How to return to the iPad view on WSJ app?

I too think the emails would help. Thanks for the address of ***@dowjones.com. I emailed this person today. Any others?

the change is an astonishing slap in the face to loyal readers

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

I've complained to everyone at WSJ from customer support to the tech columnist and got nothing but canned responses so I cancelled after 40+ years of reading. The current format is just useless and now they have the guts to say they can't revert to the previous version? Done with them.

Well said. I can't stand the new user interface of version 14.0.2 of the app. The new version is just a glorified newsfeed. After 30+ years, I cancelled my subscription to the WSJ earlier today via customer support. Cancellations are pouring in. Management may reconsider the decision if cancellations are high enough that it has a real financial impact.

The same happened on my iPad. I only get the iPhone rendition. I will give it a few weeks then cancel my subscription if this isn't reversed. Unfortunately, WSJ has not made any public announcement in response to complaints and my hope that they would reverse the change are limited.

So my real issue is, what can I use to replace the WSJ app? For me, they had a fair balance of information, entertainment and news… though it wasn’t always clear which one the article you were reading reflected!

just so frustrated but would appreciate some ideas for an app that presents a source of somewhat centrist, fairly accurate news source that also reported on science, human interest, etc.

any ideas?

thanks

G

They have improved things a little bit. The most important thing is they have heard the complaints and are doing something and admit more changes are to come. The biggest change is the front page. They still need a lot of improvements in navigation if the reader’s intent is to read consecutive articles.

Thank you for this update. I just updated the app and there are a few changes, but nothing like the old WSJ App that we all loved. Hopefully, they’ll keep changing it to get back to where we were a month ago. Still don’t know why they just don’t go back to the old version.

Nope. V14.2 not good enough even at a discount. They rushed out some very tiny enhancements reminiscent of the old app and claimed more to come. But fundamentally they plan to stay with a Twitter feed like vertical list of titles that pop open in a web browser with no dates and times on articles or ability to download editions.

There is a metaphor for what they are doing that ends with “…and they are calling it rain.”

This is WSJ’s “New Coke” moment. Call it guys. Go back to the old formula.

I don’t know if this has to do with the transition of power, but if this is a harbinger of the new regime, then quality of the paper itself and content will be the next to go.

9/23/22

I received an email from WSJ saying “we heard you” and telling me all the wonderful updates on the “new” iPad app. They didn’t hear us. They changed a couple of fonts in their new news feed.

I’m ashamed that I believed them and re-subscribed for the 50 cents a week price. They should pay me to use the app.

Re-cancelled my subscription just now. It was lipstick on a pig. I apologize to all the pigs out there for the unfair comparison, but the expression fits the situation.

Sent to:

Daniel Bernard

Chief Experience Officer

Wall Street Journal

Thank you for the “personal” response and explanation of new

features of the digital Print version.

As you instructed, I deleted and separately downloaded and

reviewed both the new print version and the updated What’s News Column.

I’m very sorry to say that this effort falls far short in

every way of the format we have been using for the past four or so years.

I now only read the Journal when my wife allows me the use

of her new iPad which still has the prior 4 year old version. After I shared

the new layout with my wife and friends I warned them that if they want to keep

the four year old version they should turn off the APP Auto update feature.

I hope this works forever.

I  am reading the Journal less and less each day.

I am sad to lose this old friend after more than, I think 40

years.

I appreciate your thoughtful jester of a free month

subscription but would prefer you keep and use it to bring back the prior four

year version.

Soon to be a former subscriber,

I hope WSJ app developers are monitoring this post to get user feedbacks.

From most of the reviews, users just WANT RELEASE 13 BACK. Release 14.20.0 (9/22/2023) has very minimal changes from earlier crappy release 14 versions. At this rate, users may have to wait a few months for a satisfactory version to use. Meanwhile, more of us will unsubscribe as we feel our complaints fall on deaf ears and the pace is too slow.

I have a few comments:

1) another reviewer has suggested having a WSJ Classic App version that is the same as version 13 for a while. This way developers can take their time and thoughtfully design a new app based on users’ needs without aggravating loyal users in the meantime.

2) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE user test the changes. By user testing I mean select a sample of actual users who reflect the demographic of highly engaged paying customers*. Observe how they interact with the app and listen to their feedbacks. What seems obvious or natural to the 20 something year old designers may not be obvious to the average WSJ user.

*Demographic - leaning older than most app users?

Highly engaged - spending time reading the in-depth WSJ content rather than a casual 5 minute scroll.

Paying customers - long-time subscribers who are willing to pay full price subscription fee.

3) As you make enhancements, have little message boxes inside the app to tell users what changed and how best to utilize the changes. The version release notes in the App Store are insufficient.

Thanks for listening.

I completely agree with the OP and am very disappointed by the change(s). Nothing functions like it used to (Sept 2023) on the iPad. The app used to display articles in 4 columns of text and handled page swipes (left, right) beautifully. It appears all that functionality is gone! When viewing an article now it’s using maybe half of the iPad display and I’m greeted with a huge Google Chrome ad that I have to scroll around - even with subscription. Print Edition while better than the app now still far cry from what was there in the iPad app. Will be deleting the app and subscription.

A debacle….

You replace a highly rated and feature rich app serving a paying customer base with an app that has a very limited set of buggy features that is far from meeting minimum market viability.

You don’t own the pain by making a simple, clear statement to paying customers that we are sorry and working our tails off to deliver the basic functionality you had and we took away.

You tell us to trust you, the basics you took away will be coming in the following weeks, after almost month of going dark and then giving us almost nothing in an update you tout as restoring “beloved features”.

My worst fears are you have gutted the team who defined developed, and refined one of the best premium apps and now a new and smaller team has to pick up the pieces. And we your loyal users have a long slog of making friends with mediocrity you will be inflicting on us for several more months.

I hope you prove me wrong but early returns are very ominous.

I suspect maintaining a separate iPad app was labor-intensive; thus, the decision to abandon it. The miscalculation was how many people really liked this app. Then management compounded the problem by telling users they were too stupid to appreciate the new app. Digging further into the hole, management is promising improvements. But likely little is coming. My engagement with the paper is declining. Question is whether that impacts advertising?

Who moved my cheese ? Have tried for several last weeks to navigate and enjoy the new version in multiple modes but it’s just not easy or intuitive and kills the experience. Sorry WSJ. Cancelling too. Let us know when you change back. Miss you.