Journal vs Macomb Daily
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Journal
Access personalized news, save articles for later, and customize push notifications. Enjoy a digital replica of the daily newspaper and offline reading. Swipe through articles easily and follow topics of interest.
- Personalized news recommendations
- Save articles for later reading
- Customizable push notifications
- Digital newspaper replica (E-News)
- Offline reading mode
- Swipe for next article
- 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/
Macomb Daily
Access personalized news, save articles for later, and customize push notifications. Enjoy offline reading, a digital replica of the newspaper, and a variety of games. Swipe through articles easily with the new navigation.
- Personalized news recommendations
- Save articles for later reading
- Customizable push notifications
- Digital newspaper replica (E-News)
- Offline reading capabilities
- In-app games (Sudoku, Solitaire, etc.)
- Swipe navigation between articles
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” Games: Users can enjoy a variety of games served in app. Games include: Sudoku, Solitaire, Jumble, Crossword, and Puzzles Terms of Use: https://www.medianewsgroup.com/terms-of-use/ https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Journal at none against Macomb Daily's 2. Journal also leads on review sentiment (40% vs 16%). Macomb Daily's advantage is ratings volume (174 vs 10). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. Macomb Daily sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month. Journal asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Journal against 4.6 for Macomb Daily. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Macomb Daily has 174 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 40% of Journal's written reviews are positive against 16% of Macomb Daily's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Journal | Macomb Daily |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (10 ratings) | 4.6 (174 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 40.0% of reviews — better | 15.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 10 | 174 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Monthly |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 188 MB | 189 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Prairie Mountain Publishing | Journal Register Company |
Customer experience
Journal
Macomb Daily
Bugs and requests
Journal
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Macomb Daily
Reported bugs
20 issues- Login errors
- Obituaries missing
- Articles not loading or crashing
- Links to 'continue reading' lead back to the beginning
- App crashes in the middle of reading
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- App takes a long time to open articles
- Ads pop up randomly and disrupt reading
- Accidental calls from ads
- App doesn't work for days
- No content displayed
- Stories not updated
- App crashes on refresh
- No ability to refresh for latest news
- Sports section not updated
- High school sports not updated for months
- News outdated, pre-election articles still in breaking news
- App not updated daily
- Articles from years ago displayed
- No local news option
- Breaking news stories unavailable until reloaded multiple times
Requested features
5 requests- Dark mode option
- Widget integration on iPhone
- Search archived articles
- Access to archived content
- Area for meetings in Macomb
In-app purchases
Journal
No in-app purchases
Macomb Daily
- Macomb Daily Monthly Sub1 Month trial$11.991 Month
- Macomb Daily Annual Sub1 Year trial$139.991 Year
Questions
Is Journal free?
Is Macomb Daily free?
Which has better reviews, Journal or Macomb Daily?
Do Journal or Macomb Daily have ads?
Which is updated more often, Journal or Macomb Daily?
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