The Mercury News

I greatly enjoy the flexibility the app gives for reading the Mercury News any time and anywhere, but would like to bring to your attention one technical problem I consistently have while using the app: The app works perfectly for, typically, several days, and after that it stops loading the text. The article titles and some graphic still loads, but instead of the articles’ text there remain blank areas. Sometimes it even looks like the text initially loaded for a moment, but it is immediately overwritten by those blank areas. Once that happens, the only remedy I found is to delete the app and load it again - and the problem disappears for the next few days, until it happens again (and I have to delete the app and reload it again…). If not for that problem, I would give 5 stars rating and not the 4 stars I gave. Thank you, Witold

Overall the user experience of the new app, particularly the launch of the app, is more polished than the old app, but it is missing a few options that the previous version had.========= I view the app on an ipad mini. The old app allowed me to expand the content so that the text was bigger and it was much easier to read while being able to quickly go from page to page. While in this zoomed-in state, with the older version, I could scroll down or advance to the next page. I cannot do this on the new app, and the text appears very small now. If I zoom in on the page I have to zoom out so that I can go to the next page. The is very awkward (having to zoom in, and then out on every page), so I just live with the tiny font. This is significant and is the main reason I rated the app so low. =========== Navigating to other section of the paper is harder to do.

Giving credit where credit is due, the vastly revised new version released today is a beautiful product. Appearance on my iPad is orders of magnitude better than the old version, and I can get what I need very quickly. Sure, they have made cuts, but this is a still a great paper. To the complaints about the Merc printing articles from the Washington Post and New York Times, I note the same issue, only as a complement. These papers have some of the best reporters, syndicated into papers everywhere. Nothing wrong with that. Thank you San Jose Mercury for this wonderful update. I would ignore reviews based on earlier versions, they are no longer relevant after today’s major update. My favorite columnist is Sal Pizarro. One thing I wish they would do is add automation to the crossword puzzles.

I am a long-time subscriber, reader, and fan of the Mercury News e-edition and used to look forward to reading it every morning on my iPad. Not any more. The new version is harder to use from a UI perspective, and it also takes away from the "reading my newspaper on my iPad" experience. A few things that I noticed almost immediately since updating it today: The use of screen real-estate is highly inefficient. There are huge white spaces, that take up nearly 50% of the screen, to the left and right of the paper. And, there are now ads that take over the bottom 15% of my screen. This isn't what the old version used to have. Since the entire paper is displayed on your screen all at once, it's hard to read anything easily without zooming in (and this contributes to the white space problem), which is really hard to do. What's harder is zooming out, if I do decide to zoom in. The "look and feel" of the paper is gone, replaced by a generic white space. I can't just swipe from page to page or scroll up and down anymore. In the old version, my paper would automatically download in the morning. Now I have to tell the app to download it. As it stands right now, I find the new version cumbersome and much harder to use. At the very least, I would appreciate it if you could make it so that the older version is available, since I find the new version much harder to read, let alone enjoy.

I’ve waited to write a review because I thought maybe I just need to get used to new interface. Not the case. Navigation in the new app is terrible because clicking on the “continued on page x” text doesn’t do anything, and clicking on the article completely changes the format. Navigating between sections is also more difficult, as is sizing and moving the window. Last but not least, today I’m being shown the Redlands Daily Facts for no apparent reason, and I can’t find a way to get back to the Mercury. I’ve subscribed to the Mercury for 35 years and have become more reliant on the electronic version as the hard copy has been delivered later and later every morning. I’ve even defended the Mercury to friends and neighbors as the newsroom has been gutted and content has shrunk, but that’s a hard case to make these days. This latest update just adds insult to injury.

I have been a subscriber to the Mercury for decades but the paper keeps getting smaller and most of the stories are from the Washington Post and AP, they have few reporters of their own anymore. The app is the worst piece of crap ever. You will constantly have to give your user name and password because it forgets it almost daily. Further you have to keep zooming in and out to read any article on you iPad or phone. If you double click on a story to get just the text version if you read to the end you will have to scroll all the way to the top to close it. It basically makes reading so frustrating you wind up just closing it and going to another news source. The Wall Street Journal is a much better app. I am probably going to dump my print subscription soon as I can get almost everything they print from other sources at a better price.

