How to return to the iPad view on WSJ app?

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?

Agreed

Agreed. Very well said.

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.

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

A few days ago they shipped a new version of the iPad app which is no better than the previous one. It leaves huge chunks of empty space on either side of the content. The What's News bar is dumbed down and not like the one in the old iPad app before they ruined it. WSJ, you are NOT listening to your customers. The only solution to this mess is to revert back to old app! Admit you made a mistake and promise you will never do it again! (For those of us old enough to remember, this is like the infamous "New Coke" debacle of the 1980s, about which business school case studies are written as examples of what NOT to do.) For years, WSJ was my every morning must-read. Now, if they don't fix this, I will cancel my subscription.

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?

You should pose your question directly to customer service at WSJ. While I’ve pointed them to this thread several times, it’s really an iPad thread for technical support by the community. I doubt they read this as it doesn’t support their narrative on the new app.

They post an 800 support number and need to hear more voices that want the old app back.

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

Interesting, when I canceled my subscription Wednesday I had to pick a reason from a drop down menu. One of the choices, which I selected, was dissatisfaction with the new app.

This post is GOLDEN, because of the link and the ability to put comments in on the 4th question.