AP News 12+

Too bad they will be doing away with a MUCH friendlier app than this replacement. The new app does not present the stories as well organized as the previous app. It's like someone said: "Gee, it's time to update the app"- and totally blew it. Where I expect a written story, I get videos. Where is the news? Lots of junk. There is no way to have white letters on a black background so that you can read the news easier at night. This is a complete dud. I thought it was a joke, but I keep getting messages that the old mobile app will be going away soon. Did anyone even beta test this with a broad spectrum of people? Seems like the techies/marketing people got together and decided "Gee, people don't really want to read the news in an efficient way; guess we will dream up how they want to read/view the news without consulting them." I have a LOT of respect for the AP reporters; apparently the developers of this app do not. Nor do they have respect for AP News readers. Disgusting. I will NOT be using such an unfriendly app. If I could give zero stars, that's what it would get. As they say:"If it ain't broke, don't 'fix' it."

Back when I was on social media, I came across a graph rating most of the known media outlets in terms of quality of publications and respective bias to the left or right, what with “fake news” having become a household phrase. In the center-most column (indicating neutral bias) at the top of the quality chart was AP. I looked into what that was and it turns out it was the Associated Press. So I downloaded this app, and sure enough the articles are high quality journalism, and due to the myriad sources from which the Associated Press acquires information for their articles, there is rarely if ever any interjected bias like there is in many other media outlets. I really like that they do a weekly fact-check of the actual “fake news” to keep readers well-informed of what news is real. The only other news sources that I would say come close to AP are Reuters, The Economist, and possibly USA Today. I don’t get my news from anywhere else now.

This used to be my ONLY, go-to App for News, especially when I refuse to watch “News” on the TV. I do this because “News” is no longer about facts but about “editorials,” “opinion,” and “interpretation” of facts, all designed around telling people (whichever side you are) what you want to hear, this making more people watch more often, which translates into ad revenue for them. Websites are worse, with constant pop-ups, ads “strategically” placed so that you can’t miss them, no matter how hard you try. Then this App began with ads that look like stories, formatted the same way as a regular article. I thought that this was sleazy and stupid, but they aren’t forcing me to click those, so I let it pass. NOW, however, every time (I tried 8 separate times and it happened all 8 times) I open a story before I even get finished with the first “sentence-paragraph” I’m automatically transferred to the App Store. I never clicked on ANYthing except the story itself. I’ve tested it, thinking that perhaps I “accidentally” touched something. Nope. AP now allows intrusive ads into their platform. All in the name of money. I get that they need it, that they rely on it. Everyone does. But exiting the app entirely, interrupting the story for some stupid App that’s in no way related to the story I was interrupted from reading? This is getting out of hand.