The Press vs CalMatters
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
The Press
Access local news with personalized content recommendations and saved articles for later. Customize notifications and enjoy offline reading. Includes a digital replica of the daily newspaper.
- Personalized news recommendations
- Saved articles for later reading
- Customizable push notifications
- Digital newspaper replica (Enews)
- Offline reading capability
- Swipe navigation between articles
- Follow/unfollow topics
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To continue enjoying our app, we kindly request that you log in again after this update. If you're a subscriber, please take a moment to restore your account to ensure uninterrupted access. You can find the “Restore Subscriptions“ button in Settings under Subscriptions. Welcome to a new app experience, we have optimized our app and giving it a facelift! This faster iOS native app now has the following new features: Your News: Provide personalized recommendations for content based on user preferences. Users will be allowed to customize the content they want to engage with by selecting the topics they are truly interested in. By going to the “Your News” tab the user can bypass the noise of all that is published and home in on the content they want Saved Articles: Save feature that allows users to save articles or other content they are interested in for later reading or reference.Push notifications will remind users to read their saved articles or suggest related content Custom Push Notifications: The user can select what topics they want to be notified about which makes for a much less intrusive experience. Top Navigation Bar: A top navigation bar lets the user switch between sections by swiping or tapping. Enews in-app: Desire the newspaper experience? No need to open a separate app! By simply going to Settings and selecting E-News the user can browse the Digital Replica of the day’s paper. Offline Reading: This feature allows users to enable offline reading from Settings. Offline “Reading Preferences” can also be customized for Settings. Swipe Left: Instead of going back to the main section to find more articles, users have the option to simply swipe, immediately opening other articles in the Section. Follow Topics: A user will be shown articles on topics they are following. To follow select “follow” at the article level and related articles will gain relevancy and be shown more frequently. Just as easily “Unfollow” Terms of Use: https://www.medianewsgroup.com/terms-of-use/ https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
CalMatters
This app provides in-depth, nonpartisan news coverage focused on California's quality of life issues. It aims to hold leaders accountable and explore solutions through investigative journalism.
- In-depth news coverage
- Focus on quality of life issues
- Accountability journalism
- Solutions-oriented reporting
- Covers California and its economy
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CalMatters is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe, explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable. We are the only journalism outlet dedicated to covering America’s biggest state, 39 million Californians and the world’s fifth largest economy.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: CalMatters at 50% against The Press's 6%. CalMatters also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ads (none vs shown). The Press's advantage is ratings volume (261 vs 18). On price, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. The Press sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. CalMatters asks for nothing beyond the download.
CalMatters holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Press has 261 ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 6% of The Press's written reviews are positive against 50% of CalMatters's.
The Press ships an update monthly, CalMatters every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | The Press | CalMatters |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (261 ratings) | 5.0 (18 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 6.3% of reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 261 — better | 18 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #91 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 188 MB | 53 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | MediaNews Group | CalMatters |
Customer experience
The Press
CalMatters
Bugs and requests
The Press
Reported bugs
15 issues- App rarely works
- Fails to load articles
- Run-on spelling errors
- Words run together with no spaces
- Lines split into paragraphs at random places
Show 10 moreShow fewer
- Header lines not always at the correct font size
- Next and Previous buttons are missing
- Swipe navigation only works with pinch
- Cannot log into account ('oops something went wrong')
- Multiple pop-ups for paying customers
- App crashes every time it's opened
- No menu option for settings
- iPhone settings/notifications does not list app for customizing alerts
- Menu button too close to top left corner
- Opening collapsible menu restarts the app
Requested features
8 requests- Bring back the old app format
- Improve curated newspaper layout
- Fix Next/Previous buttons
- Improve swipe navigation
- Allow selection of local news by city
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Add settings feature
- Improve UI and menu button placement
- Fix app restart bug when opening menu
CalMatters
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
The Press
- Press-Enterprise Monthly Sub$14.991 Month
- Press-Enterprise Annual Sub1 Year trial$174.991 Year
CalMatters
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is The Press free?
Is CalMatters free?
Which has better reviews, The Press or CalMatters?
Do The Press or CalMatters have ads?
Which is updated more often, The Press or CalMatters?
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