First of all, I am grateful for having an online source for local news. Having said that, I believe that there is news other than the Cardinals. I know that it creates views, but many people want to know what's actually happening in our area. One thing that irritates me are the house spotlight features. Taking pictures of garden trolls or a family heirloom does not express the architectural merit of a house. Get a new home feature photographer/writer if you are going to do these type of stories. Do you guys have spellcheck? In this day and age there is no excuse to misspell words. It's as if the writers were in high school finishing their homework in the hallway. I know investigative reporting costs money, but I deserve content after watching 15 seconds of a Bommarito commercial. I sometimes read stories where I can't figure out the chronology or connection of events. They are stories and you are supposed to be storytellers. Missouri is supposed to to have a great J school, get some interns who want to bolster their resume. As much as I whine about STL Today, it is the first thing I check, after my emails, in the morning. It's all we have.
Update: Every time I stop by the app to see if it’s any better, if I can read even one story, I am reminded how horrible it is — and I think the paper loses another opportunity for me to add to their readership numbers, to improve their metrics, to see the advertising, and to support their writers by participating. They won’t get $26/month from me for just one interest, and I wonder: Where do they make the most money? Digital subscriptions or advertising? They, obviously, want both. How many people have just walked away, taking their eyeballs with them? I pay for great journalism, local and national, and I want to support the hometown paper and its writers (particularly the great Derrick Goold) … but $26/month is insane. (And is it a month or one time cost? I get confused.) I get digital editions of WaPost and NYT for much less. I don’t live in STL or the region, so I have specific interests: this case Cardinals, Blues, St Louis City FC … let me pay a fair price for these. On top of the economics, the digital app remains horrid in so many ways, including intrusive advertising and stunningly poor usability. Here is what the big wigs need to know: Instead of driving me to you, you’re driving me away. I want to support you, I want to pay you a fair price, but your economics and app make it impossible.
I like receiving alerts of headline news. It is a good way to keep up when I am busy. I disagree with the complaints in other reviews about the number of crime in St. Louis. Please don't cut them out. I do want to know, especially when there are protests and such going on. My only complaint is that you wait until after the fact. I wish you would send crime alert concurrently, so I know to avoid the area at the time. I almost walked into the Galleria during the protests last week, but did not out of pure luck. Thirty minutes after the protests were over, you sent an article about what had happened. If the police know, you should know. Don't wait.
First of all, I agree with the negative reviews of the latest update. It is difficult to view on my I phone 6s. The old version using a text-based list was much easier to use and quicker. I could swiftly view the articles and get to what I wanted. The large picture graphics in the new update align with many of the more modern news sites but I find it, like so many things in life these days, to be dumbed down. I still take the print edition and totally prefer it over digital. Interestingly, I found that if I sign up for the digital edition I get my delivered paper at a lower monthly rate. Go figure. But it shows the power of those annoying digital ads - that’s where the money is. I will continue to read the print version and use the digital edition for late breaking updates, all the while keeping in mind the liberal bias in the news articles and the ridiculous lack of any alternative viewpoints on the editorial page.
I really appreciate the work that has been done to improve this app. For example. Making most of the story links with a white background and better color font. There is one issue both my husband and myself keep having with using the app on our iphone 7 phones. While reading an article, the page will constantly refresh and take us back to the top of the article. We are continually scrolling back through trying to find where we left off. I remember one time recently, I had this happen five or six times reading an article and just gave up. I was hoping this would be fixed in the latest update bit it has not. It would be great if this could be addressed in the coming updates. Thanks
I would give this app 5 stars, but...I’m really getting tired of the annoying ads!!! I know news apps need to run them, but the latest ones are really interfering with my ability to read a simple new story! I can’t stand the videos that randomly pop up on the right side of the screen. They block the text, and then if one comes up and you’re scrolling and accidentally click on it, the video takes over the screen blaring music even though your phone is set to silent. Then the small video ad that pops up from the bottom has an “x” so small, that it’s practically impossible to close it without opening up the ad several times. Ugh! Excessive advertising like this is more likely to keep me from using the app.
