Comparison

Variety vs AP Playbook

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Variety

Access authoritative and trusted entertainment business news from a global perspective. Stay informed with breaking news, award-season coverage, and insightful analysis of the film, television, theater, and tech industries.

Highlights
  • Breaking news reports
  • Award-season coverage
  • Feature spotlights
  • Industry analysis
  • Global perspective
Features
Read full description

Variety is the most authoritative and trusted source of entertainment business news, recognized and respected throughout the world. Since 1905, influential producers, executives and talent in entertainment and beyond have turned to Variety for award-winning daily breaking news reports, insightful award-season coverage, must-read feature spotlights and intelligent analysis of the industry’s most prominent players. As the leading publication covering film, television, theater and tech with a global perspective, Variety is the vital read in every entertainment capital in over 84 countries. Privacy - https://pmc.com/privacy-policy/ EULA - https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

AP Playbook

This app centralizes, visualizes, and strategizes newsroom plans. It helps newsrooms collaboratively plan coverage, monitor assignments, and track costs for all formats. Users can build plans with topic and assignment cards, view dashboards, and receive notifications for story developments.

Highlights
  • Collaborative coverage planning
  • Assignment monitoring
  • Cost tracking
  • Visual dashboards
  • Topic and assignment cards
  • Notifications for updates
Features
Read full description

Access your AP Playbook account on the go: Centralize, visualize and strategize your newsroom's plan of action with AP Playbook. AP Playbook will help your newsroom collaboratively plan your coverage calendar, monitor assignments and track costs. AP Playbook gives decision makers and newsroom users access to create and view day-of and future coverage plans for every format, helping editors prioritize coverage and reporters manage assignments. Less time making plans means more time telling the stories that will grow your audience. With AP Playbook, you can: – Build plans with topic cards for top level stories and assignment cards for related tasks. – Stay up to date on assignments through visual dashboards and personalized views. – Monitor individual and cumulative story costs to manage your budget. – Keep up with all the background material attached to any story. – Get notifications so you never miss a new assignment or story development. Learn more at our website. Must be a existing AP Playbook customer to use the app.

Screenshots

Variety4 screens
AP Playbook4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: AP Playbook at 100% against Variety's 15%. AP Playbook also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 4) and ads (none vs shown). Variety's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 4.1) and ratings volume (1.7K vs 7). On price, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Variety sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $13.99 per month. AP Playbook asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Variety holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Variety has 1.7K ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 15% of Variety's written reviews are positive against 100% of AP Playbook's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Variety ships an update every 4 months, AP Playbook every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Variety versus AP Playbook: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVarietyAP Playbook
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (1.7K ratings) — better4.1 (7 ratings)
Positive reviews14.8% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.7K — better7
Update frequencyEvery 4 months — betterEvery 6 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.09.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size143 MB1 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperPMCThe Associated Press

Customer experience

Variety

All ratings1,717 ratings
Positive88.6%
Neutral3.0%
Negative8.3%
Written reviews81 reviews
Positive14.8%
Neutral9.9%
Negative75.3%

AP Playbook

All ratings7 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative14.3%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Variety

Reported bugs

21 issues
  • Articles don't open
  • Can't read entire articles
  • Only the first paragraph/sentence loads
  • Articles Wont Load
  • Only the first sentence of every article is displayed
Show 16 more
  • Can't use app without notifications on
  • VIP+ Membership is useless on iPad
  • Navbar too tight on iPhone 13 mini
  • Freezes at start on iPad
  • Doesn't have OneTrust data to show Banner user interface
  • Impossible to Use
  • Site keeps crashing
  • Awfull app crashes constantly
  • 50% of the time, this app just shuts down, out of the blue
  • Incredibly slow and glitchy
  • Crashes and stutters
  • Very unstable on my iPad
  • Keeps crashing
  • Soooo slow. Problems loading pages
  • Unstable
  • Article disappears right after you open it in the app

Requested features

4 requests
  • Real Time Alerts Feature
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard
  • Ability to access magazine issues for direct subscribers

AP Playbook

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Variety

Subscriptions4
  • Variety Magazine$13.991 Month
  • Variety VIP$39.991 Month
  • Variety Magazine$139.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Variety VIP$399.991 Year
None

AP Playbook

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Variety free?
Variety is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is AP Playbook free?
AP Playbook is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Variety or AP Playbook?
Variety is rated higher. Variety averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.7K ratings, while AP Playbook averages 4.1 from 7 ratings.
Do Variety or AP Playbook have ads?
Variety shows ads; AP Playbook does not.
Which is updated more often, Variety or AP Playbook?
Variety ships an update every 4 months, and AP Playbook every 6 months. Most recently, Variety was updated on November 1, 2026 and AP Playbook on November 2, 2026.

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