How to return to the iPad view on WSJ app?

If I saw something like this coming from the WSJ I’d believe they get it. A plagiarized Tim edit of Cook’s letter to customers

To our customers,

At Apple (WSJ), we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps (iPad App), we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps (iPad App) better

This latest update is terrible. I received a message from WSJ digital leadership (Daniel Bernard, Chief Experience Officer), which prompted me to share my feedback. Customer support responded repeating the exact same talking points, clearly missing the point. The prior app was elegant. Design aside, the performance is so bad it's virtually unusable. Every time I scroll the app hangs for about 30 seconds. Presumably as it waits to load more ads. I've been in tech for over 25 years, and delivered countless products, some successful (including an iPad app of the week), some not. You've taken a product which was beloved, and turned your back on your customers to optimize for some other objective that seems internally focused rather than customer focused. Judging by the comments I'm seeing on line, it looks like the cancellations will be the needed message to impact the business enough to show that providing customers with a downgraded experience isn't the way to boost profits.

It looks like WSJ has seen the complaints and they are responding but not in a good way. As I mentioned previously I' have been using my wife's iPad which has the OLD but great app version to read the WSJ. Today, the articles which require a separate download are not downloading so the content in being severely limited.

Has anyone else experienced this problem with the OLD but BEST WSJ APPP?

I received a survey from Tom SanFillippo @ WSJ. I took the survey and also sent him the following response:

I have completed the survey at your request. I am disappointed that the survey only addressed the limited functionality of how to navigate to a previous issue and not all the problems with the current v14 update.

In my view, you would make me and your thousands of other subscribers happy by simply reverting to v13 of the app, rather than trying to redesign something starting with v14. Here is what I would like to see, which was all available in v13:

• In general, reading the app like I would read the paper. (v14 has no real organization once an article is opened. “Suggested for you” is meaningless, apparently derived from some algorithm, not what I would really read next, and often “suggests” an old or unrelated article.)
• Vertical What’s News section that emulates the paper version front page
• Landing pages for each section in which I can browse key stories in that section, or survey the entire edition before diving into an article of interest
• Ability to go to next/previous article in the order they appear in the paper version
• Ability to download entire paper for offline reading (I fly 2-3 times a week and this is a critical feature) in the same layout/format
• Ability to find full previous issues - when I travel and am not able to read the daily paper, I like to go back to prior issues, just like I would have with the paper version
• Full access to graphics and videos within the articles 

Really, wouldn’t it be easier for you, and better for your subscribers, if you just went back to v13? It’s really all we want.

Sincerely,

Here is the latest from WSJ

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out recently in regards to the updates we made to the iPad experience on the WSJ mobile app. 

We’re always striving to improve our products and we greatly appreciate your feedback. For this reason, we would like to invite you to participate in a quick study that’ll inform the next iteration of the iPad user experience and functionality specifically.

The study should take approximately 5 minutes of your time and can be accessed through this link. All responses are confidential and will only be used in aggregate. 

We ask that you kindly share your feedback with us by 9am ET on Monday, October 2nd. Thank you in advance for your participation and for being a loyal reader of The Wall Street Journal. 

Thomas

SVP, Customer Service

The survey was a joke and basically asked 4 questions about navigating to a previous issue. That's all it addressed. They are clearly not listening to us.

[Edited by Moderator]

It’s basically a **** show now - they clearly won’t move back to the old version - I have been trying to use the print edition version , today it would not load - I then tried the iPad version and that would not load.

so after many phone calls from me - I give up - I don’t want a news feed I want the paper as organized on the old app - I just wish they would no back a version

have to cancel - it’s to expensive to not be usable

R-D-B

Another thought.

Everyone should hit the link and use the box on question 4 to suggest that WSJ also show a picture of Version 13 on every page and ask the same questions.

Offering two inferior options and making you select from them instead of adding what everyone wants is seriously stupid.

I’m betting they can’t go back, or their product team and/or their engineers are to stuck in what they want to do vs what their users are clearly begging for.

I am in product management - I would have already been fired if my upgrade had this much feedback -

Hello WSJ - are you guys listening?

just go back to the version clearly everyone Loved! BTW this not i g I used the app and the print edition feature - it does not load? May want to review that 😂

From a gorgeous user interface to deliver content reverted to a 1995 beta version is what it looks like. I’ll give them 30 days to give an optional for the old view before I cancel. Does anyone know how to short the WSJ?

After a week of following and contributing to this discussion, nothing has changed except people are getting angrier and angrier at the WSJ’s obstinance and incompetence. I have super fast internet speed at home. My NYT and local site articles load immediately. The WSJ has cleverly improved my experience so that I wait for minutes for articles to load and buttons to respond. Why don’t they phone the NYT and ask for some advice? Bottom line: they have diminished my ability to navigate the content, but also made me wait longer for this bad experience. When will the editorial side acknowledge that their tech colleagues are idiots and people can no longer read this paper?

Could it be that WSJ was outsourcing the app and has no ownership over it? If so, WSJ may have lost control of the app (if not agreeing on a contract renewal with the providers). It usually is about money...

But WSJ should then be open and honest with their readers. To me, the lack of honesty suggests that the involved product managers (and their bosses) should be fired.

The new Wall Street Journal app on the iPad, as well as the new format on WSJ.COM are both disastrous - confusing, unattractive, and illogical. When will the Journal wake up and return to its very useful and understandable previous iteration?

It’s hard to imagine how it could happen, but the WSJ has turned an elegant app to read the Journal on an iPad into a kludgy mess of yesteryear. I’m not sure what the development team was trying to accomplish – certainly not

happy customers. Maybe this was a cost reduction or enhanced ads? Maybe someone thought they’d try to sell nostalgia by taking us back to the paper version – reminds me of getting out a buggy from the past and sticking a motorized vehicle from the future to pull it along. And there was NO heads up this was happening. Yikes what a mess. Has anyone been fired?

I’ve watched with dread as my husband has tried for several weeks to use the revised app. Luckily, I hadn’t run a software update, so I’ve continued to enjoy reading when my husband doesn’t sneak away with my iPad. But

it’s death by 1000 cuts, and over the past several days 50% of the articles don’t download. So, I’ll face the same issues.

You can’t fix the current app with band aids. Your subscribers want what the app we had before. If you press forward with the mess, subscribers ought to get a reduced price due to fewer features, clumsy read and illogical layout.  

I’ve been a reader of the WSJ for 20+ years. It’s no longer an enjoyable experience. We’re seriously talking about dropping our subscription.

In addition to the chorus of dissatisfaction here (in which I share) I just noticed that the ridiculous “Print Edition” app that The WSJ is touting is simply a mass market “solution” run by a third party out of Minnesota, Tecnavia. Lends credence to the theory expressed here by someone previously that the WSJ has somehow given up or lost control of their previous app. I cannot think of another reason that they wouldn’t just revert to the old functionality. It appears to me that they can’t, else they would. I canceled a few weeks ago (after 35 years as a paid subscriber). Hopefully they will relent soon and just pay-the-piper.

The change is awful! I don’t always get a chance to read everyday and relied on WSJ to have the older issues readily available. This is an insult to your readership. Please change back to what we had