Since I wrote the paragraph below I came back to give them a 5 again. I'm amazed at the folks that seem bothered by the ads, etc. I wonder if they watch TV. Even most of the cable channels I watch have tons of ads and I pay for that. The news comes out at quite a pace and sp. errors are to be expected when there is no time to proofread and correct. Keep up the good news as I have grandkids and still like the "no-landfill" aspect. I read this almost every day and am grateful for the easy way to keep up with happenings in STL as well as not putting pounds of newspaper in the trash or even the recycle bin. Thanks
At first I found it difficult to get used to after decades of reading the print edition. Now I am enjoying it on my iPad and desktop. I might add that the P-D has one of the worst phone support teams I have ever dealt with. It took about six calls with different reps to get the cancellation of my print subscription effected correctly and my digital subscription activated properly. I got so much conflicting information from them. Bad PR for the paper. Latest addition to my review. I lowered my rating because very recently the pages on the e edition have been freezing in place. Cannot move position of page. The bottom menu does permit moving from page to page, but cannot move the page itself to fully read articles.
There is nothing more frustrating and annoying on my phone than those full screen ads WITH BLARING AUDIO that pop up when certain articles load. Even when your phone is in silent mode! As soon as the screen goes dark to load one I quickly close the app and go do something else. I suppose it’s a small price to pay for quality journalism that is essential to our city. But it’s too bad we live in a time where readers have to navigate a minefield of truly obnoxious ads in order to access vital content.
This app is terrible. Constantly crashing and when you can actually get it to work it constantly redirects you to ads. This forces you to leave the article you were reading and find where you left off. Huge waste of time and happens so frequently that I often just give up. Only reason I even look at it is for sports reporting. Which brings me to another problem of the scroll through article that forces you to hit little arrows to get to the next portion of the article. This feature rarely works effectively and is cumbersome to navigate. If it wasn't for my love of the Cards and Blues I'd delete this app and never look back. Perhaps some IT guy will see this review, try it out themselves, and make the necessary changes. But I doubt it, this problem has been ongoing for years.
As a child I grew up with the afternoon P-D thrown on our lawn each day. The portion I read first changed with my maturity but the concept of reading it was formed early on. When I moved out of the family home after college I continued to pay for information at my door. Over the last 46 years as a single beginning a working career to a retired married person the P-D has been part of my routine. It has clarified issues of the day as well as packed breakables for the various addresses I have had in my life. My husband and I are faithful recyclers and hope the P-D paper copy continues to serve in its final form.
Refreshes upon the slightest scroll slip- I think I know why
I’ve emailed the Post on this and got no response. I thought this “bug” would surely be noticeable and, since it’s so annoying, would be fixed soon. It hasn’t and I think I know why. Why would frequent refreshes be so beneficial to an app provider when it’s so annoying to users? Revenue!! The more it refreshes the more the page view count increases the more revenue from advertisers. So, the Post is willing to let the user experience suffer if in means greater advertiser revenue. The lesson: if you still want to use the app be light on your screen touch and remember how far you are into an article should you slip up and have the page reload.
Intrusive Ads and Bizarrely Functioning Prep Sports Scoreboard
The pop-up ads are now so continuous it’s like swatting flies. The video adds that show up from he side at full volume are the worst of these. Seeing the whole screen while reading a story is almost impossible to do for more than a few seconds at a time. Also, how hard could it possibly be to have the prep sports scoreboard—one of the main reasons I open the app—be set to open automatically to the current day and year. To get to a current score, you have to change the year (seriously, who need to be able to go back to scores from three years ago anyway) from one menu, then select the correct month, and the the correct date. I get that it’s free and all, but c’mon.
