Report updated May 12, 2026
Times Record News
For local community members and news readers seeking both regional coverage and access to the broader USA TODAY network.
Times Record News is a challenged news app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 4.0/5 rating from 413 reviews, it faces significant user friction. Users particularly appreciate responsive design and fresh news delivery provide a reliable daily information source for local readers, though frequent application crashes and loading failures prevent users from accessing articles and the digital newspaper remains a common concern.
What is Times Record News?
Times Record News is a regional news application providing local journalism and eNewspaper access for community members on iOS and Android.
Users hire the app to maintain connection with local events and obituaries, but technical instability forces them to seek alternatives for reliable information delivery.
Current Momentum
v8.9
- Ships stability updates for bug fixes.
- Maintains content parity with print editions.
Active Nemesis
NewsBreak: Local News & Alerts
By Particle Media
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
NewsNo ranking data
Rating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User Mood
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
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What Are The Key Features?
Digital replica of the print edition accessible on mobile devices
Push alerts for breaking news, sports scores, and weather tailored to user interests
Cross-publication access to USA TODAY and over 200 local eNewspapers
How much does it cost?
- Free tier with limited article sampling
- Subscription-based premium access for full content and eNewspaper
Freemium model uses a sampling gate to convert casual readers into monthly or annual subscribers.
Who Built It?
Gannett
Providing hyper-local news and sports coverage to US communities through digital-first newspaper replicas and real-time reporting.
Portfolio
13
Apps
What other apps does Gannett make?
Explore the full Gannett report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by Gannett.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · 58 reviews analyzed · Based on 58 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a frustrated sentiment. Users appreciate responsive design and fresh news delivery provide a reliable daily information source for local readers, but report frequent application crashes and loading failures prevent users from accessing articles and the digital newspaper and subscription authentication errors prevent paid users from accessing content despite active account status.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for Times Record News?
How's The News Market?
**Pricing Strategy**: Freemium model utilizing a sampling gate to drive monthly or annual subscriptions. **Target Audience**: Local community members seeking regional coverage and broader national news access.
How does it evolve in the News market?
The app maintains a presence in the News category with a 3.59 average rating across 413 total ratings. The disparity between content value and technical performance limits its ability to compete with aggregator-driven news platforms.
Rank progression
1 active ranking tracked — 30-day window
Which niche is Times Record News in?
to stay informed on local community news
Explore the full Local News Readers niche
Every app in this space — 187 tracked, the niche's live rankings, and Marlvel's editorial take on the job-to-be-done.
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
This app competes directly for the same local news audience by offering a similar digital-first experience centered on community-specific journalism and e-edition access.
Contenders(4)
This app competes for local attention by providing a streamlined, accessible platform for regional news updates.
This app competes by offering a simplified, mobile-centric news experience that prioritizes local reporting over national content.
This app serves as a contender by providing 24/7 digital news integration that captures the same local news-seeking demographic.
This app competes for local news market share by focusing on high-quality regional reporting and mobile-first accessibility.
Same space(3)
This app competes by offering a massive archive and subscription-based access that targets power users of local news.
This app competes for local engagement by leveraging interactive tools and user-generated content to build community loyalty.
This app operates in the same space by providing a comprehensive news and weather ecosystem that demands daily user interaction.
Compare Times Record News against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for Times Record News
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- USA TODAY network access provides content depth beyond local-only competitors.
Critical Frictions
- Authentication loops and crashes on the latest version drive subscriber churn.
Growth Levers
- Obituary section management improvements could increase daily utility for the core local demographic.
Market Threats
- NewsBreak's hyper-local aggregation model siphons traffic from traditional publisher apps.
What are the next best moves?
Rebuild authentication logic because subscription errors are the top-cited churn reason → reduce subscriber support volume
Sentiment analysis identifies subscription authentication as a high-frequency complaint preventing paid access.
Trade-off: Delay the planned UI refresh for the obituary section — stability is the primary revenue blocker.
Audit crash logs for article loading failures because users report abandonment due to instability → increase session duration
High-frequency crash reports are the primary driver of negative sentiment in the latest version.
Trade-off: Pause new feature development for USA TODAY network integration — technical hygiene is the immediate priority.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's technical instability is a more significant threat to its survival than the competitive pressure from NewsBreak, as users will tolerate inferior aggregation but not broken access.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Hyper-local safety alerts (available in NewsBreak but absent here)
- Live video streaming (available in CNN but absent here)
Key Takeaways
The app offers strong local content value but fails on basic technical reliability, so the PM must prioritize fixing authentication and crash loops to prevent further subscriber churn.
Where Is It Heading?
Declining
The local news market is consolidating around platforms that offer high-frequency, algorithmically-driven updates. Times Record News remains exposed due to technical debt, so the PM must stabilize the core reading experience before attempting to compete on content volume.
Persistent authentication errors in the latest release prevent paid users from accessing content, leading to immediate churn risk.
Frequent application crashes during article reading sessions erode user trust, which compounds the existing negative sentiment trend.