In contrast to the slick verticals scroll news sites this is just like the physical paper. I read on an iPad mini and zoom the article, touch the colored “go-to” to continue to another page. Touch again to return to the page I came from. To correct a previous reviewer, you can download for offline reading, which I use on the airplane. There is an options setting. 30 days of back newspapers are available. Yes, downloading issues will take up room. Previous reviewer who was critical of APPs data use might have a 16g tablet/phone. I have no problems on a 64gb device with MANY apps and a very active email inbox.

While the new version of the app looks more modern visually, some major functionality was removed making it a big step backwards There used to be two read modes, and now there is only one- and you kept the worse of the two. - I can no longer choose a mode where clicking “read more” just takes me to the page in newspaper view where the rest of the article is, instead “read more” just opens up a different article view, from the start of the article , meaning I have to find where I was in the article (I usually don’t finish the article) - the view you get from clicking read more is a super weird format- tiny font in massive double space with no white margin in the side (look at NYTimes app for a reasonable iPad reading experience) I much preferred the newspaper view but you made it so much harder to use - the app no longer handles iPad rotation well, it used to keep me on the same page if I flipped to landscape mode, now it takes me to a totally new section which is very annoying I would love to revert to old version of the app if possible. I have read so much less mercury news simply this update and that makes me so sad- I want to read more local news generally

I’ve been reading the e-version of the Mercury News for years and while the old app wasn’t perfect, this new one is terrible. It is WAY too small to read, the old version had the paper fill the screen, now the white space around the paper is bigger than the paper itself. One tap to load a full article doesn’t always work, if you don’t want to load the whole thing, there are no longer links to the rest of the article on another page, when you hit next you go to another section, not the next article on the page. If I turn my iPad horizontal to read the comics, it jumps ahead 2 or 3 sections (to the end of the sports section or the business section) instead of staying on the same page. Please fix it soon!

I’ve used this app for several years now. It replaced my printed paper years ago, yet has the same look. Very convenient while commuting on the train, or to read at home. Like that I can download, then read offline. Can quickly get to the areas of interest. The Merc is a good mix of national, world, and local news. My only complaint is that the latest version sometimes says I’m not reading the latest version of the paper, when I already am.

The new and improved version is a mess. Today’s 7/2/22 edition won’t bring up any articles and, even worse, hangs the app up when you try to the point where you have to force close it to continue. In addition, the new version is missing the full page fit to screen feature. Instead we’re forced to see the full page with 3/4” white margins basically making it impossible to read without manual expanding which with today’s 7/2/22 edition is especially tricky since any mis-touch tries to being up the article which hangs the app. There’s an old saying in software, “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. The fit to screen feature wasn’t broke!!!

They’ve done a stellar job designing an app to give you the look, feel, and attributes of reading a physical paper. You can enlarge the photos, and turn the pages just like always. Several days, (editions) of the paper can be stored and retrieved for later viewing. This is truly a portable format and I can still enjoy and appreciate the layout and sections as I always have. I was a hard sell to convert from the print edition to digital but the design of this app makes it a seamless transition.

I need this app to read my local paper, but it is always a struggle. The view often gets messed up requiring me to navigate back to where I was. The obituaries often have less appropriate ads pop up. These folks paid to have their loved ones memorialized, do you really need to put tacky ads embedded too? Lastly, why isn't there a search function? If someone alerts me to something in the paper, why can't I just go directly to the article? This should work historically too. I should be able to find all the articles about a subject over some time span.

Besides now having ads on an app where I pay user fee’s, the readability is severely limited. The pages start in a era condensed full view and the double click to expand it to fill the page is gone. Now you have to use your thumbs to expand and move the paper all over the page. For those who like to read the entire paper it isn’t easy. I’m in the tech software business and this was a definite step back for the user interface. Most likely will result in moving to another news source since there is little local reporting.

Don’t download the new version! It won’t take long for you to miss the old one. I admit that I have not used the new version very much but at first reading I miss the old one. I like to look at an entire spread on my iPad and select articles that I want to read. The new one will display an entire page if I hold it vertically, but with my keyboard in place, it is horizontal. I’ve tried shrinking the image and looked for preferences to fix this problem. Can’t find anything and should not have to be looking so hard to get something that is at least as readable as the old version. And the pop up ad at the bottom of the screen? Get rid of it!