What happened? I used to read multiple times a day now I’m lucky to read it once a week. In the beginning the app was great. Headlines with thumbnails to easily navigate through the stories. Now we have this a nonsensical top row you scroll right through. The rest of the rows you scroll own through. Large pictures that are sorted by category not when added so you end up scrolling through stuff you’ve already read to find something you didn’t. I normally just give up and don’t bother. Bring back the easy to navigate format and for the love of Pete bring back landscape viewing as well as portrait.
STL PD is a legacy institution in St. Louis. I have great respect for their investigative reporting as well as their centrist editorial content (called "liberal communist socialist" by all the pathetic sheep extremists of the radical right.) Very balanced factual reporting. Their new app can be awkward to use at times, but what modern "new tech" app isn't, these days? LOL Overall, they kept organization and navitation simple, unlike many, with a central Main Menu available at all times. I use it often. Four stars due to just a bit too many pop up ads.
I realize that funds are needed to support the app (and the newspaper), but this site has way too many ads. For instance, I opened a story, and there was a full page ad before going to the site. Once I reached the story, there was an ad at the bottom of the page, and then a video ad that popped up over the text, and a still ad that also pops up over the text. I subscribe to the print version of the Post-Dispatch, and would appreciate it if there were a way that subscribers could avoid the ads. If there is such a function on this site, it is not clear on how to do that.
The Post Dispatch just doesn't get it. Apparently it's run by nothing but millennial's now so all they want to cover is the city of St. Louis. Where perhaps 2% of their customers live. There's a reason no one buys the newspaper and few use the app. Pop up ads are yesterday's approach to revenue. No finer way to run off your diminishing audience. But they just don't get it. And they don't care. They probably have five years left before they close the doors completely. Sad, but it has been their stupid decisions that have hastened their demise. People won't put up with pop up ads, in particular, pop up video ads! Jeez! Idiots! I'm assuming the last adult at the Post Dispatch took the early buyout or was simply fired.
Paper quality is very poor. Cannot fold-it back easily content is poor Nothing in it worth reading. No national news or what is really happening The items you do have are too left wing especially those people on editorial pages who i don’t even bother with. I only get the Sunday paper as dailies are non informative and the cost is a joke. Suggest u either get some good writers or close it down. PS. I am not black and the constant stories you have about black people are sad but of no interest. Your paper is constantly filled with their stories and plights which are not interesting. You have readers in west county, i wud suggest you play to them that are willing to spend a buck fifty. J Lunny chesterfield
I hope you don't try to improve too much, it's my favorite local news app. I especially like the way the font changes when read sideways and you made it so I can use it when I'm out of wi-fi with my ipod touch. KMOV use to be like that but made changes and now I can't use it out of wi-fi. The only improvement that would be a plus is when you close then open the app back up, you can continue where you left off. This will be my most used app- Thanks!
The free version of STLToday is limited in news and rich with ads. I subscribed to the paid version under the $1.00 for 26 weeks scam thinking I would get more news and less ads. I am sorely disappointed. There is somewhat more news, but the user is required to log in every day to get it. And some articles link to the e-edition which, unless you pay $20 a month, you can't read. And, there are still plenty ads. The "deal" was you can cancel any time, but in reality, you must call the newspaper within two weeks of the renewal date to cancel. Avoid this app.
Your newspaper plummeted in overall quality almost immediately when it was gobbled up by Lee Enterprises. Being the only big daily newspaper in STL, you get away with it. I can go on and on but I’ll get to my biggest complaint. Your complete lack of spell checking and sentences that would earn an F by first grade teachers everywhere is an embarrassment to our city and especially to you. For generations, elementary schools would use newspapers for teaching. Creative teachers can use the Post as a game locating how many spelling errors and incomprehensible sentences in an issue.
The PD app has been significantly improved since I wrote my first review )below). The app is much more consistent in how it works. I previously said it was nearly unusable and that is no longer true. While app not as good as some other major newspapers, I no longer want to give up on reading the PD. The PD app was slow and hard to use before but this new version is much worse. Its behavior is inconsistent. The instructions to download a pdf don’t work. I get no response when I press “view pdf”.
