# Bay Area News — user reviews > 68 indexed App Store user reviews of Bay Area News by MediaNews Group, rated 4.50/5 from 35 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bay-area-news/id407305856/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bay-area-news/id407305856.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 26 · 4★ 5 · 3★ 2 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 1 ## Newest reviews (17 of 68) ### 2/5 — Downhill slide *2021-08-27, version 7.6.0* Started good and relevant. Now just shallow pap. Sad. ### 2/5 — Worse than previous versions *2017-07-22* Many articles won't display in landscape, only in portrait mode. Poor navigation, difficult to know where you are. Limited number of headlines, have to hit a button to request more. NO SEARCH! ### 2/5 — Where are the comics? *2017-07-02, version 7.2.11* Until recently I enjoyed this app, especially the presence daily of the comics in color. As of the end of June 2017, they disappeared, thus lowering the rating by 3 stars! ### 2/5 — Subscriber *2016-12-24* I have used the previous version of the app on an iPhone 6s for most of my sports news reading. The text on the latest version is grey and harder to read. The text also seems smaller but I can't tell since I don't have access to the previous version. Lastly, for some time the news of the Giants has been missing from my app. Any response? ### 1/5 — Updates *2015-02-01* This app worked fine until the last 2 or 3 updates. Now I'm assuming you can't read the articles unless you pay for a subscription because now when I click on an article it pops up then quickly returns to the list of articles after asking you to log in. The merky news isn't worth all this trouble. The whole paper usually reads like an opinion column anyway instead of news. ### 2/5 — January 6 update fixes bug *2015-01-07* The app works as expected, but this update fixes the bug where you didn't have to subscribe to read. It's like the website now in that you are prevented from viewing articles without paying. I won't be using the app anymore or reading The Mercury News. There are many MANY sites out there that publish the same exact stories without requiring fees. As if the Merc has Pulitzer quality reporters! ### 1/5 — Terrible times on the iPhone 4S *2014-06-23, version 5.9* This update is almost unusable on my iPhone 4S. Jerky and unstable at its worst. Even at its best, it is poorly conceived for an iPhone, as it requires a lot of scrolling just to assess the overall contents. This app seems designed more to allow imbedded ads than anything else. ### 1/5 — Bad *2014-06-09* Share something on Facebook, and look like an idiot... It'll post your comment, but then no link to the article you wanted to share, leaving you looking like a person standing there, talking to themselves. This app still isn't all that usable. Now they've taken a liking to forcing you to watch full screen ads with no way to cancel or dismiss them. ### 1/5 — App Will Grow Up Someday *2014-05-03, version 4.6.4.0* I'll bet this is a wonderful app.… If it were legible. Ads are intrusive. Very intrusive. ### 1/5 — Horrible App *2014-04-08, version 4.6.4.0* A complete waste of time. Stories sometimes sit for up to 3 days before news line is updated. ### 1/5 — Video ads that cannot be closed. *2014-03-12, version 4.6.4.0* Just clicked on a story link and got a screaming loud video ad that could not be dismissed except by force closing the app. App deleted! ### 2/5 — Needs more photos and fewer video ads *2014-01-15* I subscribe to the SJ Mercury News paper edition. Being a paid subscriber and creating yet another account is required to use this app. The app gives me access to the articles, but most photos and diagrams that appear in the paper are absent. The most annoying part is the video ads that start automatically before articles will appear. This happens even when I am on the cell net instead of WiFi. ### 1/5 — Not worth downloading *2013-12-21* First off they now require you to watch an ad to READ an article. I'll barely tolerate that to watch a video there's no way I'll do it to read something. Second the articles don't even load, but never fear the ads sure do. Besides the articles are old and not very well stocked. Delete and move on! ### 2/5 — App not searchable *2013-10-11, version 4.6.0.0* Lame ! Otherwise OK. ### 2/5 — Crashes *2013-09-10, version 4.5.2.0* Content fails to load too often. App for a Bay Area paper should be better. ### 1/5 — Good until the update *2013-08-22, version 4.4.0.0* They loaded it full of ads. ### 1/5 — Bay Area news group app *2013-07-14, version 4.3.0.0* Why are there no comics? ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — This app used to work *2022-03-16, version 7.6.3* Not working now. This app constantly is crashing upon launch from my iPad Air. ### 1/5 — Not working *2021-01-14* Doesn’t work on the iPad, just keeps going around in circles, doesn’t actually load. ### 1/5 — I want to search for articles *2020-01-22, version 7.4.2* NO search capability anymore 2020. Also ads today were for “naughty moms” disgusting... is this even a news app? Useless. ### 1/5 — Loads so slooooooooow *2019-11-05, version 7.4.0* Takes forever to load ### 1/5 — Font too small and not adjustable *2019-04-12* Please make the investment in a normal functioning news app. I want to support my local news outlet by reading the news here but the font is still tiny by comparison. I scan news articles quickly but can’t do that when they’re too small to read... ### 1/5 — Very difficult to cancel *2018-09-17, version 7.3.6* I used this for about a week. Then tried to cancel. The Mercury News makes it very difficult to cancel. They have your credit card. Not worth.99 cents not certainly $10 per month ### 1/5 — Disruptive Popups and Locking *2016-08-14, version 6.2.6150* I can understand banner ads in a free app but the constant and disruptive popups are unacceptable, as is the frequent locking of my system when using the app. It has been uninstalled. ### 1/5 — Won't open *2016-04-22, version 6.2.6150* No longer opens. Wasn't good to began with, now is useless. ### 1/5 — From bad to unusable *2016-02-08* This app was never especially good, but over the last couple of months it has become virtually unusable. It frequently stalls for more than 30 seconds when displaying an article, and often completely hangs and needs to be restarted. The video ads are incredibly annoying; a button to skip the ad appears after five seconds, but pressing the button repeatedly works less than half the time. The rest of the time you're stuck watching for more than a minute. Abandoning because it's become intolerable... ### 1/5 — One of the worst apps *2016-01-07* It is sad that a proud news organization has implemented such a poor app. Technically, be prepared for freezes, sudden disconnects, and a level of frustration. Content is poorly organized, poorly maintained and generally even more frustrating. Latest news focuses on yesterday's (or earlier) news, not what has happened since the newspaper was last published. While the sports department makes an effort to keep it fresh, old reports still dominate. The comics section is not updated completely every day. It is obvious there is no editor assigned to manage content accuracy and quality. Find another app if you want the latest news. CNN isn't too bad, and CBC and CTV very good for fresh international news. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Merry Christmas *2020-07-15, version 7.4.5* Traffic doesn’t work. Log on ### 5/5 — I LOVE THE APP *2013-04-01, version 4.2.1.0* IT'S GREAT APP ### 5/5 — Good news app *2012-11-10* Live having access to local and national news. Works perfectly for my needs to stay up to date. ### 5/5 — Great regional news *2012-01-24, version 2.0* With the bay area's regional diversity it's great to have an aggregator that serves up the most interesting stories from the best newspapers in the SF bay area. ### 4/5 — a credit to Silicon Valley *2013-04-06* the closest thing to getting the same quality of news as the paper. even the ads don't get in the way and are sometimes worthwhile. the interface designers have made an elegant, user friendly, and very useful phone interface for getting the news that matters to us fast. if only all program designers were so progressive and end-user focused! ### 4/5 — Much improved *2012-09-09, version 2.1* Snappier performance. Great improvement. ### 4/5 — Upgrade is fantastic *2012-02-06* Was hesitant to download the new version of this app, but must say, "What an improvement!" Has all the great articles/information from around the bay and the info is current. Nice redo! ### 4/5 — App is good but can't figure out how to renew? *2011-12-12* Despite all the poor reviews, I actually really like this app and am totally bummed that I can't figure out how to renew my subscription. It's a simple one touch quick review of the area's top headlines and seems to be always up to date with stories that I haven't read in my newspaper yet. ### 3/5 — AD opens and crashes *2014-03-13, version 4.6.4.0* I like the news here. But today when I clicked the second story, an AD came up covering the entire screen for a second or so and suddenly the app crashed. ### 3/5 — OK but no search *2013-09-25, version 4.6.0.0* A decent news viewer. Main gripe is no way to search for news articles. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-29.*