I read the e version of the Mercury News daily. I can count on it being “delivered” on time and early enough for me to start my day. My focus is national news, local news, the editorial pages and local sports news. It’s like an old friend that I know well and I can easily locate the specific kinds of information that I find essential to be “in the know.” I read other national newspapers too, but it’s only the Mercury that brings me the pulse of my community. I highly recommend it.

I really like having an online version of the daily newspaper but the new app is constantly over reacting to my touch as I move the page, scroll or zoom in. When a new view opens it’s blank so it’s not like the old app that showed the article, instead I have to back out to get back to where I was. Often moving to the next page is difficult without getting that blank image. This is the only option so I will continue to use it but I hope that it will become easier to use.

It is great to get up in the morning, make coffee and settle down with the “paper” without having to get in the car and drive down our rural driveway to get it - and finding it hadn’t been delivered yet. It is also easier to share articles of interest with others. It is harder to read on a phone, but works fine on a tablet. However, I do miss having newspaper around for packing and messy stuff.

The app can’t read the paper half of the days. Some days it crashes when reaching a page part way in. Today, it shows the first page then crashes after a few seconds. But why would you want to read the Mecury-News anyway? The content has been declining rapidly. It used to be the local paper for San Jose, America’s tenth largest city and won Pulitzer prizes. Now it runs one or two articles about San Jose a day but is otherwise stories from North Bay places that are at least an hour’s drive away. Someone in San Jose couldn’t care in the least about a city council meeting in Richmond. The rest is wire service filler about events I read about on the web 36 hours before.

I subscribed bc a few times a week I’d find myself following links to local news from Mercury News. Quality reporting costs money - the news we get is only as good as the reporters and editors and staff we fund. Although slow to respond, it feels like Mercury News has a reasonable solution to the public’s loss of appetite for a paid paper newspaper. Thank you Mercury!

It’s so nice to have my fav newspaper from home in CA available where I’ve moved to even though it’s out of state from CA. All my fav articles n columnists I still get to read every day just as I did when living in CA. I still have relatives and friends living in CA where I used to live, so I like to keep up with what’s happening where they are and where I used to live for so many years. Hooray for technology! E.McG

As a long time reader of the Merc, I adopted the electronic version about six years ago. Generally I like it. There are a few bugs that might be worked out. 1) The blocking of parts of the weather page is inconsistent from day to day. The same is true of the puzzle page. 2) It is common to have words fuzzed in odd ways, like “reportedwith” or “ haveseen”. 3) The newest version seems to think I have a new edition ready to download every time my IPad goes to sleep. This causes the viewed page to return to the first page. 4) Parts of the paper do not display clearly when the downloaded is viewed off line. The comics is a good example. I am a strong believer in edited, fact checked and independent reporting that is not filtered to put a person in their own bubble chamber. I would be willing to pay more for more content and editorial.

I’m really liking this Mercury news app, it allows me to see the news directly on my phone, with no paper waste. I like the functionality of the articles, you see the newspaper page as a whole, but you can easily click on an article to expand. I like how the entire article is there, you don’t have to “flip through the pages”. I had missed the newspaper, and this is a good format to get it in.

Great to see the new keyword search function! And navigation through sections and pages seems more intuitive after short test-drive. BUT the print function (1) only prints the first page of an article for some reason and (2) the printout doesn’t include a citation (or even the date of publication). Please look into these issues. Also, on some pages, certain tools are duplicated. For instance, on some obits, a second row of icons (Email, Facebook, Twitter, Print, Enlarge/Reduce Font). BTW, the Email and Print tools there did not work for me at all… just opened a blank page (with a Close command fortunately). On an iPhone, all of these functions are already available on the app’s main tool bar (some within the share tool), so the additional set of tools is just superfluous… Thanks for the progress so far!

As others sometimes say, if I could give zero stars, I would. I renewed my Mercury News subscription through Apple yesterday afternoon. Yesterday morning, I was able to read the Mercury News through the app. But this morning, I could not. The Mercury News representative said they couldn’t find my record of payment. When I hit the “App Support” button in the “Ratings & Reviews” section of the app, I got a 404 message, so I can’t even ask the app developer what’s going on. All I can do is complain with a one-star review, and hope that someone at the app developer reads this.