I moved here 3 years ago from New York continuing my New York Times subscription and not feeling that I needed another paper. I recently subscribed through a promotion at Balloon Glow and am loving the sports coverage of the Cardinals, finding out about about local events and being in the know for local news. And a confession: I am enjoying the crossword and other puzzles as well as the funnies. I’m so glad I took a chance and subscribed.
I have read the St. Louis Post Dispatch sine the old Globe Democrat closed. The Post did become more centrist after the demise of the Globe, but I miss the strong conservative voice of the Globe. They cover the Cardinals well which is my most important need for the Post Dispatch (they even have a separate app for the Cardinals with a lot of articles and columns by great sportswriters. The App is not hard to negotiate. Overall, it is an essential app for those who are interested in what is happening around St. Louis.
Used to have the paper delivered to my door but those days are gone. We’re about a hundred miles from St Louis and we enjoyed visiting often. I’m from Chicago but felt more comfortable in StL and your paper kept me informed of what was going on. Now I’ve got your app and I check it out every day. We don’t get to the city anymore but I still like to see the news. Sorry but I have to admit I spend more time on the Cardinals page. Please don’t change a thing!
I call my self a St. Louis resident even though my current location is in Springfield, MO. In Springfield, being up to date on news and current events comes after cleaning the fridge out, scrubbing the oil stains off the driveway, and making sure the inside the oven glass is spotless. Thank you for being journalists covering Missouri even in an area where what you want to hear is the news that is both broadcast and printed in Southwest Missouri. Thank you and St. Louis Public Radio for your apps.
The new overhaul happened several months ago. I was glad there was an overhaul. There were so many pop up ads you could not use the app. That no longer happens, however the app layout is awful. The top stories are in little tiny blocks on the top. I have an iPhone X. The little boxes are too small to look at, so I avoid them. The rest of the articles have big pictures, but you can’t see what the articles are. And compared to the online versions of our news channels, there are very few news articles. I have found that I never use the app anymore. Don’t waste your time with it.
As opposed to larger news outlets which for the most part only focus on national and international issues, STL Post Dispatch gives me the news I need. Arguably the app is better than the actual website; there’s ads sure, but not like the website which can grind to a halt even on my decently-powerful computer. Also has good coverage for news beyond local matters. Certainly not perfect, and I may be biased, but it’s my favorite news service.
I’ve never written an app review, but I feel compelled to report something that happened moments ago. While quietly reading in bed next to my sleeping wife, the full screen switched to a commercial that started with a loud bell ring. She was startled awake, and I scrambled to close the app as quickly as I could. PD Staff - This is so incredibly unprofessional. Please put yourselves into the shoes of your users. I’m guessing most are like me and do most of their online reading in quiet places. Spend some time rethinking your user experience, which currently makes the app unusable in most instances if commercials are going to continue to surprise readers.
I like it & read it every day. I also like to do the crossword puzzle, but, there are bugs that need to be fixed. When you want to change a letter, other letters are also removed that you did not want to remove. After you finish the puzzle & go back to the menu to read the paper, the puzzle you just finished disappears. Very frustrating!
I like the app. The navigation is usually easy. BUT there are two areas where the navigation really hurts. The first is in the "6 things you need …" sections. Those are difficult to navigate; sometimes you get the next item, sometimes you get the next, unrelated article. And I hate the articles that are surrounded by ads. The "next" arrows are hidden in & around ads. I simply won't go there anymore even if the topic looks good.
These pop up ads are killing me. They seem to override my sound settings and just pop and play. This happens on most articles. It’s awful to the point of being unusable. Also, the slider stories (1/7 slides, etc) are a nightmare. The biggest problem is accidentally swiping to the next article when you’re just trying to scroll down. On top of that, the slide ads are horrible again. I usually can’t make it through any slider article out of frustration. To the makers of the app...you’re losing a daily reader.
