Daily Freeman vs Shawangunk Journal
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Daily Freeman
Access personalized news, save articles for later, and receive custom push notifications. Enjoy a streamlined reading experience with offline access and a digital replica of the daily newspaper.
- Personalized news recommendations
- Save articles for later reading
- Customizable push notifications
- Digital newspaper replica (Enews)
- Offline reading capability
- Swipe left 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/
Shawangunk Journal
This publication provides local news and independent views for several towns in Ulster County, serving as the official paper of record. It aims to revive local media presence with weekly updates.
- Local news coverage
- Independent views
- Official paper of record
- Weekly publication
- Serves multiple towns
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The Shawangunk Journal was started in 2006 by Alex Shiffer and Sharon Richman who sought to revive the local media presence once occupied by the Ellenville Journal, which ran from 1849 to 1989. The paper, which was profiled in The Economist in 2018, is a weekly publication that currently serves the towns of Crawford, Mamakating, Marbletown, Rochester, Rosendale, Shawangunk and Wawarsing, and everything in between. It is also the official paper of record for Ulster County, the Village of Ellenville, and the Towns of Crawford, Mamakating, Marbletown, Rochester and Wawarsing, as well as SUNY Ulster and the Ellenville, Rondout and Pine Bush school districts.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Shawangunk Journal at none against Daily Freeman's shown. Shawangunk Journal also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Daily Freeman's advantage is ratings volume (524 vs 2) and chart position (#193 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases 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. Daily Freeman sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month and Shawangunk Journal sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Shawangunk Journal holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Daily Freeman has 524 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Daily Freeman ships an update monthly, Shawangunk Journal every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Daily Freeman | Shawangunk Journal |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (524 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 26.9% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 524 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #193 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 187 MB | 20 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Journal Register Company | Zelacom Electronic Publishing, LLC |
Customer experience
Daily Freeman
Shawangunk Journal
Bugs and requests
Daily Freeman
Reported bugs
12 issues- App crashes on startup and during use
- Articles fail to load despite showing headlines
- Login failures with Auth0 authentication
- Subscription restoration not working
- News content not updating for days
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- Slow performance and laggy scrolling
- Images not displaying properly
- Fixed viewport making website viewing impossible
- Nickname validation preventing review submission
- Incompatibility with older iOS versions
- Broken links to obituary pages
- Ads appearing without corresponding articles
Requested features
12 requests- Push notifications for breaking news alerts
- Daily updated obituaries with search functionality
- Letter-to-editor submission feature
- Comment section below articles
- Replica edition access from app
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- Better search functionality
- Consistent sports coverage year-round
- National and world news sections
- Comics/funnies section
- People section matching print edition
- Improved font size and readability options
- Light mode option (alternative to dark background)
Shawangunk Journal
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Daily Freeman
- Daily Freeman Monthly Sub1 Month trial$11.991 Month
- Daily Freeman Annual Sub1 Year trial$139.991 Year
Shawangunk Journal
- Credit 4.99$4.99
- Credit 9.99$9.99
- Credit 24.99$24.99
Questions
Is Daily Freeman free?
Is Shawangunk Journal free?
Which has better reviews, Daily Freeman or Shawangunk Journal?
Do Daily Freeman or Shawangunk Journal have ads?
Which is updated more often, Daily Freeman or Shawangunk Journal?
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