Lansing State Journal app review

Introduction

There are many different news outlets that haven’t yet made the step to a digital format, but Lansing’s major news outlet, the Lansing State Journal, can stop counting itself within that group. The Lansing State Journal app is designed by developer Gannett and is made compatible with iPad only. In this app, the main news content is only available for subscribers of the Lansing State Journal, but you can also subscribe from within the app, which is something I haven’t seen often in these kind of apps yet. A one month subscription is $11.99 excluding applicable taxes, which can add up to quite a bit. The app is constantly updated with the latest local and global news.

What it Offers

The app is just a simple news app that allows you to access the news from the Lansing State Journal straight on your iPad. On top of this, the app also has the latest weather conditions, including a radar, and allergy and pollen data. The app doesn’t stop here, as it also has tons of full screen videos and photo galleries, which is something you will never get in the newspaper. There is a headline view available, one in grid form, and one in a simple list so you can scan through articles easily. There is  also the ability to save your stories for later, offline, reading. Lastly the app offers all kinds breaking news alerts and live video streaming. 

Subscriptions and Availability

Firstly, let me tell you that the homepage of this app is accessible to all. You don’t need a subscription to get access to the main page of the digital newspaper and all the features it has to offer. A subscription via the app will set you back $11.99 excluding taxes. This sounds quite expensive, and I don’t know how it stacks up to the physical subscription, but you do get a lot of content for this price. You won’t get any ads either, except for the ones that are also in the printed edition. 

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Tons of extra content on top of the printed edition
• Easy to use and very well-designed
• Local and global news

Cons

• The subscription sounds expensive, but you will get a lot in return

Conclusion

As far as local newspaper apps go, there aren’t many out there who put the extra effort and content in that the Lansing State Journal does. There is so much extra content it’s actually worth to just cancel your printed subscription and just get this digital one. The app needs the Internet to work, but offline reading is available as well as a lot of other features that you would expect with bigger news apps only. The app is designed for iPad only, which is perfect for the full-screen videos. The app is just under 13 MB.