This app is terrible! I’m not sure what happened but please go back to the old one. I’ve used this app for several years now. Never had a problem navigating through it. But this new one, wow! When I click on an article from the home page, it says no content. Doesn’t matter which article. EVERYTHING says no content, try again. When I click on the link I use all of the time, CardsTalk, it says no content. I found a way to get to it, but it takes forever even though the shortcut is right on the home page. It’s been this way since the new update. I’m not a fan!
About a year ago I wrote a less then acceptable review. I know today that much of the performance and display issues were caused by my old iPad. There still are some issues with presentation and content but I am hard to please. Mostly I think that this app is very good and serves the purpose of informing the public. I like the occasional news from the past. I would like to see sports in the sports section and news in the news section. I don’t mind a sports tickler in news section to lead me to more article in Sports. I would like to see more local sports results and features from the smaller colleges from Division 2& 3, NAIA and JuCo. I would also like to be able to view the entire caption on photographs not just the first portion.
It’s a good quick way to get the hometown news of the day. I don’t like that it only works in portrait mode on the iPad. I miss not being able to enlarge the pics. I especially hate that any inadvertent lateral movement of the screen causes the page to reload. This is especially aggravating when doing a crossword puzzle. I do miss the ad inserts in the old paper version. A free press is still the backbone of a democracy and I’m glad there are still some people reading the news.
Title pretty much says it all. The login doesn’t have a forgot password function. The email links to customer service don’t work. Gave it a 1 because I can’t do a zero. Called customer service and logged in. To read story have to login again but when clicked on story to read it, it required me to login again. A never ending cycle. Tried another way and I had to subscribe to read it. Needless to say, I already subscribe. The app is officially a disaster. Will have to get news elsewhere as this is completely useless.
I haven’t used the app for long, but I like the amount of notifications I receive- it’s not too many and not too few. However, when you click on them, it doesn’t take you directly to the article- it just takes you to the main page, and you have to find it. I think the organization could be improved a bit.
I have been reading the paper since the 1950s when one of my jobs was delivering the paper to the houses of citizens in Granite City, Illinois. The paper has been delivered to my house sites in Granite City, Alton, Carlinville, and Staunton, Illinois. My wish is that the paper continue to be printed and distributed rather than go fully online. As a retired professor, I read the paper each morning! Thank you, RG
This app is an abomination! Weather animations error out. Buttons disappear, it rendering issues are ridiculous. The “Your stories” tab is useless because it loses your preferences and you have to reset them nearly every single time you open the app. No wonder why your subscriber base is dwindling. You can’t even develop a premium app that serves the purpose of providing news and info for people who only use the digital version. I so wish that you had a viable competitor in this space for local news because this is shameful.
The latest release has small white font headlines that cover the picture, the are barely readable. The top stories pictures are even smaller than average stories mixing scroll right / left with scrolling up and down. The screen doesn’t allow stretching which limits the font size, the app became less useful and I’m abandoning for other sources of news. None of the companies take these reviews seriously and I doubt they will do anything to change it. It’s disappointing when a new release of an app makes it worse instead of better.
Stay on top of what is happening ...Globally, Nationally, Locally with the STL Post Dispatch!
I subscribe at home to weekends and Mondays, and I continue to keep up throughout my week with the STL app on my iPhone! I can count on thorough, fair, and up to date information from the STL Post Dispatch for stories that matter to me, international, national, and local... Thanks, STL PD for providing me with news I can rely on all throughout my day!
Stop all the biased reporting. Page after page of ridiculously slanted articles that are not reporting, merely opinionated balderdash. I struggle to renew my subscription every time. It won’t happen much longer. I only need to see the name on the byline or the headline to realize I’m wasting my time to read that particular piece. I long for the good old days when your editorial slant was only based against the Catholic Church. Stop before you become even more irrelevant. You’ve long since begun believing your own lies.
Ads are part of the enterprise system. We should expect to pay a price. Free Press is not free!
Clean copy with enough segments to attract a variety of news and feature article interests. There is a rub--and it is not the POP UP ads. I've noticed the PD edging more toward the ESPN model of dispensing news (Sports) via video, where I much prefer to read content than view a podcast.
