Macomb Daily vs Observer & Eccentric
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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
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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” 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/
Observer & Eccentric
Stay informed with local news, in-depth journalism, and engaging multimedia content. Get real-time alerts for breaking news, sports scores, and weather. Customize your reading experience and access content offline.
- In-depth journalism
- Local news coverage
- Photography and videos
- Real-time notifications
- Customizable reading experience
- Offline reading
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From critically acclaimed storytelling to powerful photography to engaging videos — the Observer & Eccentric app delivers the local news that matters most to your community. APP FEATURES: • Access all of our in-depth journalism, including things to do around town, sports coverage from high school to the pros, and much more. • Enjoy a streamlined, fast-loading experience that makes it easy to view the stories, photos, and videos that matter to you. • Get breaking news, sports scores, and weather alerts with real-time notifications tailored to your interests. • Customize your experience by saving your favorite stories, adjusting text size, using night mode, or reading offline. MORE INFORMATION: • Privacy Policy: https://cm.hometownlife.com/privacy/ • Terms of Service: https://cm.hometownlife.com/terms/ • Help Center: https://help.hometownlife.com • Subscriptions are charged to your account at confirmation of purchase and automatically renew each month or year, unless turned off in your account settings at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage your subscriptions and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to your Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription, where applicable. See "Subscription Support" in the app's Settings for more details and customer service contact information.
Screenshots
Verdict
Macomb Daily and Observer & Eccentric both sit at 4.6 stars, but that hides the real split: 38% of Observer & Eccentric's written reviews are positive against 16% of Macomb Daily's. Macomb Daily's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.6). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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 and Observer & Eccentric sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Macomb Daily against 4.6 for Observer & Eccentric. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 173 and 99 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 16% of Macomb Daily's written reviews are positive against 38% of Observer & Eccentric's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Macomb Daily | Observer & Eccentric |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (173 ratings) — better | 4.6 (99 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 15.5% of reviews | 38.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 173 — better | 99 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Monthly |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 189 MB | 185 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Journal Register Company | USA TODAY Co., Inc. |
Customer experience
Macomb Daily
Observer & Eccentric
Bugs and 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
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- 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
Observer & Eccentric
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Macomb Daily
- Macomb Daily Monthly Sub1 Month trial$11.991 Month
- Macomb Daily Annual Sub1 Year trial$139.991 Year
Observer & Eccentric
- Monthly Digital Rate1 Month trial$9.991 Month
- O&E Digital Subscription1 Month trial$16.991 Month
- Annual Digital Subscription1 Year trial$69.991 Year
Questions
Is Macomb Daily free?
Is Observer & Eccentric free?
Which has better reviews, Macomb Daily or Observer & Eccentric?
Do Macomb Daily or Observer & Eccentric have ads?
Which is updated more often, Macomb Daily or Observer & Eccentric?
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