There appears to be a new release that has some annoying bugs: asking me if I want to view the current edition when I’m already reading it, jumping to previous pages after I shut off my iPad then return to it, warning me that offline after I’ve fully downloaded the edition, and a couple others. Having said that, I love being able to read the Merc this way, and I think they do a fine job as a news organization.

This app makes for a good alternative to hard copy. A real paper lets you see more and scan, but the links to continuing articles makes up for limited view. Unfortunately, it has a few bugs. One is that it will inevitably crash 2-4 times each day I use it. Most annoying is that it randomly gets in a loop of blurry text redrawing clearly, then blurring again repeatedly, sometimes for minutes at a time, preventing reading. Sometimes it stops and stays blurry and unreadable. Been this way for years.

I’ve been a subscriber for decades with home delivery. I do prefer have the paper in my hand in the morning, but the e-edition is a great alternative when I’m away or the paper is late. The best part about it for me, is that it has the same look as the paper version. I can read an tire article without having to search for it & I have access to more in depth information if I desire. This e-edition is a wonderful resource & well done.

I really enjoy the articles in the San Jose Mercury News. They cover both the Bay Area and the world. Their research is solid and fairly centric in their perspective. However, something happens between the layout of the paper edition and what appears in the app. Frequently, spacing is lost meaning that one or more words are joined together. Or extra spaces are placed in the middle of words. Sometimes reading an article can seem like a puzzle.

The digital version’s tap feature to enlarge or decrease page size makes it nearly impossible to jump from one page to another in order to read the end of a story. Now when you tap More on Page 5, for instance, the page simply changes size and you are stuck there. Highly annoying. Otherwise everything is good.

I love the online version. It is responsive and versatile. I only give it four stars because it keeps interrupting me to tell me there is a new login coming. Also, it keeps taking me to the current edition when I’m reading an older edition…. I’m reading, need to check email or whatever, get back in the app and it takes me to the current edition. If I want the current edition, I’ll open it! Leave me alone!!

I still like reading a digital replica of the physical paper. The old version had links that let you easily jump back and forth as you read articles. The new version drops those for whatever reason. If you touch a story, you can still read it in a single wall of text, but for me, that defeats the whole point of a newspaper layout reading experience. Hope to see that come back in a future update.

I love the fact that I can get local news from my phone, that articles are presented without page breaks and it is easy to find what I want to read. No papers to recycle and we are supporting local businesses. I do wish the website recognized me as a subscriber when searching the Mercury News on my Mac, I would rather not be bombarded by ads when I have a paid subscription. Minor rant.

I have been a constant subscriber to the Mercury news for over 40 years and I am particularly enjoying reading the paper on my iPad. I like being able to read the different additions from areas around the bay. I grew up in Marin I am reading the old IJ has been a pleasure for me. Please keep up the good work in these trying times and I am grateful that you’re able to produce a good product. Thanks, Robert A McBain

I was excited that there’s an app with an e-version so I’d have the Silicon Valley’s finest newspaper at my fingertips. However the app lags, has bugs, and the autofocus settings are dreadful! I’d suggest letting us download the versions so that we can render the files from our phone’s drive because when I zoom out a certain amount the focus becomes blurry again and I can’t read what I’m trying to read. This is from my iPhone by the way, no idea how the app runs on tablet but I hope it’s better than my experience on the iPhone.

I'm genuinely confused. Have the developers ever tried to use their app on a mobile phone? The new version was “designed with the user in mind” (as proclaimed by the email blast to current subscribers) yet it is much worse than the old version. Why would you design an app with top and bottom banners that take up almost a quarter of the screen, and not allow me to remove them … you know so I can actually read the text of the articles? I mean, what are you thinking?

I’ve been reading the hard copy of the Merc since I moved to the Bay Area and it’s one of the best papers out there. I usually only use the Eedition when I’m out of town and don’t have access to the paper edition but that might be a mistake. The Eedition is so well done that it’s actually easier to navigate than the paper. I’ll likely continue using he online paper when I get home as I like it so much!

Could use some more political cartoons on the weekends to cap off the week’s events. Captures attention with less column space with fewer words. The comic section is shrinking. Tough to scan in digital medium to see what I want to blow up to read. Local events mean more than local crimes and auto accidents around town. Profiling local newsmakers makes it local that you can’t get anywhere else and relevant what’s happening next to where you live. Human interest stories are always compelling. More photos of everything Excellent recapping COVID now and where we came In this digital age - keep doing what you’re doing. There still a role for holding up a paper and opening it . . . And saying: “So what’s happening today?”

