I tend not to read many – or any – physical newspapers these days, but I do read a lot of news, all of it for free, and all of it online. Since coming to the UK, my main sources have been the BBC (where I used to work) and The Guardian, as well as tech news from Ars Technica, and a smattering of New Zealand news from the New Zealand Herald and NBR.
Today, The Guardian released their new iPhone app. They have had a very mobile friendly version of the site available, but it wasn’t overly nice to use – no images, mostly – but it was functional. Their new iPhone app really lifts the quality of the reading experience.
Now, first and foremost: this app costs money. I paid $3.99 on the US iTunes store, and it’s about £2.49 in the UK. If you are the kind of person who thinks “oh, I could just get it for free from somewhere else” – chances are this isn’t an app for you. If you want a polished, easy to use method to read (IMO) a good newspaper, then read on. Remember: the cost is about the same as a Latte. Seriously.
Also, if you subscribe to the UK “oh, you must be a <insert term here> because you read <insert name of paper here>”, sorry, this is also not for you. Crawl back into the class-based-hierarchical hole from whence you came.
OK, so how does it look?
Home screen
Basically, it looks like an extension to the Guardian website. This is good, as they have a very consistent look and feel on the site. This feels like a well designed extension of that. Down the bottom you have sections for research and discovery (ie, favourites and most viewed), links to their various audio podcasts and content, and under more is all the subsections – business, money, sport etc. You can customise what it on the home page – you can add up to 6 sections (in my case, sport was the first to be removed) and how many items to show in each section. The small tags next to each item allow you to browse by that tag – which is great for discovery.
Most Viewed
The article view is pretty much as expected, including a way to browse the author’s other items.
An article
The app also allows you to view the galleries they have, and a host of other content.
The app also allows offline reading, which is good, being that 3 million or so Londoners (and others around the country and world) spend a large chunk of their reading time underground.
offline
All up, I think this is one of the better iPhone apps I’ve seen, and certainly a good indication of how the various newspapers could go about not going bankrupt. I’d pay a monthly fee for this, if they decided to charge for it. I wouldn’t pay as much as a paper subscription, but I think it’d be worth it.
Also, for me, this would replace the absolutely AWFUL free newspapers that are dumped given away on the tube every day. I wish more people would do that, tho it appears to be better since two of the three (now 4) have closed.
Now, will someone tell Chris at NBR.co.nz – this is pretty much what I was talking about in September. When’s the NBR’s one coming?
How could they improve it? I think it’s really polished, and plan to make very good use of it. I’ve only found one thing so far: In the offline settings, allow me to select (or select for me) the sections I’ve marked as favourite. Chances are those are what I read mostly anyway. Or just keep the ones I had selected last time.
Now, as this interface is so good – how about licensing it to other newspapers (outside of the UK) – I’d love to be able to read the NZ Herald like this, or the BBC (who, I’m told, are not likely to do an iPhone app for anything, any time soon. Bother). Or the likes of Ars Technica, which doens’t have a physical presence at all. Or Wired(.com/.co.uk). Or….. you get the idea.
Bravo. Fantastic app.
[BTW, I'm not affiliated with the Guardian at all - or anyone else in media, especially including the BBC, where I previously worked, but don't any more]
