LAist vs Long Beach Press
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
LAist
Access Southern California's premier news source for NPR broadcasts, local headlines, and podcasts. Stream live radio, catch up on on-demand programs, and receive breaking news alerts. Stay informed with comprehensive coverage from LAist.com.
- Live radio streaming
- On-demand program archives
- Daily news headlines
- Breaking news alerts
- Sleep timer and alarm clock
- Story sharing
Read full descriptionHide full description
Welcome to the new (and improved) LAist app! Stay connected with Southern California’s go-to source for NPR news, local headlines, and podcasts. The LAist app allows you to listen to the live broadcast stream of LAist 89.3, get the latest headlines and in-depth coverage from LAist.com, and stay informed with breaking news alerts and program updates. Live Streaming • Take LAist on the go with digital streaming-no radio signal required. • Explore the program schedule for LAist 89.3. On-Demand • Catch up with the LA Report updated twice daily with essential headlines. Access to all LAist 89.3 program archives. • DVR-like controls. Pause, rewind and fast forward on-demand programs with ease. • Browse and select individual stories and episodes to listen to at your convenience. LAist.com Headlines • Get the latest headlines and news updates from LAist.com. • Get push alerts for breaking news, stories you may have missed, and program schedule changes. • Share stories easily from within the app. Additional features • Built-in Sleep Timer and Alarm Clock allow you to go to sleep and wake up to your favorite station. Please support LAist by becoming a member today! https://laist.com/give
Long Beach Press
Access personalized news recommendations and save articles for later. Customize notifications and enjoy offline reading. The app offers a digital replica of the daily newspaper and intuitive navigation.
- Personalized news recommendations
- Save articles for later
- Customizable push notifications
- Digital newspaper replica (E-News)
- Offline reading
- Swipe navigation between articles
- Follow/unfollow topics
Read full descriptionHide full description
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”
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: LAist at none against Long Beach Press's 2. LAist also leads on ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (656 vs 108). Long Beach Press's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.3) and chart position (#192 vs unranked). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and device support 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. Long Beach Press sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. LAist asks for nothing beyond the download.
Long Beach Press holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: LAist has 656 ratings behind it against 108, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 30% of LAist's written reviews are positive against 28% of Long Beach Press's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | LAist | Long Beach Press |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (656 ratings) | 4.7 (108 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 30.0% of reviews — better | 27.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 656 — better | 108 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Monthly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #192 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 188 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Southern California Public Radio | MediaNews Group |
Customer experience
LAist
Long Beach Press
User reviews
LAist
From 656 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to use
- 👍 Reliable source of news
- 👍 Vital app for news
- 👍 Fantastic
- 👍 Reliable and unbiased
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy and unstable
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
- 🐛 Glitchy performance issues
- 🐛 Carplay not working properly
- 🐛 Ads disrupt the listening experience
Long Beach Press
From 108 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Fair and complete news representation
- 👍 Organized sections that flow
- 👍 No commercial interruptions
- 👍 Local school coverage brings smiles
- 🚀 Runs smooth
Room to improve
- outdated information
- 🐛 Same articles day after day
- 🐛 Takes too long to load
- 🐛 Can't search
- 🐛 Only has a few articles
Bugs and requests
LAist
Reported bugs
5 issues- Podcasts not loading properly
- Live stream frequently drops out
- Playback issues when switching between apps
- Inconsistent behavior when pausing and resuming
- Sync issues between device and app
Requested features
7 requests- Add rewind and fast-forward functionality
- Improve CarPlay integration
- Implement a sleep timer
- Enhance podcast playback controls
- Improve organization and discoverability of content
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Add a dark mode option
- Provide better support for older devices
Long Beach Press
Reported bugs
11 issues- Takes too long to load
- Crashes a lot
- Keeps closing
- Can't read articles since update
- Kicks out of article after sign-in attempt
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Constantly crashes
- Updates slow
- App is bad
- Does not update like it should
- Login screen freezes (implied by crashes and inability to read articles)
- Incompatible with older devices (implied by iOS version issues)
Requested features
11 requests- Bring back landscape view
- Add LBSU sports section
- Improve search functionality
- Include lottery results
- Allow choice of Facebook page for sharing
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Fix reverse type (white on black)
- Improve layout and user-friendliness
- Move obituaries down the list
- More frequent updates
- More local news and focus
- Backwards compatibility for older iOS versions
In-app purchases
LAist
No in-app purchases
Long Beach Press
- LBPT Monthly Subscription1 Month trial$14.991 Month
- LBPT Annual Subscription1 Year trial$174.991 Year









