The San Francisco Chronicle comes to the iPad

The San Francisco Chronicle's app is out today for the iPad. It joins the roster of major newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today that have all added iPad editions in the last several months. Of that group, only the USA Today app does not charge non-subscribers (of the print editions) for access.

The Chronicle app is free for 30 days. Monthly subscriptions are US$5.99 and $59.99 annually. Current subscribers will get the iPad app for free. Unlike the 'dead tree' version, the app continually updates throughout the day and has features the regular print version can't duplicate, like 360 degree panoramas, animations and very current weather and traffic information.

Subscriptions auto-renew unless you notify the Chronicle 24 hours before the subscription runs out. The digital edition does have ads. I took a brief look at the app and found it stable and easy to navigate. Checking the Chronicle website, I found that a paper subscription is $9.75 per week if you live in the Bay area, making the iPad edition a pretty good deal.

Many of the newspapers and magazines are charging as much or more for electronic editions than for paper ones, and it remains to be seen if that is a very good business plan.

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Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/san-francisco-chronicle-for/i…

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The San Francisco Chronicle's app is out today for the iPad. It joins the roster of major newspapers like the New York Times, Washington...

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alansky

Like most internet news sites, the iPad version of the San Francisco Chronicle "continually updates throughout the day". This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The downside is that the article you read on your iPad this morning may be impossible to find later the same day. This problem is obviously not unique to the SF Chronicle iPad app. It's really irritating when an article you read just hours ago can't be found anywhere, but this is exactly what happens again and again on the internet. Most news sites need to do a much better job of (1) archiving their content and (2) giving readers first-class search tools for accessing that content. We must not let our mainstream news media become just another disposable commodity.

May 31 2011 at 8:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Koleckai

The Los Angelos Times app was release last week and does not charge. Nor has there been any notice that they will in the future.

May 31 2011 at 6:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Gary

Have PressDisplay which includes the SF Cronicle in my unlimted price of 30/mo. Over 270 papers nationwide. Foreign papers also.
My Favorites USA Today, Commercial Appeal, New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune and the Arkansas Gazette

May 31 2011 at 4:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tech Introvert

"Of that group, only the USA Today app does not charge non-subscribers (of the print editions) for access."

The Washington Post does not currently charge non-subscribers.

May 31 2011 at 3:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Tech Introvert's comment

Mel Martin

You are quite right but the Post has said the charges are imminent and I didn't want to mislead people when the policy changes. USA Today has stated they do not expect to ever charge.

Thanks for writing.

Mel
TUAW

May 31 2011 at 6:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply