO

I have enjoyed this app for years to get my daily Marin news. They supplemented the operations cost with ads, which I was fine with. Now the app will only allow you to view the news if you have a paid subscriptions. You just lost another reader. Deleting this app now.

Always informed in the latest news

For the price you can't beat the local content.

Nice to see what is going on "back home." Old news stays on the feed too long but otherwise good app.

Indeed, easy to view and covers a variety of news about the Bay Area.

App needs the ability to comment, expand photos, remove intrusive ads, consolidated calendar of events, push urgent notifications/news. I would pay for a subscription if the app wasn't so weak. Please step up the game IJ.

Paid $140 for an app that does not allow me to read more than 3 articles. The IJ should be ashamed of it’s utterly incompetent attempt to enter the digital media arena. Anyone thinking of purchasing this app should do themselves a favor and drop the though altogether.

Forced to upgrade in order to use app. After trying to open and crashing a dozen times, I reinstalled after deleting. Unfortunately, it still crashed, so I deleted the app and bookmarked the web page instead.

I use it on my I phone to read news every morning. No problems . Never crashes. Thanx IJ

Works great, but there are a few times that it hangs. Overall, it's a good app!

This app only works for a little while before you are required to have a Press+ account to view articles making it useless dead weight for the average user.

Nicely done. Level of features.

This app needed a lot more testing. More than half the time I try to use it it won't load or I get a message that an article is not available. Or it just spins. It just doesn't work well. Too buggy.

Now you must click to get beyond a teaser preview to see the local news and headlines when you used to see them right away. The removal of access to comments is a major step backwards. Now readers are constrained to reading the IJs view and seeking out a laptop or desktop to see commentary from the community. The ability to spontaneously comment on articles is removed at great detriment to the IJ. Bring back the old app!

They started to charge to read the little news that occurs in Marin. I liked keeping update on my old stomping ground but your insane if you think I am paying for it, had to delete the app now that it's useless.

Where's the Search function? How is it a news organization can launch a news-reader app and not offer a prevalently front and center search function?

Only can be read vertically, why ? It shows the news you read three days ago, but not today's. Someone really screwed this app up.

I love the IJ! It is up to date and relevant . I enjoy all of the APPS dining, entertainment, latest news...

Very few bugs. Good articles relevant to Marinites, north and south.

I wish I could give it zero stars. The Marin news never updates properly. I just logged on and could only see stories that were at least four days old!

This app went from decent to worthless unless you are a subscriber. Don't waste your time download just search the newspaper on safari!

Good source of local news but not updated enough.

The most recent app Makes mr sign on every time I want to read a news article. They need to find a fix that keeps me logged in.

Says to go to storage option in account page to opt out of tracking, but can’t be found.

This upgrade has made the Ij even worse to read on the phone, crashed all the time. I don't recommend getting it. Very disappointed

No ability to convert to the eEdition? Why make it so hard? And when I try all versions of ‘not happy’, that all seem to be taken. No way…

Sorry, IJ. Had to delete you. Too bad you changed to a paid subscription model. This, from a long time reader online.

Very buggy and cumbersome to navigate when it is working. Also, and this is less the fault of the app and more the fault of the IJ, the articles are poorly written. Not worth the time.