It’s not the first thing I read everyday, but close. The sports section keeps me connected to my on-field favorites, the Cardinals. Great columns, fresh takes on the game just played or what’s up next. Also, I enjoy following the writers on Twitter. One thing, work out the buggie slideshow feature that feels like someone dropped down a bunt in the last inning of a probable no-hitter...ruins a near perfect experience.
We need the POST for their investigative reports. Also, I like to see all of the positives reported for the Saint Louis area. I am a strong supporter of St. Louis. I believe that we are a great place to live and are continuing to become a even more wonderful place to live. Everyone needs to step up and do their share of the work instead of just complaining about others.
Tired of having to keep logging in daily or every other day. Also tired of same old excuse and resolution: something broke with the e-edition so delete the app, download again and login again. I’ve done that about 6-7 times. This needs a permanent resolution. Also, the arrows on the top articles on the main page need to be bigger. The obits need to stop opening a new tab in Safari. The advice columns have disappeared. So much less news is available. This app has really declined and quality and quantity.
I read the PD on my iPad & it won’t rotate, I find it very awkward to read it in the upright position. I agree with the others about the irritating ads! There’s also too much about sports in the news section, put it all I’m the SPORTS section. When I read the NEWS, I’m interested in what’s happening in our area & the nation. I find I’m using the PD app less all the time, I’ve switched to using the local news stations instead. I get more local news, less ads or none, & very little about sports!!
One. Too many advertising interruptions in the middle of reading articles. Overbearing and overly annoying, especially to me as a subscriber to the print edition forever. 2. The obituary app is quirky and frequently blanks out, also interrupts, etc. I know you need to sell advertising but it has to be less intrusive as it is it is so annoying. 3. Post the current days articles a little more timely. It appears the newspaper selectively posts some current things but not some of the more germaine things, and I feel this when traveling and keeping up on line with the app and not reading the paper copy. Overall, is a great app and we appreciate it. Thank you.
I enjoy the app very much as a way to keep with the news and sports in St. Louis. However, it get frustrating when clicking through multiple screens in sports chat that the chats fails or when you try to go back one, it goes all the way to the first comment instead of the previous one.
I worked in IT for 30 years. If our developers wrote a program like this, they would be out of a job. This software is the biggest piece of junk I’ve ever seen. If the developers were forced to write this junk, the management would be pounding the pavement. It does not update the daily e-editions. To get the next day, you have to force quit. When you do that, it forces you to log back in again. Turning pages is a joke. If you zoom to read an article, you have to unzoom to swipe to move to the next page. Most of the time it does not work. You can use the TINY arrows at the top to turn the page. TINY arrows. I have an iPad Pro. Good luck if you have a smaller iPad. The Belleville paper as an excellent program. It works perfectly every time. Take note and change STLToday.
Your story lives in St. Louis. From reporting on the Blues and Cardinals to the news that matters most in your community, we cover it all. Get in-depth stories from the St. Louis area and beyond – including news, sports, opinion, obituaries, entertainment, and politics. Easily access the very latest news in an app built for you. Read, see, and hear exclusive commentary, stunning photography, video updates, and binge-worthy podcasts. Our app features: * Your Stories – personalize your experience by selecting the local news topics that matter most to you * Get notified – stay in the loop by selecting alerts for news, sports, weather, and more * Easy navigation – see all the latest local stories by simply swiping up/down, and left/right * Read stories your way – either in the News Feed or via the E-edition * Breaking news updates – top banners let you know what’s happening right now * Continue watching – pause a video and pick up where you left off across devices * Bookmark for later – save stories to enjoy at your leisure * Listen to articles – press the play button to listen instead * Customize your text size – make the content bigger or smaller in your profile settings * Weather where you are – hourly, 10-day forecasts, and frequent video updates Free to download. Subscribers enjoy unlimited access. https://www.stltoday.com/help/terms-of-service/