That’s how long I’ve been reading the Mercury News and during that 47 years, they have never let me down. The world has rapidly been changing! From Analog to Digital. From steam to electric to wireless. Where next? I trust the Mercury News Staff to take me there! The E-edition is always there, balanced, showing and “printing” the right thing, telling the truth to and for the people, ALL THE PEOPLE! From me, MN gets 5 Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Bill Jones New Almaden

I was concerned that I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as a paper. I do like having an actual paper once a week. I don’t miss having stacks that I was unable to read. It is great to be able to go back and review some thing I missed. I also like the feature of being able to print articles puzzles etc.

It’s not bad.. still has some quirks to work through, hopefully soon. The biggest issue I have is that the first article on a page starts at different place on different page. Ideally, it should always start from the top left of the page, the way I read physical newspaper naturally! Should compare with USA Today, Barron’s, Wall Street Journal, etc. They are way better and have great user experience with natural flow of reading newspaper!

I already pay a lot for the paper, and there are ads in the paper, now there are ads in the app. And, if I don’t remember to close it, and just zoom in, then close it later, the app reverts back to the fist page. Then I have to navigate back to my previous location. Also, I find that occasionally, it tap the screen inadvertently, and I’m back at the last section.

It’s a great way to get news, especially without killing trees to do it. I appreciate the simple text views and ability to zoom to make it a good readable experience on a phone for aging eyes ... One feedback I have is that the scrolling on my iPhone 12 is that the scrolling seems to have a lag to it. It’s not serious but noticeable enough to impact the user experience in a small way .

I love seeing the news on line and the “real-paper” view is exactly what I want. The app provides that and this is why I subscribe. However the app also frustrates me. FREQUENTLY, the app re-downloads the the paper and I need to recluse the index and re-zoom to my preferred view. This all takes about 10 seconds and happens without warning or sometimes, without even a touch on my part. Sometimes it happens when changing a page, sometimes when returning from another app, but always unnecessarily. Please fix this!!!! Joe Surprenant.

App is unsatisfactory. I use an I pad. The app downloads OK when I touch an article to read the article loads and then the screen goes blank. If I want to read an article I must leave the full page open and then enlarge the article. I must then scroll to the next page where the article continues to finish the article. With the articles shown at the bottom of the screen, touching the article does bring up a blank screen as the article fails to load. The old app was not broken this one is unsatisfactory

I use this every morning. Read on the Ipad in wide mode. The typical thing to do is use the > key to go to the next page. But they have placed “Search” and “Specials” keys RIGHT NEXT to the next page key. I keep getting these pop ups when all I want to do is go to the next page. How easy it would be to put these on the left, out of the way! Another minor annoyance is Fantasy football Special from September is still there. Why??

Why does it jump from where you are to the front page when you rotate your iPad? Why does it blur the text when you swipe from one page to another…so you have to swipe back and forward again to get sharp text? I’m paying a subscription fee for access, so why is it showing a Google Ad every time I open an edition of the paper? Worse, if I don’t dismiss the ad immediately, jump to another page, THEN remember to dismiss the ad, the stupid thing jumps back to the front page! What fiend designed this behavior?

While nothing will ever be quite as satisfying as a real newspaper I’m holding this is amazingly easy and in some ways easier to read. I use my iPad and it’s actually working out much better than I expected. Need my Mercury News fix each day and this is a great way to get it Nan the newsjunckie

I subscribe to four newspaper apps. SF Chronic, WaPo, WSJ, and the Merc. Three of them work, perfectly and consistently. The Merc’s does not. Pages A3 and A4 are blank every day, the subheadlines and comics are too blurry to read. I’ve deleted and re-downloaded multiple times over the years, same problems. I would quit the Merc — because the app is horrible and the paper is a shell of what it once was — except I’m a 32 year subscriber and addicted to local news, so here I am re-downloading again with blind hope that maybe this time it will work . . .

Horrible sports page and general news reporting. Cost of daily newspaper continually goes up but content goes down and down. For the money they charge everything should be up to date. No wonder people are getting their news from the internet